The Aramaic Levi Document, the Genesis Apocryphon, and Jubilees
VanderKam, "Jubilees' Exegetical Creation," 560.
There is also an important contextual difference between ALD and Ju
bilees with respect to the transmission of these cultic instructions. Accord
ing to Jubilees, these instructions were transmitted to Isaac by Abraham (Jub
21), whereas in ALD they were transmitted to Levi by Isaac. This is consistent
with Jubilees' worldview of the patriarchs functioning as priests, starting
with Adam and continuing through Abraham, to Isaac, to Levi. As Kugel has
demonstrated, this priestly line does not include Jacob; thus Isaac is the one
who delivers the directives of the priesthood to Levi.^9 Accordingly, the au
thor of Jubilees "felt no need to add another scene in which Isaac would in
struct Levi in the priesthood (as Aramaic Levi does)."^10
I would like to argue that these teachings are introduced by the author
of ALD in their logical setting, where Isaac prepares Levi for his priestly role
(chaps. 6-9). This long section concludes in chap. 10 (preserved only in the
Greek manuscript from Mount Athos) with Isaac's injunctions and blessings
to Levi. This chapter also contains two references to Abraham: "For my fa
ther Abraham commanded me to do thus and to command my sons" (10:3);
and "For my father Abraham commanded me for thus he found in the writ
ing of the book of Noah concerning the blood" (10:9). Apparently these ref
erences to Abraham motivated the author of Jubilees to move these cultic in
structions to earlier in the account, transposing them into Abraham's
instructions to Isaac, and stressing Abraham's role in the priestly line. Thus,
the shared tradition of Levi's investiture to the priesthood was altered by Ju
bilees to harmonize with his viewpoint of the priestly lineage as proceeding
from Adam through the patriarchs to Levi (and skipping Jacob).
II. The Genesis Apocryphon and Jubilees
A. The Mapa MundiALD was not the only source available to, and known by, Jubilees. Another
work upon which Jubilees drew was the Genesis Apocryphon. If my first ex
amples of parallels and possible influence concerned Levi and his investiture
to the priesthood, the following one relates to a different component of the
Genesis narrative: the division of the world among Noah's sons and the
mapa mundi it reflects.
- Kugel, "Levi's Elevation," 19-21, 62-63; VanderKam, "Jubilees' Exegetical Creation,"