The Concept of Covenant in Jubilees
God announces to the angels, whom he has just commanded "to keep sab
bath with him in heaven and on earth" (2:18):
I will now separate a people for myself from among my nations. They,
too, will keep sabbath. I will sanctify the people for myself and will bless
them as I sanctified the sabbath day. I will sanctify them for myself; in
this way I will bless them. They will become my people and I will be
come their God. I have chosen the descendants of Jacob among all those
whom I have seen. I have recorded them as my first-born son and have
sanctified them for myself throughout the ages of eternity. I will tell
them about the sabbath days so that they may keep sabbath from all
work on them. (2:19-20)
The culminating act of creation is God's announcement of the election
of the descendants of Jacob, God's decision to establish a unique relation
ship with them as set apart and hallowed, like the Sabbath.^8 All that follows
in the book must be read in the light of this primordial announcement,
which precedes any specific enactment of a covenant and makes all such en
actments dependent upon it. In short, the covenant does not create a rela
tionship, it signals it.^9 Jubilees' adoption of the biblical father-son character
ization of the covenant relationship — and its utter neglect of the marriage
metaphor — is significant. Marriage is a relationship that is contractual in
nature and can be dissolved. The parent-child bond, in contrast, is organic
and cannot truly be broken. This view of the relationship between God and
Israel is integral to its concept of covenant.
The first two chapters of the work establish that God has a master
plan, which must be brought to fulfillment. The rest of the work, therefore,
and what it says about covenant, must be read in the light of this key theme.
- It is not accidental, therefore, that the work ends with Sabbath legislation. As the
beginning of the book makes clear, the establishment of the Sabbath was the moment of
God's announcement of the election of Israel, and Israel is equated with Sabbath as set apart
and hallowed. While the term "covenant" is absent from the final chapter, the concept is
firmly present. Observance of Sabbath marks Israel's unique relationship with God. On the
Sabbath in Jubilees, and its significance for Israel's identity, see L. Doering, "The Concept of
the Sabbath in the Book of Jubilees," in Studies in the Book of Jubilees, ed. Matthias Albani,
Jorg Frey, and Armin Lange (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1997), 179-205 (esp. 181,
183, 201).
- Thus, as Scott notes in his article, "the Sinaitic covenant is somewhat relativized."
However, even as it is somewhat relativized, the covenant is made more significant by being
tied to a primal, predestined relationship.
