Lester L. Grabbeboth add detail to the text (e.g., the names of the wives married by the
antediluvial patriarchs or the cities built by them), but the details have no re
lation to one another. Topics that are evidently important to one (because
space is devoted to them) do not occur in the other or are mentioned only
very briefly. For example, Jubilees does not seem to be interested in Nimrod.
This is in contrast to the legend found in some other Jewish writings,^11 but a
developed legend occurs in the Asatir. On the other hand, Jubilees contains
expanded stories about Jacob's wars with the Amorites (34:2-9) and with
Esau and his sons (37-38), which have no place in the Asatir nor any other
Samaritan writing.
On the chronological side, the previous section noted that the Samari
tans also use the jubilee, but they calculate the first jubilee as fifty years, then
forty-nine years until the fifth jubilee. Whether because of this or in spite of
it, the flood occurs in 1308 A.M. in Jubilees and 1307 in the Asatir and other
Samaritan sources. The preflood genealogies of Jubilees are close to the Sa
maritan Pentateuch, but with little exact correspondence. From the flood on,
however, the Samaritan Pentateuch tends to agree with the Septuagint,
whereas Jubilees tends to use smaller figures (but still greater than those in
the Masoretic text) and is quite different from the Samaritan. Jubilees does
have one agreement with the Septuagint: it includes Cainan between
Arpachshad and Shelah (in contrast to both the SP and the MT, which make
Shelah the son of Arpachshad). A study much needed is a thorough investi
gation of the Jubilees chronology to determine whether internal patterns are
operating. One factor that complicates any attempt to discern patterns in the
figures of Jubilees is that the Jubilees chronology is not always internally
consistent. We have the obvious error in the case of Peleg, who has a son at
age twelve (10:18). But other problematic figures relate to Abraham's age
when he begets Ishmael (14:24) and then Isaac (16:13-15).
The concept of human history encompassing 6,000 years, on the anal
ogy of the week, ending with a 1,000-year "sabbath," is well known from later
Jewish and Christian writings.^12 We find the same chronological scheme in
the Asatir (4:19; 11:20), though this is probably a medieval writing. Was the
concept found as early as the book of Jubilees? Jub 4:30 speaks of a day
equaling 1,000 years in the testimony of heaven. The full scheme of 6,000
- See L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, J: Bible Times and Characters from the Cre
ation to Jacob, trans. Henrietta Szold (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America,
1909), 177-217; Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V: Notes to Volumes I and I], from the Creation to
the Exodus (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1925), 198-218. - See Grabbe, "Chronography," 2:51-55.