The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish text with 50 chapters and 1,341 verses. It is officially accepted as part of their religious writings by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and Haymanot Judaism, a group within the Ethiopian Jewish community. However, the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches classify it as part of the pseudepigrapha, a collection of religious writings not included in the main Bible. Outside of Haymanot Judaism, no other Jewish groups consider the book to be officially accepted.
Early Christians were familiar with the text, as noted in the writings of scholars such as Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also used by the group that collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. No complete Hebrew, Greek, or Latin versions of the book are known to have survived. However, the Geʽez version is believed to accurately translate the fragments of the original text found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Book of Jubilees describes a "history of the division of the days of the law and of the testimony, of the events of the years, of their (year) weeks, of their jubilees throughout all the years of the world." This history was revealed to Moses by angels during his time on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, in addition to the Torah or "Instruction." The book's timeline is based on multiples of seven. A jubilee year occurs after seven "weeks of years" (seven cycles of sabbatical years, totaling 49 years), which divide all of time into structured periods.
Manuscripts
Before finding many pieces from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known copies of Jubilees were four complete Geʽez texts from the 15th and 16th centuries and some quotes by early Church Fathers like Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. There is also a piece of a Latin version of the Greek text that covers about one-fourth of the entire work.
The Geʽez Biblical texts, now there are twenty-seven, are the main source for translating into English. Parts of Jubilees that match verses in Genesis do not exactly match the two known manuscript traditions. Before the Qumran discoveries, R. H. Charles concluded that the original Hebrew version used a different text for Genesis and the early parts of Exodus, one not connected to the Masoretic Text (𝕸) or the Hebrew text used for the Septuagint. A historian noted that differences between the Septuagint and the 𝕸, along with variations in the Dead Sea Scrolls, show that Hebrew texts before the Common Era did not have a single "official" version. Some scholars describe three main manuscript traditions: Babylonian, Palestinian, and a pre-𝕸 "proto" tradition. While the pre-𝕸 text may have been official at one time, arguments exist about whether this was true.
Between 1947 and 1956, about fifteen Jubilees scrolls were found in five caves at Qumran, all written in Biblical Hebrew. The large number of manuscripts (more than for any other Biblical books except Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis) shows that Jubilees was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of the Qumran texts with the Geʽez version, done by James VanderKam, found that the Geʽez version was mostly accurate and closely followed the original text.
Origins and date
R. H. Charles (1855–1931) was the first Bible scholar to suggest where the book of Jubilees might have come from. He believed the author of Jubilees could have been a Pharisee, a religious group in ancient times, and that the book was based on earlier interpretations found in the Books of Chronicles. However, after the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered at Qumran in 1947, most scholars no longer support Charles’s idea that the Pharisees were the origin of Jubilees.
Determining when Jubilees was written has been difficult for scholars. The oldest surviving copies of Jubilees are dated to about 100 BCE based on handwriting. However, evidence suggests the book was written earlier. It could not have been written much before this time. For example, Jubilees 4:17–25 mentions Enoch seeing a vision about past and future events. This detail, along with other information about Enoch’s wife being named Edna, appears first in the Animal Apocalypse, a section of 1 Enoch. The Animal Apocalypse is believed to describe events from the Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) and is dated to that time. Scholars have debated whether Jubilees or the Animal Apocalypse came first. Since 2008, most scholars agree the Animal Apocalypse was written first, and Jubilees followed. Because of this, reference books like the Oxford Annotated Bible and the Mercer Dictionary of the Bible date Jubilees to between 160 and 150 BCE.
J. Amanda Guire suggests Jubilees was written around 170–150 BCE by a Palestinian Jew with a "priestly background and Hassidic or Essene persuasion." This conclusion is based on the author’s detailed knowledge of Canaanite geography, biblical festivals, and religious laws.
Content
The Book of Jubilees shares many topics with Genesis but includes more details. It tells the story of creation and Israel’s history up to the time of Moses, using a system called "Jubilees," which divides time into 49-year periods. The total time from creation to Moses receiving the scriptures on Mount Sinai during the Exodus is calculated as 50 Jubilees minus 40 years of wandering in the desert before entering Canaan, totaling 2,410 years.
Four types of angels are described: angels of presence, angels of sanctification, guardian angels who watch over individuals, and angels who oversee natural events. Enoch was the first person taught by angels how to write, and he recorded knowledge about astronomy, time, and history. The book’s view on demons is similar to writings from both the Old and New Testaments.
The Book of Jubilees describes the creation of angels on the first day of creation and the story of fallen angels who mated with human women, producing a race of giants called the Nephilim and their descendants, the Elioud. The Ethiopian version says these angels were actually the disobedient children of Seth, and the human women were daughters of Cain. This idea is also found in writings by early Christian scholars like Clementine literature, Sextus Julius Africanus, Ephrem the Syrian, Augustine of Hippo, and John Chrysostom. The Nephilim, who lived during Noah’s time, were destroyed in the Great Flood. Jubilees also states that God gave 10% of the Nephilim’s spirits to tempt humans after the flood.
Jubilees mentions an incestuous relationship involving Cain, the son of Adam and Eve. It says Cain married his sister Awan, and their son was Enoch (a different Enoch, not the author of the Book of Enoch). It also notes that Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son, married his sister Azura.
According to the book, Hebrew was the language of heaven and was originally spoken by all creatures in the Garden of Eden. Animals lost their ability to speak when Adam and Eve were expelled. After the Great Flood, the earth was divided among Noah’s three sons and their sixteen grandsons. When the Tower of Babel was destroyed, families were scattered, and Hebrew was forgotten until Abraham was taught it by angels.
Jubilees includes brief mentions of the Messianic kingdom. It describes a future rule by a Messiah from the tribe of Judah, not Levi, as some expected. This kingdom would gradually appear on Earth, with nature and human behavior transforming until a new heaven and earth were created. Eventually, all sin and suffering would end, and people would live 1,000 years in peace and happiness, then enjoy eternal life in the spiritual world.
Jubilees emphasizes a 364-day yearly calendar, divided into four quarters of 13 weeks each, instead of a 12-month lunar year, which it claims is off by about 10 days annually. It also counts a "Double Sabbath" as one day to maintain this system.
Jubilees 7:20–29 may be an early reference to the Noahide laws.
Reception
According to Kugel, an editor from the Hasmonean period used the Book of Jubilees as one of two sources to create the Aramaic Levi Document. Jubilees was important to priestly groups, even though they disagreed with its calendar system. The Temple Scroll and the "Epistle of Enoch" were influenced by Jubilees. Jubilees also served as a source for parts of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, such as the one about Reuben.
The Book of Jubilees was not included in the Jewish canon, and there is no official record of it in Pharisaic or Rabbinical writings. Zvi Ron (2013) said that Jubilees can be considered an early form of midrashic literature. Some of its ideas appear in later midrashic texts. For example, Jubilees describes Enoch being taken by angels to the Garden of Eden and learning astronomy from them. This idea also appears in the Midrash Aggadah, which mentions that Enoch became the angel Metatron. In Jubilees, the similar figure is called the "Angel of the Presence."
Midrash Tadshe was written in the early 11th century but was based on an earlier work by R. Pinchas b. Jair from the end of the second century A.D. It shares many similarities with Jubilees, and some sections match it exactly.
Other early evidence of Jubilees in Jewish tradition appears in Bereshit Rabba (5th century) and Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (9th century). In Bereshit Rabba 55:4, an interpretation of Genesis 22:1 ("The Offering of Isaac") is similar to a passage in Jubilees 17:16. Both texts change the story of Abraham by shifting the source of the test from God to other figures. Similar interpretations also appear in Qumran texts, Philo's writings, and rabbinic sources.
Other midrashim with parallels to Jubilees include the Chronicles of Jerahmeel and the Midrash Vayisau.
The ancient Book of Noah did not survive, but parts of it were included in Jubilees. The Book of Enoch also used material from Jubilees extensively.
Jubilees contains the earliest known reference to the rabbinical story of the "Ten trials of Abraham." According to Jubilees 19:8, Abraham faced ten trials of faith and remained faithful and patient. However, Jubilees does not list all ten trials, omitting some mentioned in Jubilees 17:17.
The Mishnah and Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer both describe different versions of the ten trials Abraham endured. Medieval scholars Rashi and Maimonides had different interpretations of what these trials were.
Early Christian writers often cited or referenced Jubilees in their writings, showing its importance. Jubilees contains one of the earliest references to the idea that God gave the Law to Moses through an angel, a concept also found in the Epistle to the Galatians.
Ethiopic-speaking Christians translated Jubilees into Geʽez before the 6th century, making it part of the Ethiopic Bible.
In the Syriac Christian tradition, Jubilees first appears in extant sources from the mid-6th to early-7th century, including the Cave of Treasures and writings by Jacob of Edessa. Later references include the Catena Severi and works by Michael the Syrian, Barhebraeus, and others.
Jan van Reeth argues that Jubilees influenced early Islam. Etsuko Katsumata notes differences between Jubilees and the Quran, especially in how Abraham is portrayed. She explains that the Quran describes Abraham teaching people about idolatry and staying in their lands, which reflects Islam's goal of converting idol worshippers and settling in their communities.
Donald Akenson describes Jubilees as having a calm and steady tone, written by a well-informed follower of Yahweh who lived in the homeland. He notes that the author corrected parts of the Books of Moses.
Date
The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish text with 50 chapters and 1,341 verses. It is officially accepted as part of their religious writings by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and Haymanot Judaism, a group within the Ethiopian Jewish community. However, the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches classify it as part of the pseudepigrapha, a collection of religious writings not included in the main Bible. Outside of Haymanot Judaism, no other Jewish groups consider the book to be officially accepted.
Early Christians were familiar with the text, as noted in the writings of scholars such as Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also used by the group that collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. No complete Hebrew, Greek, or Latin versions of the book are known to have survived. However, the Geʽez version is believed to accurately translate the fragments of the original text found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Book of Jubilees describes a "history of the division of the days of the law and of the testimony, of the events of the years, of their (year) weeks, of their jubilees throughout all the years of the world." This history was revealed to Moses by angels during his time on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, in addition to the Torah or "Instruction." The book's timeline is based on multiples of seven. A jubilee year occurs after seven "weeks of years" (seven cycles of sabbatical years, totaling 49 years), which divide all of time into structured periods.
Manuscripts
Before finding many pieces from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known copies of Jubilees were four complete Geʽez texts from the 15th and 16th centuries and some quotes by early Church Fathers like Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. There is also a piece of a Latin version of the Greek text that covers about one-fourth of the entire work.
The Geʽez Biblical texts, now there are twenty-seven, are the main source for translating into English. Parts of Jubilees that match verses in Genesis do not exactly match the two known manuscript traditions. Before the Qumran discoveries, R. H. Charles concluded that the original Hebrew version used a different text for Genesis and the early parts of Exodus, one not connected to the Masoretic Text (𝕸) or the Hebrew text used for the Septuagint. A historian noted that differences between the Septuagint and the 𝕸, along with variations in the Dead Sea Scrolls, show that Hebrew texts before the Common Era did not have a single "official" version. Some scholars describe three main manuscript traditions: Babylonian, Palestinian, and a pre-𝕸 "proto" tradition. While the pre-𝕸 text may have been official at one time, arguments exist about whether this was true.
Between 1947 and 1956, about fifteen Jubilees scrolls were found in five caves at Qumran, all written in Biblical Hebrew. The large number of manuscripts (more than for any other Biblical books except Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis) shows that Jubilees was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of the Qumran texts with the Geʽez version, done by James VanderKam, found that the Geʽez version was mostly accurate and closely followed the original text.
Origins and date
R. H. Charles (1855–1931) was the first Bible scholar to suggest where the book of Jubilees might have come from. He believed the author of Jubilees could have been a Pharisee, a religious group in ancient times, and that the book was based on earlier interpretations found in the Books of Chronicles. However, after the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered at Qumran in 1947, most scholars no longer support Charles’s idea that the Pharisees were the origin of Jubilees.
Determining when Jubilees was written has been difficult for scholars. The oldest surviving copies of Jubilees are dated to about 100 BCE based on handwriting. However, evidence suggests the book was written earlier. It could not have been written much before this time. For example, Jubilees 4:17–25 mentions Enoch seeing a vision about past and future events. This detail, along with other information about Enoch’s wife being named Edna, appears first in the Animal Apocalypse, a section of 1 Enoch. The Animal Apocalypse is believed to describe events from the Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) and is dated to that time. Scholars have debated whether Jubilees or the Animal Apocalypse came first. Since 2008, most scholars agree the Animal Apocalypse was written first, and Jubilees followed. Because of this, reference books like the Oxford Annotated Bible and the Mercer Dictionary of the Bible date Jubilees to between 160 and 150 BCE.
J. Amanda Guire suggests Jubilees was written around 170–150 BCE by a Palestinian Jew with a "priestly background and Hassidic or Essene persuasion." This conclusion is based on the author’s detailed knowledge of Canaanite geography, biblical festivals, and religious laws.
Content
The Book of Jubilees shares many topics with Genesis but includes more details. It tells the story of creation and Israel’s history up to the time of Moses, using a system called "Jubilees," which divides time into 49-year periods. The total time from creation to Moses receiving the scriptures on Mount Sinai during the Exodus is calculated as 50 Jubilees minus 40 years of wandering in the desert before entering Canaan, totaling 2,410 years.
Four types of angels are described: angels of presence, angels of sanctification, guardian angels who watch over individuals, and angels who oversee natural events. Enoch was the first person taught by angels how to write, and he recorded knowledge about astronomy, time, and history. The book’s view on demons is similar to writings from both the Old and New Testaments.
The Book of Jubilees describes the creation of angels on the first day of creation and the story of fallen angels who mated with human women, producing a race of giants called the Nephilim and their descendants, the Elioud. The Ethiopian version says these angels were actually the disobedient children of Seth, and the human women were daughters of Cain. This idea is also found in writings by early Christian scholars like Clementine literature, Sextus Julius Africanus, Ephrem the Syrian, Augustine of Hippo, and John Chrysostom. The Nephilim, who lived during Noah’s time, were destroyed in the Great Flood. Jubilees also states that God gave 10% of the Nephilim’s spirits to tempt humans after the flood.
Jubilees mentions an incestuous relationship involving Cain, the son of Adam and Eve. It says Cain married his sister Awan, and their son was Enoch (a different Enoch, not the author of the Book of Enoch). It also notes that Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son, married his sister Azura.
According to the book, Hebrew was the language of heaven and was originally spoken by all creatures in the Garden of Eden. Animals lost their ability to speak when Adam and Eve were expelled. After the Great Flood, the earth was divided among Noah’s three sons and their sixteen grandsons. When the Tower of Babel was destroyed, families were scattered, and Hebrew was forgotten until Abraham was taught it by angels.
Jubilees includes brief mentions of the Messianic kingdom. It describes a future rule by a Messiah from the tribe of Judah, not Levi, as some expected. This kingdom would gradually appear on Earth, with nature and human behavior transforming until a new heaven and earth were created. Eventually, all sin and suffering would end, and people would live 1,000 years in peace and happiness, then enjoy eternal life in the spiritual world.
Jubilees emphasizes a 364-day yearly calendar, divided into four quarters of 13 weeks each, instead of a 12-month lunar year, which it claims is off by about 10 days annually. It also counts a "Double Sabbath" as one day to maintain this system.
Jubilees 7:20–29 may be an early reference to the Noahide laws.
Reception
According to Kugel, an editor from the Hasmonean period used the Book of Jubilees as one of two sources to create the Aramaic Levi Document. Jubilees was important to priestly groups, even though they disagreed with its calendar system. The Temple Scroll and the "Epistle of Enoch" were influenced by Jubilees. Jubilees also served as a source for parts of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, such as the one about Reuben.
The Book of Jubilees was not included in the Jewish canon, and there is no official record of it in Pharisaic or Rabbinical writings. Zvi Ron (2013) said that Jubilees can be considered an early form of midrashic literature. Some of its ideas appear in later midrashic texts. For example, Jubilees describes Enoch being taken by angels to the Garden of Eden and learning astronomy from them. This idea also appears in the Midrash Aggadah, which mentions that Enoch became the angel Metatron. In Jubilees, the similar figure is called the "Angel of the Presence."
Midrash Tadshe was written in the early 11th century but was based on an earlier work by R. Pinchas b. Jair from the end of the second century A.D. It shares many similarities with Jubilees, and some sections match it exactly.
Other early evidence of Jubilees in Jewish tradition appears in Bereshit Rabba (5th century) and Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (9th century). In Bereshit Rabba 55:4, an interpretation of Genesis 22:1 ("The Offering of Isaac") is similar to a passage in Jubilees 17:16. Both texts change the story of Abraham by shifting the source of the test from God to other figures. Similar interpretations also appear in Qumran texts, Philo's writings, and rabbinic sources.
Other midrashim with parallels to Jubilees include the Chronicles of Jerahmeel and the Midrash Vayisau.
The ancient Book of Noah did not survive, but parts of it were included in Jubilees. The Book of Enoch also used material from Jubilees extensively.
Jubilees contains the earliest known reference to the rabbinical story of the "Ten trials of Abraham." According to Jubilees 19:8, Abraham faced ten trials of faith and remained faithful and patient. However, Jubilees does not list all ten trials, omitting some mentioned in Jubilees 17:17.
The Mishnah and Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer both describe different versions of the ten trials Abraham endured. Medieval scholars Rashi and Maimonides had different interpretations of what these trials were.
Early Christian writers often cited or referenced Jubilees in their writings, showing its importance. Jubilees contains one of the earliest references to the idea that God gave the Law to Moses through an angel, a concept also found in the Epistle to the Galatians.
Ethiopic-speaking Christians translated Jubilees into Geʽez before the 6th century, making it part of the Ethiopic Bible.
In the Syriac Christian tradition, Jubilees first appears in extant sources from the mid-6th to early-7th century, including the Cave of Treasures and writings by Jacob of Edessa. Later references include the Catena Severi and works by Michael the Syrian, Barhebraeus, and others.
Jan van Reeth argues that Jubilees influenced early Islam. Etsuko Katsumata notes differences between Jubilees and the Quran, especially in how Abraham is portrayed. She explains that the Quran describes Abraham teaching people about idolatry and staying in their lands, which reflects Islam's goal of converting idol worshippers and settling in their communities.
Donald Akenson describes Jubilees as having a calm and steady tone, written by a well-informed follower of Yahweh who lived in the homeland. He notes that the author corrected parts of the Books of Moses.
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