Lester L. Grabbethat Jubilees is named for a chronological system based on a forty-nine-year
cycle of jubilees. This might seem strange since the Pentateuch appears to
envisage a fifty-year cycle (Lev 25:8-12). It also has often been commented
that antediluvian patriarchs have three different chronological schemes,
with each major version of Gen 1-10 having its own system of counting the
ages of the patriarchs.^9 The following table shows the chronological data
from Adam to Jacob in the three versions. (N.B. the dates are all A.M. [anno
mundi, the era counting from creation]. The data in column 4 [Jubilees] has
been reconstructed from the dates found in the table on pp. 150-51.)
Biblical Text SP LXX MT Jubilees
5:3: Adam begets Seth
5:6: Seth begets Enosh 130 230 130 130
5:9: Enosh begets Kenan 105 205 105 98
5:12: Kenan begets Mahalalel 90 190 90 97
5:15: Mahalalel begets Jared 70 170 70 70
5:18: Jared begets Enoch 65 165 65 66
5:21: Enoch begets Methuselah 62 162 162 61
5:25: Methuselah begets Lamech 65 165 65 65
5:28: Lamech begets Noah 67 167 187 65
[5:32; 11:10: Noah begets Shem] 53 188 182 49-55
7:11: Noah's age when flood came [502] [502] [502] [500-506]
11:10: Shem's age at the time of the flood 600 600 600 601-7
11:10: Shem begets Arpachshad 98 98 98 101
11:12: Arpachshad begets Shelah
[Cainan LXX, Jubilees] 100 100 100 103
[11:13: Cainan begets Shelah LXX, Jubilees] 135 [135] 35 [65]
11:14: Shelah begets Eber [130] [57]
11:16: Eber begets Peleg^130 130 30 71
11:18: Peleg begets Reu 134 134 34 64
11:20: Reu begets Serug 130 130 30 12 [sic]
11:22: Serug begets Nahor 132 132 32 108
11:24: Nahor begets Terah 130 130 30 57
79 79* 29 62
"variant 179- A basic study of various chronographic systems in early Jewish writings is L. L.
Grabbe, "Chronography in Hellenistic Jewish Historiography," in Society of Biblical Literature
1979 Seminar Papers, ed. P. J. Achtemeier, SBLSPS17 (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1979), 2:43-68.