Benjamin G. Wright III
To conclude, I want to present one short illustration of how deeply em
bedded the issue of form and genre is in scholarship. Cana Werman has sug
gested a genealogical relationship between Jubilees and wisdom literature. She
writes, "I would like to suggest that the Book ofjubileesis also a development of
wisdom literature, though from a source other than Proverbs. Wisdom is not
mentioned in Jubilees;Torah and Te'udah —Torah and predestined history —
replace Wisdom. Torah and Te'udah'm Jubileesis [sic] an entity that existed be
fore creation.... The history of the world, predestined and engraved on the
heavenly tablets, unfolds in the created world. Torah, i.e., cultic laws, shapes
this world."^21 She argues that Jubilees emphasizes the historical dimension so
that "a thoughtful examination of history will provide the correct interpreta
tion of the biblical laws and will ensure correct conduct in life." And so Jubilees
"contains a sapiential message; it calls on wise men to meditate on history and
to apply their conclusions to the interpretation of law."^22
Despite the fact that Werman sees some similar aspects in the sapien
tial literature of Qumran, and, of course, 4QInstruction's raz nihyeh is a
prime example, I do not see the necessity of claiming that Jubilees is some
how wisdom literature or a descendant of wisdom literature because one can
identify these similarities. To say that Torah and predestined history "replace
Wisdom" suggests that otherwise Jubilees and Ben Sira are quite close — a
suggestion I find difficult to sustain. To conclude, as she does, "As Ben Sira
emerged from Proverbs, so Jubilees emerged from the sapiential literature
now found at Qumran," necessitates driving a wedge between Ben Sira and
the Qumran wisdom texts that ignores the extensive similarities among all
of them, a wedge that I think unnecessary and counterproductive. It seems
more likely that Jubilees and the wisdom texts from Qumran and Ben Sira all
address problems that other second temple texts have in common with them
as well. I do not see any need to argue for some genetic relationship between
Jubilees and wisdom in order to make sense out of what they share.^23 One of
the things I find so fascinating about these texts, and that certainly deserves
more study, is the creative variety of ways, both similar and dissimilar, that
their authors and tradents found to address them.
- C. Werman, "What Is the Book of HaguV in Sapiential Perspectives: Wisdom Litera
ture in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. J. J. Collins, G. E. Sterling, and R. A. Clements, STDJ
51 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004), 125-40 (here 126). - Werman, "Book of Hagu," 126-27.
- For over a decade the Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Early Judaism and Chris
tianity Group of the SBL has been working to deconstruct the categories "wisdom" and
"apocalyptic." See Wright and Wills, Conflicted Boundaries in Wisdom and Apocalypticism.