1.1 The text refers to itself as verbal entity (with implied or explicit boundaries): the text contains both (1) a heading or opening (called "prologue") which is not included in the chapter-verse numbering, and (2) several scattered references to the event of the text’s production, namely Moses or the angel writing down what the angel says. I will deal with these two types of self-reference in turn. (1) The prologue provides clear meta-communicative information and self-reference to the text, but it is not integrated with the first sentence of the narrative (Jub. 1:1). It mostly repeats information from the subsequent narrative sentences, and that information partly also recurs as the name of a text in the Damascus Document, CD 16:3–4. See further 1.1.1/2. The “prologue” is matched by a final sentence at Jub. 50:13, which reads: "Here the words regarding the divisions of the times are completed" (trans. VanderKam). (2) The characters of the narrative also make reference, in their quoted speech, to speech events or to events of writing, in form of commands from one to the other. These narrative utterances may be taken as referring to the production of (i) the very text of what we call today Jubilees, or (ii) the bulk of Jubilees, namely the angelic speech, or else of (iii) a text whose contents is at least partly contained within the text of Jubilees. Thus the main body of the text itself (as opposed to the “prologue”) can be understood as containing narrative self-references, although these are ambiguous in a variety of ways. Moses (Jub. 1:5, 7, 26; 2:1; 23:32; 33:18) or the angel himself (Jub. 1:27 [but see the hif'il form in 4QJubilees-a/4Q216 vi, 6], 30:12, 21; 50:6) are charged with writing down, or reported as writing down, the contents of the speech of the angel. Yet there is no point at which the higher-level narrator says that the angelic speech reported is a quotation from another text. Rather, the higher-level narrator whose voice is directly heard in Jub. 1 (and whose report includes the rest of Jubilees) has an anonymous and omniscient perspective, and presents itself as having had immediate access to the events of movement and speech that go on in Jub. 1–50, including the whole of the angelic speech (as speech). This would mean that the text Jubilees presents itself as a record of that angelic speech which is independent from, and parallel to, any writing done by Moses or the angel. This is consistent with the description in the prologue. At no point does the text present itself as a text from Moses, having written down the angelic information: it speaks of all characters in the third person, except that the angel, in his own speech, of course speaks of himself in the first person. This evidence from the clearly indicated levels of voices within Jubilees is complicated by references in quoted speech to a wide variety of other texts (see 2.4.1.6), as well as the heavenly tablets, which are presented as a kind of "blueprint" for much of what the angel tells Moses. There is evidence to say that the ambiguity of who is supposed to write down the angelic information is partly the result of a mistranslation from the Hebrew (hif'il of katav meaning "dictate", misunderstood as "write", as argued by Vanderkam in Journal of Semitic Studies, 26 (1981); his translation, p. 6, note 1:27; Brooke, p. 42). However, not all indications of such ambiguity need to be accidental. It is possible that the ambiguity of who writes the text is meant to disallow too direct an identification of the text of Jubilees with the heavenly tablets or any other of the writings mentioned, while still claiming the link. It is important to acknowledge that the anonymous voice in Jub. 1 does not project its persona as being identical either with the angel or with Moses, and let alone with God. And the clear mismatch between the actual contents of the book of Jubilees and the comprehensive subject matter mentioned at Jub. 1:26–7, 29 as to be written down by Moses or the angel suggests that Jubilees does not present itself as being that Mosaic or angelic (see 1.1.3), but an independent text derived from being present at the event that also led to the other text.
1.1.1 The text refers to itself using a genre term, speech act term, verb or other term implying verbal constitution: the prologue constitutes an initial sentence referring to the text as a whole, which uses a discourse deixis, an expression for a verbal entity (nagar, "account", apparently also equivalent to "devarim" in Hebrew, cp. its use also in Jub. 21:10), and an identification of the topics ("These are the words regarding the divisions of times..."). The same goes for the final sentence in Jub. 50:13, except that there is no discourse deixis there. Other potential self-references (see 1.1) also speak of verbal entities (e.g. Jub. 1:5).
1.1.2 The text speaks of itself as dealing with an overall theme (subject matter) or purpose, or as consisting of coordinated parts making a whole: the prologue speaks of the text as "regarding the divisions of times of the law and of the testimony, of the events of the years, of the weeks of their jubilees throughout all the years of eternity as he related (them) to Moses on Mt Sinai when he went up to receive the stone tablets – the law and the commandments – on the Lord's orders..." (trans. VanderKam). The final sentence, in Jub. 50:13, matches part of this description of the subject matter by the expression "the divisions of the times".
1.1.3 Angelic Narrative: The text uses expressions for characterizing itself as a bounded entity: the angel's narrative account, which is presented as being reported verbatim by the higher-level narrator, starts at Jub. 2:1b with the words "Write all the words about the creation". Before that God instructs the angel to write for Moses "from the beginning of the creation until the time when my temple is built among them throughout the ages of eternity" (Jub. 1:27), as well as Moses directly: "now you write all these words which I will tell you on this mountain: what is first and what is last and what is to come during all the divisions of time which are in the law and which are in the testimony and in the weeks of their jubilees until eternity – until the time when I descend and live with them throughout all the ages of eternity" (Jub. 1:26). While it is not certain that the last description also is meant to relate to what follows, the angelic narrative, it is likely. These statements then emphasize a dimension of comprehensiveness and totality for what Moses or the angel is to write down which is actually absent from the text of Jubilees. If these descriptions are meant to be a self-reference to the text in which they occur, Jubilees, they present that text as a having a complete and self-bounding subject matter, defined as including all past and future events of a certain kind. Such a promise of what the text contains would, however, be patently disappointed by what is actually found in it. It thus seems entirely appropriate to read these claims as relating to the text that the angel or Moses created on that occasion, but that Jubilees does precisely not present itself as being identical with that text, but as an account of the occasion that other text’s creation, and of some of that other text’s contents by way of an independent report on what the angel said. See 1.1.
1.1.4 The text introduces the governing voice, thereby indirectly marking its own boundedness: the higher-level narrative (Jub. 1:1–2:1a) provides a narrative setting for the angel's first-person narrative, which constitutes the bulk of the text; however, there is no report of an end of this quoted angelic speech event in Jub. 50:13, although there is a formal meta-communicative message indicating the end of the text as a whole.
1.2 The text presents its internal sequence of sentences (or larger parts) as mirroring the objective relationships of components in the projected world (an objective order), or projects its subject matter as self-limiting: the order of the text mirrors or explicitly aligns itself with events as they are objectively interrelated by emplotment and temporal sequence. This goes for the overall narrative containing the angelic speech, and for the angelic narrative constituted by that speech also. See further under 4.
1.6 The approximate word count or other indication of comparative size is: I have had no access to an electronic copy of the Ethiopic text. (The English translation of Charles has an electronic word count of 52,962 words.)
1.7 The text’s Inventory profile should be seen in the light of the following further information on completeness, thematic progression, aesthetic effects, etc.: Overview of Parts: (a) The Profile points often distinguish “Angelic Voice” from “Anonymous Voice”. These terms are defined as follows: “Angelic Voice” = Jub. 2:1b–50:13, the lower-level narrative; “Anonymous Voice” = Jub. 1:1–2:1a, the higher-level narrative. (b) Although the Ethiopic text is nearly complete, there are likely to be some lacunae, in particular between Jub. 1:23 and 24 (see the notes ad loc. in VanderKam, Wintermute, Charles). (c) Translations quoted are by VanderKam. (d) The principle of narrative progression in the Angelic Voice is described under 4.1 and 4.6. Here are some further details concerning this progression. The angelic narrator regularly “interrupts” his account of events in order to comment on their normative contents. The pattern of some 27 such passages in the angelic speech is as follows: An initial (i) report of an action in the narrative is followed by (ii) an articulation or quotation from the heavenly tablets of the norm that is occasioned or instantiated by that action, often introduced by “therefore it was ordained” or a similar phrase. Components which are often, but not always present within part (b) are three in particular: first, mention of the heavenly tablets; second, the command to Moses (as interlocutor of the angel) to convey this to the Israelites; and third, a statement that this law is valid for eternity. Here is a list of relevant passages: 1. Sabbath laws/creation/Jub. 2:18/2:23 2. ritual confinement of mother after birth/Adam and Eve’s introduction to Eden/Jub. 3:8 ff.; 3. covering one’s nakedness/Adam/Jub. 3:31; 4. prohibition of killing and obligation to testify/Cain/Jub. 4:5; 5. execution of murderer by the same means as used in the murder, and a kind of lex talionis/Cain’s being killed by his house falling on him/Jub. 4:32; 6. prohibition to eat blood/Noah/Jub. 6:11–14; 7. Feast of Weeks/renewal of convenant with Noah/Jub. 6:17; 8. the festival of first fruits/Noah/Jub. 6:21; 9. four divisions of the calendar year and the year of 364 days/Noah’s actions and the stages of the flood/Jub. 6:28, 32; 10. tithing/Abraham and Melchizedek/Jub. 13:25; 11. celebration of the first fruits of the grain harvest/Abraham/Jub. 15:1 (no promulgation as a general festival); 12. circumcision of all males/Abraham/Jub. 15:11, 25 (also, the nature of the angels of presence and holiness “was like that from the day of their creation”, Jub. 15:27; 13. Tabernacles/Sukkot/Abraham’s feast on the occasion of the birth of Isaac/Jub. 16:29; 14. an unspecified festival of joy after the binding of Isaac/Jub. 18:19 (may be identical with Tabernacles); 15. tithe?/Jacob/Jub. 27:27; 16. older daughter to be married off before younger daughter/Leah/Jub. 28:6 (but see ed. VanderKam, p. 178); 17. prohibition of rape, adultery, intercourse with non-Jews/Dinah/Jub. 30:5 (also foreign men and women); 18. Levi’s descendants to be priests/revenge for Dinah/Jub. 30:18 ff. 19. second tithe/Jacob’s tithing and his separation of Levi/Jub. 32:10; 20. “Addition” (atseret) to Tabernacles/Jacob’s dream/Jub. 32:28; 21. incest/Reuben’s and Bilhah/Jub. 33:10 (tablets = Pentateuch, Lev. 20:11 and Deut 27:20, see further 2.4.1.6); 22. Yom Kippur/Jacob’s mourning for Joseph/Jub. 34:18; 23. prohibition of intercourse with daughter-in-law, mother-in-law/Judah and Tamar/Jub. 41:25; 24. Passover/Moses and Israelites (acknowledged as a repetition for Moses as the angel’s interlocutor!)/Jub. 49:1, 7; 25. unleavened bread/ Moses and Israelites/Jub. 49:22; 26. Sabbatical years and jubilees/which “I told you about on Mt Sinai”/Jub. 50:2; 27. Sabbath laws (again)/“I have now written for you…”/Jub. 50:6 (the promulgation of law is now catching up with the situation of speaking itself). NB Unless otherwise noted, all English quotations from Jubilees are from the translation VanderKam. Philip Alexander has kindly supplied information on the wording of the Ethiopic; his help is gratefully acknowledged.
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2.1 The information conveyed in the text defines the perspective of the governing voice in the following way:
2.1.1 Anonymous and Angelic Voices: The text does not thematize how the governing voice comes to know the text’s contents (or its right to command obedience from the addressee), but suggests that its knowledge (or authority) is unlimited.
2.1.1.1 Anonymous and Angelic Voices: In narrative, the governing voice’s perspective tacitly is that of someone “present” at all events equally, regardless of their time, place, or nature (e.g. thoughts or private utterances of characters): the anonymous voice of the higher-level narrative is ever-present during the events on Mount Sinai reported, and presents itself has having unmediated access to the speech which God and the angel direct to Moses. As for the angelic governing voice of the lower-level narrative, this is the voice of a persona who is literally ever-present as observer in or participant of the events from the creation of the angels (on the first day, Jub. 2:2) onwards, by dint of being an angelic character. So while the anonymous voice does not thematize its unlimited access, but simply embodies it in the text, the omniscience of the angelic voice is taken to be self-explanatory in its unrestricted access to all earthly events it reports.
2.1.1.4 Angelic Voice: The text’s governing voice speaks from the perspective of unlimited authority in commanding the addressee’s obedience: this is true of the normative contents of the angelic, lower-level narrative, where the angel presents itself as the mere mouth-piece of the divine command.
2.1.7 Anonymous Voice: The governing voice (whether first or third person) is anonymous, that is, is not presented as tied to a specific personal identity (or to personhood in general): this is only true of the higher-level narrator, who is the observer of the situation on Mount Sinai (Jub. 1:1–2:1a) and reports the angelic speech (which itself is not anonymous).
2.1.8 Anonymous Voice: The governing voice speaks at no point in the first person (except for any 2.2.4.3) and all persons/objects are mentioned from a third-person perspective: this holds for the higher-level narrator only, who is the observer of the situation on Mount Sinai (Jub. 1:1–2:1a).
2.2 Angelic Voice: A first-person voice imposes its perspective on all (or almost all) knowledge or norms conveyed in the text: for the lower-level narrative (Jub. 2:1b–50:13a), the angel is the governing voice, providing the perspective of an ever-present observer of all occurrences and occasionally speaking of himself as a participant in the action. He is thus a kind of first-person narrator, albeit one without the ordinary first-person limitations of human knowledge. By contrast, the higher-level narrative is anonymous and third-person (see 2.1.7, 2.1.8).
2.2.1 Angelic Voice: The first-person governing voice is identified by an anonymous voice through a proper name or unique description. Points 2.2.1.1–3 are devoted to the anonymous voice; all other points presuppose the knowledge horizon of the first-person voice, unless otherwise indicated: the angelic first-person governing voice of the lower-level narrative is identified by an anonymous voice, through a uniquely identifying expression, as being the angel who is commanded by God to speak to Moses (Jub. 1:27) and also as being the one who led the Israelites through the desert (Jub. 1:29). Later, the angel's own involvement in the plot provides further identification of the lower-level narrator with characters known from Genesis.
2.2.1.2 Angelic Voice: The text is introduced as the first-person voice’s extended direct speech, having taken place on a unique narrative occasion: the bulk of the text is marked in this manner, namely as being the extended direct speech of an angel (constituting a first-person, lower-level narrative) and as has having taken place at the time of Moses' sojourn on Mount Sinai. The wider context of this situation is taken for granted, presumably as depicted in the biblical book of Exodus (see 7.1).
2.2.1.3 Angelic Voice: The introduction of the first-person governing voice of the text has the following characteristics (also applies to self-identification 2.2.2):
2.2.1.3.1 Angelic Voice: It contextualizes the person, or the person together with a unique occasion of speaking: The angel's introduction contextualizes his person, together with a unique occasion of speaking: see 2.2.1.2.
2.2.1.3.3 Angelic Voice: It is found at the beginning of the text only: In particular, the end of the text does not provide a reversal to the higher-level narrative voice, the voice which introduced the angel as speaking in Jub. 2:1a.
2.2.4 Angelic Voice: The number and gender of the first-person governing voice are as follows:
2.2.4.1 Angelic Voice: The first person singular is used: the angel speaks of himself as an individual angel occasionally involved in the reported action, and at other times as member of a collective of angels (the angels of divine presence; alongside the angels of holiness or sanctification, Jub. 2:2), without thereby turning the governing voice into a first person plural narrator voice. (It is the collective of angels which are involved in the action, but only the individual angel's voice which tells the action to Moses.) Thus he occurs in the action as told by himself as teacher of Hebrew to Abraham (Jub. 12:26), and as part of the group of angels that announced to Abraham the birth of Isaac (Jub. 16:15), and on several other occasions before and after.
2.4 The governing voice defines a horizon of knowledge as shared with the projected addressee by taking for granted the following linguistic usages or references (in selection):
2.4.1 Persons or unique objects referred to by proper name or by technical expression: In the higher-level narrative, the overall situation of Mt. Sinai and the events leading up to the moment of revelation on Mt. Sinai are taken for granted. Neither the anonymous nor the angelic narrations tell how Moses came to be at Mt. Sinai (see also 7.1). Among the unique objects taken for granted in the text is the sanctuary, both in the higher-level narrative (Jub. 1:17, 29) and in the lower-level, angelic narrative; the "heavenly tablets" (see 2.4.1.6). The notion of ten trials to which Abraham was subjected (Jub. 17:16, Jub. 19:8) is on the one hand presupposed, but on the other hand to some extent spelled out for in narrative terms in the (angelic) narrative.
2.4.1.1 for persons mentioned or presented in narrative usage; as characters; or topics: In addition to many biblical characters from Genesis and Exodus, the lower-level, angelic narrative mentions persons by name which have no name in the biblical text or a different one (e.g. the Watchers, Jub. 4:22, mentioned again alongside the "Naphidim/Nephilim" in Jub. 7:21), or persons which are additional to the biblical characters, such as Awan and Azura as sisters of Cain and Abel (Jub. 4:1, 8). Jub. 15:34 mentions Israelites who “make themselves like the nations”, apparently in respect of circumcision (a formulation which scholars take to indicate the context of hellenising tendencies among Jews in the first half of the 2nd century BCE).
2.4.1.3 for Gods/mythical figures/supernatural beings, etc., for example: There is a range of epithets for God, including "Lord", "Most High Lord, creator of heaven and earth" (e.g. Jub. 7:36), "creator of all" (Jub. 11:17), "God of heaven" (Jub. 12:4), "God of gods" (Jub. 23:1), "god of the ages" (Jub. 25:15), "the Lord, the God of your father Abraham" (Jub. 36:6); cp. Böttrich, "Gottesprädikationen". There is a personal name for a fallen angel/accuser angel, Mastema, with the term Satan also occasionally used (it is unclear whether this refers to the same angel, or is perhaps generic, e.g. Jub. 23:29); "the spirit of Beliar [= Belial]" is mentioned (Jub. 1:20, and apparently only once again, Jub. 15:33); the angel who speaks to Moses is an "angel of the presence" (Jub. 1:27, 2:1; literally, "angel of the face"); angel classes are explicitly distinguished and introduced as part of the account of creation: "angels of the presence; the angels of holiness; the angels of the spirits of..." (Jub. 2:20); generically, "demons" (e.g. Jub. 7:27) and "spirits" are mentioned; a "holy spirit" occurs in Jub. 1:23, "a spirit of prophecy" in Jub. 31:12.
2.4.1.4 for locations, for example: in addition to many biblical place-names, including Jerusalem and Mt. Zion in Jub. 1:29 (the latter again Jub. 4:26), further place names are frequent. These include Lubar (one of the mountains of Ararat, Jub. 5:28) and Elda as the place where Adam and Eve lived after Eden (Jub. 3:32). Mt. Sinai is mentioned several times, including as the venue of the angel's current speaking to Moses (Jub. 4:26). Detailed accounts of geography using the names of locations occur in Jub. 8:11–9:14. See also 7.2.1.
2.4.1.5 for times or calendar dates (specific to a language or culture), for example: Although calendrical matters are an explicit and repeated topic within the lower-level, angelic narrative, there is no mention of the names of the months (they are referred to by ordinal number); some of the festivals are mentioned by their "later" name (e.g. Feast of Tabernacles, Jub. 16:22, named by Abraham "festival of the Lord, a joy acceptable to the Most High God", Jub. 16:28; Feast of Passover, Jub. 49:1). Others are described and located within the calendar, but without any name being given to them or events in the narrative are identified as happening on calendrical dates that are known (and clearly presupposed) to have a festival significance. Thus Yom Kippur is referred to in Jub. 34:18 merely by its calendar date as a day on which the children of Israel should afflict themselves, but tied to Jacob's grieving for Joseph.
2.4.1.6 for documents, texts, books, etc. (identified through being referred to or quoted), for example: There is a plethora of references to books and writings, both specific and generic. (a) Possible references to the Hebrew Bible: There is mention of the "book of the first law" written by the angel for Moses (Jub. 6:22; a less specific mention in Jub. 2:24) which scholars take to be an acknowledgement of the Pentateuch by the author of Jubilees (e.g., Alexander, "Rewritten Bible", p. 100, Najman pp. 49 f.). There are also two cases of explicit quotations (as opposed to tacit use, see 7.1.4.2) of text acknowledged to be pre-existing and coinciding with known biblical wording: Gen. 2:17 at Jub. 4:30 and Deut. 27:20, in Jub. 33:12 (cp. 4QJubilees-f [4Q221], iv, 1–2, morphological differences to MT); note also the use of the wording of Ex. 24:12 in the prologue. This is found within the angelic narrative, and the quotation formulae do not name the text: "for this reason it was written regarding the tree of knowledge", and "moreover, it is written again", respectively. The latter passage in particular appears to align the "heavenly tablets" with the Pentateuch, for it first tacitly employs Lev. 20:11 as the text of the heavenly tablets, and then seems to acknowledge the Pentateuch repetition of that law in Deut. 27:20, apparently also in the heavenly tablets and for this reason "written again". The heavenly tablets may be identical with the "tablets of the divisions of the years..." which the angel is reported as taking immediately before beginning to speak to Moses, Jub. 1:29 (cp. also Jub. 50:6), and even in contents partly or wholly identical with the "stone tablets" which Moses is said to be about to receive when coming up the mountain (Jub. 1:1), in which case they would form part of the Pentateuch. However, even if all these uncertain identifications were to be accepted, ultimately no identity between the heavenly tablets and the Pentateuch is suggested throughout Jubilees, nor an identity of the contents of the heavenly tablets with the contents of Jubilees. (b) The heavenly tablets themselves are first mentioned in Jub. 3:10 (*doublecheck). They are not explained, but probably meant to be identical with the "tablets of the divisions of the years from the time of the law and the testimony were created...until the time when the temple of the Lord will be created in Jerusalem on Mt. Zion", Jub. 1:29. Thereafter, they are constantly mentioned as blueprint or record of a wide variety of contents (see Garcia Martinez, "Heavenly Tablets", VanderKam 2001, p. 90 f.), including: laws that arise from the narrated events, the judgments that await or were meted out to sinners (Jub. 5:13–14), the 364 day calendar (Jub. 6:31, followed by the angel saying that he has "the book in front of me" and derives his knowledge from it, Jub. 6:35), the name of Abraham's son, Isaac (Jub. 16:3); Abraham as the friend of the Lord (Jub. 19:9), Levi as being blessed because of his vengeance for Dinah (Jub. 30:19, 23), transgressors as enemies (Jub. 30:22). There is also a mention of a "book of the living" and "the book of those who will be destroyed", with the context suggesting that these are parts of the heavenly tablets (Jub. 30:22). The final mention is just of "the tablets which he placed in my hands so that I could write for you the laws of each specific time...", at the end of the angel's speech to Moses and with reference to the Sabbath laws just then explained (Jub. 50:13). (c) Further texts or books mentioned include the following: A book written by Enoch is mentioned Jub. 4:17–18 with calendrical subject matter ("signs of the sky according with the fixed pattern of their months...seasons"), while Enoch after his removal from the earth continues (present tense) to write down judgements in the Garden of Eden (Jub. 4:23). Kainam finds a carved inscription by the Watchers which leads him astray, (Jub. 8:3); a book is mentioned in connection with the division of earth into lots for the sons of Noah (Jub. 8:11). The angelic speaker and his fellow angels tell Noah of medicines that will counter the demons' diseases and deceptions, which Noah wrote down in a book (Jub. 10:13, 14). Books of the fathers of Abraham in Hebrew are mentioned Jub. 12:27; cp. also Jub. 45:16; 10:14. "The book of my ancestors, in the words of Enoch and the words of Noah" (using "nagara") are named as the source of a detailed account of the peace offering sacrifice given by Abraham to his son (Jub. 21:7 ff., Jub. 21:10), and Joseph remembers in Egypt what Jacob had read out to him from the "words [nagara] of Abraham" (regarding adultery), Jub. 39:6 (also mentioning that the transgression would be recorded "in the eternal books forever before the Lord", same verse). Jacob is reported as writing down everything he saw and read in a prophetic dream, including "everything that was written on the [seven] tablets" which an angel showed to him (Jub. 32:21); he is also reported as handing down "all his books and the books of his fathers to his son Levi so that he could preserve them and renew them for his sons until today" (Jub. 45:16; today=day of angel speaking to Moses). This uncoordinated (but not necessarily inconsistent) variety of mentions of books and texts speaks, by its very multiplicity, against any attempt by the book of Jubilees to present itself as identical with any one of the original texts; rather, the book of Jubilees is partly a transcript of the angelic speech in which they are referenced and, to some extent, quoted or excerpted (including the heavenly tablets). The text of Jubilees thus appears to avoid precisely identifying itself in toto with any one of them. As for the "heavenly tablets", while the angelic information is regularly referred to as also written in those heavenly tablets, it is the continuous words of the angel, not of those of the heavenly tablets, that the higher-level narrator claims to report.
2.4.3 The text as a whole routinely employs the following language(s), knowledge of which is taken for granted: Ethiopic, in the version that serves as the basis of the text here described.
2.4.3.1 Additional language(s) taken for granted in quoted speech or certain parts of the text are: In many explanations of the meaning of proper names (part of reported speech in the lower-level, angelic narrative, e.g. Jub. 10:18), the semantic links either take for granted a knowledge of Hebrew or a cognate language, or the link is tacitly admitted having taken place originally in a language other than Ethiopic, thus tacitly acknowledging the "translation" character of the current text language. Hebrew as a language of the characters is mentioned in Jub. 12:27, where the narrator-angel reports that he taught Abram Hebrew as the language "which was revealed" but forgotten after Babel, and in which the "books of his fathers" are written; also in Jub. 43:15 (Joseph using Hebrew to his brothers in the Egyptian situation).
2.4.4 Special linguistic usages occur pervasively or prominently:
2.4.4.4 Biblicising language, such that the text may be assumed to project itself as having a link to texts today known as biblical (see 7.1.4.1): There are many linguistic features of the text which link it to biblical usages, and this is not entirely separate from other features: a somewhat biblical style of narration (links between sentences), and many instances of the tacit adoption of recognizably biblical wording for narrating a specific biblical event (in the lower-level, angelic narrative). It is interesting to note, if the Qumran Hebrew fragments of Jubilees constitutes testimony the ultimate original of the Ethiopic text, that there is some use of the switch of tenses connected with the waw consecutive, although the usage is inconsistent (see e.g. 4QJub-a 2:4–11 = Jub. 1:8–11), as it is also in other Qumran Hebrew texts.
2.4.5 The meaning of some linguistic usage or reference is addressed explicitly, marking it as not being part of the shared horizon of knowledge: there is an explicit distinction of classes of angels, "angels of the presence; the angels of holiness; the angels of the spirits of..." (Jub. 2:20), although as part of an account of creation in general.
2.5 The text contains deictic or other expressions referring to the governing voice’s time or place, or place it after/before some key event:
2.5.2 Angelic Voice: as part of the words of a quoted character, but with probable implications also for the governing voice: Jub. 10:36 (Madai is settled in the land of Medeqin "until the present"); Jub. 38:14 (Edomites under the yoke of Jacob's sons "until today"); Jub. 45:12 ("law for the land of Egypt until today"); Jub. 45:16 (Levi preserving and renewing the books of his ancestors "until today"); Jub. 50:4 ("49 juiblees from the time of Adam until today"). All these temporal pronouns refer to the time of the angel's speaking on Mt Sinai within the narrative structure, but could be taken to be tacitly endorsed also by the reporting voice of Jub. 1:1–2:1a as part of the horizon of knowledge it wishes to be seen as projecting.
2.6 [The text presents itself as speaking to certain persons, groups or entities, explicitly projecting a certain image of its addressee: The anonymous, higher-level narrative acknowledges no addressee; the angelic voice does (Moses), but this part of quoted speech in narrative and thus not of the text as such. It is, however, likely that the higher-level voice indicates, through its reporting of a speech addressed to Moses on Sinai, that it addresses itself to the ultimate audience of that reported speech, presumably Israel.]
2.6.2 [The projected addressee is characterized as having a certain moral or epistemic stance, or as standing in contrast to another group’s moral or epistemic stance: a segment of the people of Israel may indirectly be picked out as the ultimate projected addressee of the anonymous voice, as sharing the moral stance of God and the positive figures of history; see 2.6]
2.7 Anonymous Voice, Jub. 1:1–2:1a: The epistemic stance, knowledge horizon, moral stance and identity of the governing voice, and of the projected addressee, do not become thematic in the text.
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4.1 Angelic Voice: The text narrates events which are strongly emplotted, making reference to interlocking happenings, characters, motivations, causes, times or locations: the key mechanism by which individual episodes are made part of one continuous plot (in addition to genealogy and God's interventions, as in Genesis/Exodus) is the progressive promulgation of law, starting with creation and the promulgation of the Sabbath to the angels (Jub. 2:17) and continued through the human, then Israelite, generations. This culminates in the speech situation of the angel narrating all this to a Moses on Sinai, who is about to receive the full law of God. This changes the narrative constitution quite considerably from the loosely-knit episodic nature of biblical Genesis.
4.1.2 All subordinate events are presented as preparing one crisis and its solution, or as addressing one unified time span/location, or as telling the fate of one character or a group of characters: this is true up to a point, but it is perhaps an exaggeration to think of literally "all" narrated events as making an equally integrated contribution to the narrative whole, as much of the narrative retains its episodic character. Nevertheless, the unity of progressive revelation of divine norms (already implemented in heaven) creates a narrative integration that is much stronger than that of Genesis-Exodus (see 7.1).
4.1.2.1 Angelic Voice: The narrative builds up one central narrative tension for a set of events as having special intrinsic interest, or unites a number of narrative strands: The cumulative promulgation of law throughout history is recapitulated in the speech of the angel to Moses, taking place at the point where a culminating act of promulgation is imminent (Sinai). It begins with the commandment of the Sabbath rest to the angels (Jub. 2:18), its anticipated later revelation to Jacob (Jub. 2:23) and its “present” revelation to Moses (Jub. 2:26: "Now you command the Israelites to observe this day..."). It ends with the angel reminding Moses of this opening promulgation of the Sabbath rest (Jub. 50:1 referring back to Jub. 2:26?) and the elaboration or recapitulation of the very law of Sabbath rest in Jub. 50:6–20, supplemented by an anticipatory explanation of Sabbath years and jubilees for the land (Jub. 50:1–5; see also VanderKam, "The End of the Matter?"). Between these two acts of promulgation of Sabbath laws, marking the beginning and the end of the angelic speech to Moses many narrative events are presented as points of normative revelation (see 1.7). They have a cumulative effect, and each one’s eternal validity from the point of promulgation onwards is often stressed by the angel. The norms are also often characterized as already present or implemented (in the behaviour of angels in heaven, or on the heavenly tablets, or both). The angelic narrative thus produces a sense of cumulative revelation of law through the ages, with any repeated promulgations acknowledged (and ascribed to forgetfulness or corruption, e.g. Jub. 6:34, Jub. 6:36), and therefore not disrupting the progression of events towards the crowning event of promulgation on Mt. Sinai, in the present time of the angel’s speaking.
4.1.3 The narrative provides a clear closure, or dwells on the closure: This is true in some respects but not in others. From the last recounted event (within the angelic speech) to the moment of recounting (that angelic speech), there is a large narrative gap, presumably to be filled in tacitly by the events narrated in Ex. 16–19/20. The angelic narrative only recounts events up to the Exodus from Egypt and the first stage thereafter (Ex. 16:1 and perhaps the Sabbath laws of Ex. 16:22 ff. as reflected very indirectly in Jub. 50:6 ff.). Furthermore, the end of the angelic speech must be interpreted as tacitly coinciding with the end of the anonymous, higher-level voice last heard in Jub. 2:1a, as the final sentence ("The account of the division of days is finished here", Jub. 50:13b) matches the meta-communicative perspective of the prologue, rather than the narrative perspective of Jub. 1:1–2:1a. This means there is no clear narrative closure as such. However, the symmetry within the angelic narration between the first and the last-mentioned law (Sabbath) is manifestly a thematic closure, and not vitiated by any narrative information.
4.1.4 The narrative foregrounds apparently exact information on the absolute and relative timing of events: While this expressed in terms of "weeks" and jubilees (of years) from the time of the creation of the world, and thus provides no tie-in with a political history of the Near Eastern world, almost all new events or episodes are situated in a chronological system and progression. This also provides a unified "conceptual" framework for the very idea of chronology and calendar dates in the narrative. Although the detailed chronology is not without internal inconsistencies (see in particular Segal, The Book of Jubilees), these need not be taken to disrupt the narrative logic or relative sequence of events, and thus the narrative fabric.
4.2 The event sequence is projected as related to the sequence of text parts as follows:
4.2.1 The report sequence mirrors the projected chronological sequence of events mostly or wholly, not precluding 4.2.2–5: The account of Moses's encounter with God and the angel only makes up a small part of the text (as setting of the angel's speech), but is in itself presented as speech acts in temporal sequence (Jub. 1:1–2:1a). Within the angel's speech, functioning similar to an extended flashback, a sequence in the chronological order of events is implemented. Where there are two strands of simultaneous events, the simultaneity itself is brought to expression (e.g., Jub. 40:12; cp. VanderKam's translation [CSCO 511], p. 266 note on verse 11, Jub. 41:22).
4.2.2 There is use of prolepsis or analepsis: There is none on the highest-level narrative, Jub. 1:1–2:1a. The angelic narrative functions somewhat like an extended flashback or analepsis itself, relative to the point of the angel’s speaking. Within that speech, there are a few analeptic reports, relative to the internal chronology of events, e.g. Jub. 29:17–19 and Jub. 31:2 (the angelic narrator mentioning the idols which Rachel stole from Laban for the first time when she is asked to remove them).
4.2.3 There are chronological gaps which are explicitly managed or signposted: within the angelic narrative. The distances between individual episodes are clearly measured out by a system of absolute chronology (see 4.1.4). Most new episodes begin with, and are marked out as the beginning of something new, by reference to the year, month or day on which they happened.
4.3 [The text presents several sets of internally complex episodes with no explicit or manifest causal or motivational nexus between them. Where characters are identical, or linked, they do not figure in one continuous set of events: this does not ultimately apply. The episodes are tied into a strong causal and motivational framework (see 4.1, 4.6, 1.7). This stands in contrast to the biblical Genesis (see 7.1).]
4.4 [The narrative tells the story of the creation or reception of a separate text which is presented verbatim within the narrative framework, or at its end: this does not actually apply because the bulk of the narrative substance is constituted by direct speech from the angel to Moses, and thus narration within narration, not a separate text. It nevertheless true that this angelic narration contains and is framed by explicit instructions to Moses to "write down" and make known either the very words of the angelic speech, and such the bulk of the book of Jubilees as we know it today, or the gist or important parts of it, is suggested as indirectly being the text that was produced on that narrative occasion. Yet Jubilees does not present itself as the account of the production of another text, which other text is then cited as a whole, as happens in 1 Baruch; see 1.1.]
4.6 Angelic Voice: There are meta-narrative explanations occurring in the narrative (editorial comments by narrator): Within the angelic speech are many and sometimes extensive passages in which the angel explains the significance of the events he tells, including in particular cases where he says that an event has occasioned or instantiates a general norm. The norm in its general, narrative-independent form then becomes a topic in its own right, suspending the telling of the action, formulating the law, referring to its source in the heavenly tablets, and/or telling Moses to command it to the Israelites (for the pattern, see 1.7; see also 9.10). These regular and formally similar meta-narrative comments create narrative coherence. They provide a homogeneous approach to the narrative’s meaning, and suggest a dynamic of cumulative growth of law throughout the history of mankind (mirroring an already existing order among the angels or on the heavenly tablets) whose implicit climax is the giving of the whole law to Moses on Sinai, and thus the moment of speaking of the angel. This climax is not thematized as such, and Jubilees does not contain a narrative report of the giving of the ten commandments or of the laws that follow them in Exodus 20, but this situation is clearly presupposed in Jub. 1 and the fundamental construction of the text overall. The successive promulgation of law appears a main purpose of the history of Israel (to some extent the history of all of humankind), and also an implied approximation of the Israelite humans to the angels. The narrative also addresses the “interruptions” of this progress, including Israel sinning and forgetting, but ultimate redemption is announced by God in Jub. 1 and elsewhere, which is part of the “testimony” message of the text. In addition, there is an extended meta-narrative comment on the loss of longevity among humans (Jub. 23:8–32; mention of the defilement of the holy of holies, Jub. 23:21), and many shorter comments concerning the qualities of characters (e.g. Jub. 40:8).
4.8 The text provides scene-setting information, other than the introduction of an I-narration: The anonymous narrative provides some basic scene-setting for the speech events that make up the contents of higher-level narrative, in Jub. 1:1-2. However, both the meaning of time and place so identified, and the identity of all the main characters, is ultimately taken for granted. There is no attempt to summarize their context and identity (the information contained in Genesis and Exodus).
4.8.1 There is an explicit introduction of the chronological and/or spatial setting of the action: Jub. 1:1 provides an exact date (but not expressed in terms of jubilees, cp. Ex. 19:1) for the event, while the venue is identified as “mountain of the Lord” and Mt Sinai (Jub. 1:2). This scene-setting presupposes much narrative information which is not supplied (starting with the term “exodus”), and manifestly comes in at a specific point of a larger narrative not here told. In that sense, it is an incomplete scene-setting.
4.9 There is prominent or sustained characterization of key figures in the narrative: this is done almost entirely in moral terms, more specifically the characters' responses to divine commandments or values.
4.9.1 Angelic Voice: There is editorial comment on the qualities of a character from a third-person narrator: this only applies to the angelic (lower-level) narrator, not to the anonymous narrator (Jub. 1:1–2:1a). The angelic speaker occasionally elaborates on the qualities of the characters he speaks about; he also judges the value of geographical regions in Jub. 8:29–30.
4.9.3 Angelic Voice: A figure is characterized by her or his moral or religious traits: this occurs regularly through the narrative relationship between biblical or angelic characters and God (in particular in their obedience or disobedience to commandments), within the lower-level angelic narrative.
4.9.3.2 Moral/religious traits are not manifestly linked to the ethnicity and/or gender of the figure: This only holds for the gender distinction. It is noteworthy that both in terms of taking the initiative for action, and in respect of the possession of prophetic knowledge, there is more parity between the sexes in Jubilees than there is in Genesis, in particular due to the figure of Rebecca (see also Halpern Amaru).
4.11 Supernatural characters appear in the narrative, whether introduced casually, or accounted for elaborately: God and angels occur in the framing narration; in the lower-level narration, which is by an angelic character, these and also demonic figures appear.
4.12 The narrative pace is slowed down or changed by the occasional or regular occurrence of extended descriptions.
4.12.3 There is extended description of the physical or architectural setting/landscape: there is a detailed explanation of geographical regions and their allocation to the descendants of Noah (Jub. 8:11–9:15). However, this is not presented as setting for the action, but as a narrative and systematic topic in its own right (see Alexander, "Retelling the Old Testament", pp. 102 f.; Alexander, “Notes”; Frey, “Zum Weltbild”, 279–85; Scott, “The Division”, pp. 295–303).
4.13 The narrative pace is slowed down or changed by frequent or prominent quotation of speech, thought or text.
4.13.1 The quotation constitutes a plot-driving event in its own right: In the anonymous, higher-level narrative almost all events reported are speech events. Within the angelic, lower-level narrative, there are many situations of dialogue and a considerable number of longer speeches with plot-driving effect.
4.13.1.2 The narrative action largely or partly consists of a report on (long) speeches exchanged between characters: this is true of the anonymous, higher-level narrative, which has almost no physical action, and contains the angelic narrative as one long speech. Even within the angelic narrative, the physical action is often slowed down by long speeches, blessings, farewell speeches and prayers by the characters of the narrative, e.g. Noah in Jub. 7:20–39 (cp. Endres, "Prayers in Jubilees"). It should be noted that the content of Noah's speech is at first given presented in indirect speech. From 7:26 the first person pronoun is used, although the transition to Noah's direct speech is not marked by a speech report. There are one or two other cases of such transitions within extended speech reported of characters within the angelic narrative.
4.13.4 The quotation differs from the surrounding text in its form (e.g. poetry), style or language: although one cannot always be sure, there appear to be sufficiently clear indications that many of the extended speeches by individual characters within the angelic narrative use poetic language (parallelism, perhaps metre), e.g. Abraham's prayer, Jub. 12:19–20.
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7.1 Narrative or thematic correspondences, or overlap of specific wording, occur between a non-biblical text and one or more biblical texts in a manner that is prominent or pervasive: There is much overlap of the wording of specific narrative reports with biblical reports, and an overall isomorphism in the plot and sequence of telling. The isomorphism between the biblical and the Jubilees narrative includes, for example, the fact that the Judah-Tamar episode (Jub. 41) “interrupts” the account of Joseph in Egypt (Jub. 39–40, 42:2 ff.), and the placement of genealogical lists (e.g. Jub. 44 and Gen. 46). Apart from many minor divergences in the telling, the major difference between the biblical account and Jubilees results from the integration of normative information with the narrative account, achieved by the angelic voice as whose words the bulk of the text is presented. The angelic narration creates a text whose interdependency of parts within a whole, and thus narrative coherence, is much more emphasized than the bald, episodic, telling of Genesis-Exodus (see 4.1, 4.6, 1.7). Furthermore, the system of dating consistently applied to all parts of the narrative adds formal coherence and unifies it (4.1.4). By integrating the revelation of divine commandments into other aspects of the plot, the angelic narrative also produces stronger textual coherence between what, in the biblical literary setting, would be information found in Genesis on the one hand, and information found in the later books of the Pentateuch (including sacrifical rites) on the other. Furthermore, the presentation of Isaac's binding as prompted by Mastema's conversation with God (Jub. 17:16) creates a parallel to the opening of Job.
7.1.1 Characters correspond between the non-biblical narrative and the narrative of a biblical text or texts.
7.1.1.1 Some or all main characters of the text correspond to main characters in a biblical partner text: namely Genesis and Ex. 1–16:1 (the latter verse appears to be reflected in Jub. 50:1–2).
7.1.1.2 The main character of the text is a minor character in Scripture: this holds true insofar as the angel speaking to Moses is effectively, within the overall narrative (Jub. 1–50) a major character, largely because he is the speaker of the bulk of the narrative.
7.1.1.2.1 Angelic Voice: That character is also the first-person narrator of the text: The narrator of Jub. 2:1a–50:13 is identified as being the angel who led the Israelites through the desert (Jub. 1:29), as well as being involved in various events also told in Genesis. He is thus effectively presented as being identical with a minor character in the biblical version of events. As superhuman I-narrator his unmediated knowledge of all events told is self-explanatory.
7.1.2 Chronology, physical setting or emplotment correspond between the non-biblical narrative and the narrative of a biblical text or texts:
7.1.2.1 The narrative’s chronological and spatial framework, as well as certain events, are co-extensive with that of a biblical partner text, or with some extended part of it: the events of Genesis and the opening chapters of Exodus (approximately up to Ex. 16:1, perhaps including the topic of Sabbath mentioned in Ex. 16:23 although not the specifics of that passage, as reflected in Jub. 50:6 ff.) provide the bulk of the narrative substance of the angelic speech in Jubilees (Jub. 2:1b–50:13); the framework of the text (Jub. 1:1–2:1a) is explicitly located in a situation of which it is not told how it came about (Moses on Mount Sinai), and which is therefore dependent on extra-textual narrative information (as contained in Exodus 16–19).
7.1.2.1.1 The text tends to narrate the story through events described in approximately the same amount of detail as a biblical partner text.
7.1.2.1.4 Some of the narrative’s sub-plots or episodes, mostly corresponding to those of a biblical text, differ from each other in the amount of detail provided if compared to the biblical text: among the events told in less detail are in particular the fate of Joseph among his brothers before he is sent to Egypt, which is only reported in a short statement in Jub. 34:11 (supplying all that is necessary for the later continuation of the plot within Jubilees), and other components found in the biblical Joseph story; Rachel's theft of Laban's idols is mentioned in an analeptic passage in Jub. 31:2 only; the divine prohibition regarding the tree of knowledge is given only in Eve's own report to the serpent, and thus no discrepancy between her formulation and God's original formulation of the prohibition is obvious (Jub. 3:18); Cain's killing of Abel is treated in a few sentences (Jub. 4:2–4); there is no mention of Nimrod (Gen. 10:8–12), of Jacob's struggle with the angel at the Jabbok (at Jub. 29:14) or of the circumcision of the Shechemites (Jub. 30:4, which could be consistent with the high value placed on exclusive Israelite circumcision). On the other hand, Reuben's involvement with Bilhah, which is mentioned in only one sentence in Gen. 35:22, is described in substantial detail, interpreted as incest, and tied to the issuing of a divine norm (Jub. 33:10 ff.).
7.1.2.1.4.1 Among the sub-plots or episodes with more detail are some or all of the ones that have no biblical counterpart: This is true of some extended speeches which have no equivalent in the biblical text; the events leading up to the war between Esau and Jacob (including the extended speech by Isaac and Rebecca) in Jub. 35–37; that war itself (Jub. 38); Noah and the demons (Jub. 10:1–14*); and the war of the seven kings of the Amorites against Jacob (Jub. 34:1–9).
7.1.3 There is prominent use of explicit quotations of biblical wording, whether in non-narrative or in narrative (but not in biblical commentary, for which see section 6): there are only two explicitly marked quotations of what the reader can recognize as biblical wording, but these may be sufficient to indicate that the text wishes to situate itself (within the angelic speech) vis-a-vis an existing biblical text, acknowledged as existing (see 2.4.1.6 for details). It is important to note that all other wording overlaps, which are extensive, are not acknowledged as quotations of another text (although they are acknowledged as quoted speech by the angel, including that angel's constant references to heavenly tablets).
7.1.4 The text shares features of language with the Hebrew Bible, or exhibits tacit overlap with specific biblical wording, whether narrative or not: even where the biblical wording is not tacitly adopted, the language has biblicizing features, and this to some extent also goes for the style of story-telling itself. See 2.4.4.4.
7.1.4.2 The text contains prominently, but not necessarily frequently, the wording of specific biblical passages such as whole sentences or unique biblical phrases, used in a tacit manner. See also 8.1.4.1: this is the case at many places throughout Jubilees, which can move seamlessly from sentences that are effectively the verbatim repetition of biblical words to sentences which tell the story differently, or begin to change the story. There are also re-arrangements of almost verbatim biblical sentences, as in Jub. 24:2–6, which places Esau's trading of his birthright into the context of the famine which in Gen. 25:29 ff. is only mentioned afterwards. The near exact adoption of the wording of Ex. 24:12 in Jub. 1:1, pivotal as it is for the scene-setting of the whole book, is again unmarked in its biblical link. It is reported as a speech event directly observed (heard) by the anonymous voice, not as the quotation of any text; part of the same wording is also used in the "prologue" preceding Jub. 1:1.
7.1.4.2.1 The tacit overlap of specific wording extends regularly to whole sentences or to extensive sentence groupings, found alongside sentences or sentence parts not found in that biblical partner text: see 7.1.4.2.
7.1.4.3 The tacit overlap of wording takes place across language boundaries, with respect to the current language of the text (this point does not apply to 6.13 cases): there is no complete representation of the partner text’s wording in the Ethiopic (as there tends to be in an Aramaic Targum). If the scholarly majority view that Jubilees was originally composed in Hebrew is correct, the present point would not apply to the original composition of a Hebrew Jubilees.
7.1.5 The projected persona of the governing voice of the text, whether a narrative or not, is also known from a biblical text, or the governing voice assumes an epistemic stance similar to that of a biblical text.
7.1.5.1 Angelic Voice: The projected first-person persona of the governing voice is also a character in a biblical text: as the angel identifies himself as involved in the action otherwise also known from the biblical text at certain points.
7.1.5.1.1 Angelic Voice: The persona appears to be linked to a character as it specifically appears in the biblical text, not merely as it might be known from diffuse cultural knowledge.
7.1.5.2 Angelic Voice: The projected first-person persona of the governing voice is presented as identical with, or as an extension of, the persona of the governing voice of a biblical text: The angelic voice is, by contrast to the anonymous narrator of Genesis-Exodus, a "personalized" and first-person narrator. However, as an angel he is still capable of an omniscient perspective, at least for earthly events.
7.1.5.3 The epistemic stance of the governing voice (narrative or not, first person or not) can be interpreted as falling into the same generic category as one of the following stances also adopted in biblical texts:
7.1.5.3.2 The omniscient narration, as in Genesis-Joshua; or unrestricted knowledge of a described reality, similar to Genesis 1: this is to some extent true of the angelic narration (see 7.1.5.2). The anonymous voice in Jub. 1:1–2:1a also mirrors the basic attitude of the biblical narrator in Exodus, including omniscience of events at which only Moses and God/angels were present. However, that anonymous narrator does not claim presence at, because he does not tell in his own voice, the events of creation, as does the narrator of Gen. 1:1 ff. This may be an important different in the anonymous perspective, perhaps of a piece with the constant reference to reported speech and (within the angelic speech) to further texts. There appears to be an implicit distancing from omniscience here: the anonymous narrator has direct access only to events of speech (supernatural as those are); all other knowledge is contained within that speech or in earlier texts, which are mentioned or mediated by the main angelic speech.
7.2 Narrative or thematic correspondences, or overlap of specific wording, occur between the non-biblical text under discussion and other non-biblical texts in a manner that is prominent or pervasive: (This comparison is meant to be synchronic and where appropriate will produce a reciprocal profile in the partner text). The text may be referred to in the Damascus Document, CD 16:3–4.
7.2.1 There is a correspondence of characters (which may include the persona projected as the governing voice of the current text): there is mention of Enoch in a role that appears to transcend his role as only known from the biblical Genesis and ascribing to him a "book" about the signs of heaven (Jub. 4:17–18), thus indicating links with 1Enoch's "Book of Luminaries" (see Stuckenbruck, 1 Enoch 91-108, p. 84); characters overlap routinely with the earlier parts of LAB. For links to the Genesis Apocryphon, see Alexander, "Notes on the 'Imago Mundi'", and parallels to the War Scroll from Qumran, see Schultz, pp. 183–204. There are many other links suggested in the scholarship between Jubilees and other works in the corpus of pre-rabbinic Jewish literature of antiquity.
7.2.1.1 This also constitutes a correspondence with a biblical text (7.1.1).
7.2.2 The overall chronological and spatial framework of the narrative, as well as certain events, are substantially or prominently co-extensive with that of a non-biblical narrative or with some extended part of it: this applies in particular to LAB.
7.2.2.2 This co-extension also constitutes a co-extension with a biblical text; or, this “niche” relationship also constitutes a “niche” relationship with a biblical text (7.1.2.1/7.1.2.3).
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8.1 Standard forms or contents formulated in set phrases, set sentence formats, or clauses in a standard syntactic connection.
8.1.4 Unit of a biblical quotation together with a hermeneutically dependent formulation; midrashic unit: the two explicit quotations of biblical wording (see 2.1.4.6) do not have a clear pairing of quoted words with matching rephrasing (or meta-linguistic description), but need to be noted here nevertheless. They are Jub. 4:30 (Gen. 2:17) and Jub. 33:12 (Deut. 27:20), both inside the angelic speech.
8.1.4.1 The expressive use of unmarked biblical wording whose function in the text’s discourse is enhanced or achieved by it being recognised as coming from a Scripture: large sections of the wording of Genesis are adopted tacitly in Jubilees, see 7.1.4.2.
8.1.9 The a fortiori argument: perhaps only once, in quoted speech in Jub. 35:22.
8.1.10 List sentence enumerating items by words or phrases: occasional, e.g. the spirits of natural forces in Jub. 2:2, and the list of types of objects created from day to day (where numbers are allocated to the lists), in Jub. 2:3–15; Jub. 13:6, 14 and passim. There is also a consistent interest in genealogical information, often taking the form of listing the descendants of a character (usually matched by lists in the biblical partner text, as in the case of Jub. 44:11–33 compared with Gen. 46:8–27).
8.4 Small poetic form:
8.4.1 Occurrence of a song, poetic piece, rhythmic unit: these appear to occur a number of times within some of the extended quoted speeches by characters in the narrative, e.g. Jub. 12:19–20. See 4.14.4.
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9.10 The text’s narrative account is occasionally circular in that it leads from an action to its motivation/purpose, then back to reporting the action, or similar: For example, there is a certain amount of toing and froing between the report of an action and the law it has inaugurated (in the meta-narrative evaluation of the angelic narrator), e.g. Jub. 30:4–6 (or even Jub. 30:4–23, as the oscillation goes on for different aspects of the law), Jub. 49:13–14 and other surrounding verses which are highly repetitive (albeit partly because they differentiate the future rules of passover, involving the Temple, from the pre-Temple passover). At other points, the report on a motivation (not a law) produces such cyclical structures also, e.g. Jub. 37:15. There are also other structures which constitute highly redundant passages; thus Jub. 48:5–7 has repeated references to the plagues in Egypt before and after reporting that Moses foretold them. I am not talking here about redundancy within reported poetic speech, within which redundancy has a different status.
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11.1 The non-narrative text projects its thematic concern as being mainly one or more of the following:
11.1.3 Law, commandments or norms of behaviour: (whether on the governing voice's own authority or on someone else's). The articulation of laws is integrated into the telling of a narrative, but from the perspective of a narrator commenting on events; see 4.6.
11.2 The text is dominated by the reporting of emplotted events, whether or not in an overarching narrative format (4): see 4.6.
11.2.1 The reported events are those of a biblical past, or a biblically foretold future.
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12.1 Sampling of genre labels applied to the text in secondary literature: rewritten Bible; parabiblical literature; retelling of material found in Genesis/Exodus; representation of the biblical storyline; midrashic rewriting of Genesis-Exodus, midrashic-type comment on scripture (Russell in Oxford companion to the Bible); "divine" pseudepigraphon (in contrast to Moses-pseudepigraphon).
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Bibliography:
Texts:
J. C. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 2 vols. (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, vol. 510–511; Leuven: Peeters, 1989) (critical edition of Ethiopic and other text witnesses; English translation); R. H. Charles, The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895). Hebrew fragments from Qumran which are likely to testify to the book in its original language: H. Attridge et al. in consultation with James VanderKam, Qumran Cave 4.VIII: Parabiblical Texts, Part I (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, XIII; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), "2.16. 4QJubilees", ed. by J. C. VanderKam and J. T. Milik, pp. 1–22; for Greek and Latin fragments, see also David M. Miller and Ken M. Penner (eds.), "Jubilees". Edition 1.0., in: The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha. Edited by Ken M. Penner, David M. Miller, and Ian W. Scott (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006); online: http://ocp.tyndale.ca/jubilees/introduction (accessed 16 May 2012).
Translations:
J. C. VanderKam, as vol. 2 of The Book of Jubilees, see under Text; R. H. Charles as revised by C. Rabin in H. F. D. Sparks (ed.), The Apocryphal Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 1–139; R. H. Charles, The Book of Jubilees or The Little Genesis, trans. from the editor's Ethiopic text and edited, with introduction, notes and indices (reprint Jerusalem: Makor, 1972); O. S. Wintermute, "Jubilees", in J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubleday, 1985), vol. 2, pp. 36–142; J. L. Kugel, "Jubilees”, in L. H. Feldman, J. L. Kugel and L. H. Schiffman (eds.), Outside the Bible. Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/University of Nebraska Press, 2013), pp. 272–465 - translation from Wintermute with minor alterations; K. Berger, Das Buch der Jubiläen, übersetzt und herausgegeben (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus G. Mohn, 1981); L. Fusella, "Libro dei Giubilei", in P. Sacchi (ed.), Apocrifi dell'Antico testamento (Torino: TEA/UTET, 2002), vol.2, pp. 85&‐315; F. Corrienta and A. Piñero, "Jubileos", in A. Díez Macho (ed.), Apócrifos del Antiguo Testamento 2 (Madrid: Ediciones Cristiandad, 1983), pp. 67–188.
Selected Studies:
P. S. Alexander, "Notes on the 'Imago Mundi' of the Book of Jubilees", Journal of Jewish Studies, 33 (1982), pp. 197–231; G. Brooke, "Exegetical Strategies in Jubilees 1–2. New Light from 4QJubilees-a", in M. Albani, J. Frey, A. Lange (eds), Studies in the Book of Jubilees (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997), pp. 39–57; C. Böttrich, "Gottesprädikationen im Jubiläenbuch", in Albani et al, Studies, pp. 221–241; F. García Martínez, "The Heavenly Tablets in the Book of Jubilees", in Albani et al, Studies, pp. 243–260; J. Frey, "Zum Weltbild im Jubiläenbuch", in Albani et al, Studies, pp. 261–292; J. M. Scott, "The Division of the Earth in Jubilees 8:11–9:15 and Early Christian Chronography", in Albani et al, Studies, pp. 295–323; J. C. VanderKam, "The Putative Author of the Book of Jubilees", Journal of Semitic Studies 26 (1981), pp. 209–17 (passages where the angel is said to have written down information are a mistranslation of katav hif'il as katav qal into the Greek); G. L. Davenport, The Eschatology of the Book of Jubilees (Leiden: Brill, 1971); J. C. VanderKam, Textual and Historical Studies in the Book of Jubilees (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1977); J. C. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001); L. H. Schiffman, "The Temple Scroll and the Halakhic Pseudepigrapha of the Second Temple Period", in E. G. Chazon and M. Stone (eds.), Pseudepigraphic Perspectives. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 121–131; J. T. A. G. M. Van Ruiten, Primaeval History Interpreted. The Rewriting of Genesis 1–11 in the Book of Jubilees (Leiden: Brill, 200); M. Segal, The Book of Jubilees: Rewritten Bible, Redaction, Ideology and Theology (Leiden: Brill, 2007); P. S. Alexander, "Retelling the Old Testament", in D. A. Carson and H. G. M. Williamson (eds.), It is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture. Essays in Honour of Barnabas Lindars, SSF (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 99–121; J. C. VanderKam, "The End of the Matter? Jubilees 50:6–13 and the Unity of the Book", in L. R. LiDonnici and A. Lieber (eds.), Heavenly Tablets. Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 2007); J. C. Endres, "Prayers in Jubilees", in LiDonnici et al, Heavenly Tablets, pp. 31–47; B. Halpern Amaru, The Empowerment of Women in the Book of Jubilees (Leiden: Brill, 1999); L. T. Stuckenbruck, 1 Enoch 91-108 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007); H. Najman, Seconding Sinai. The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 41–69; S. White Crawford, Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times (Grand Rapids, Mich.; Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2008), pp. 60–83. B. Schultz, Conquering the World. The War Scroll (1QM) Reconsidered (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009).
The terms "Anonymous voice” or “higher-level voice" are defined as covering: Jub. 1:1–2:1a, while the terms "Angelic voice” or “lower-level voice" are defined as covering Jub. 2:1b–50:13 (except for the final sentence).
Unless otherwise noted, all English quotations from Jubilees are from the translation VanderKam. Philip Alexander has kindly supplied information on the wording of the Ethiopic; his help is gratefully acknowledged.
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