The Concept of Covenant in Jubileeson the fact that in Exodus the establishment of the covenant involves several
verbal declarations of commitment by the Israelites, which can be seen as
oaths (see, in particular, Exod 24:7). Finally, the date of Noah's covenant de
pends on the dating of the Sinai covenant-making to the third month (Exod
19:1). Of course, Jubilees itself presents the influence as going entirely in the
opposite direction. Everything that is described in Exodus, according to Ju
bilees, depends on the original covenantal event after the flood.
The common date of the two covenant events is then made by Jubilees
to stem from the fact that this date had always been significant. The Festival
of Shavuoth ("this entire festival") had been celebrated in heaven from the
time of creation (Jub 6:18). Thus, when Noah made sacrifice in the middle of
the third month to purify the earth because of its sins and to offer thanks for
his deliverance, he was simply realizing on earth what had already existed in
heaven. The heavenly broke into the earthly. Again, this fact must be viewed
in the light of the divine intention expressed early in the book. Bringing the
Festival of Shavuoth into the world and tying it to an earthly covenant is a
step toward the realization of God's plan to create and maintain a unique re
lationship with Israel.
The narrowing of the focus of the covenant also comes out in the brief
paraphrase of Gen 9:12-17 in Jub 6:15-16, where we are told that the bow in
the clouds was given by God to Noah and his sons as a "sign of the eternal
covenant that there would not henceforth be flood waters on the earth"
(6:16). Absent from the paraphrase is the emphasis in Genesis on God's com
mitment to all flesh and on the bow as a means by which God would remem
ber this commitment.
Jubilees continues by declaring, "For this reason it has been ordained
and written on the heavenly tablets that they should celebrate the festival of
weeks during this month — once a year — to renew the covenant each and
every year" (6:17). Whereas in Genesis the covenant commitment is entirely
one-sided, God promising never again to send a flood to destroy the earth,
here Jubilees has the observance of a covenant-renewal festival follow as a
consequence of the divine promise, precisely because God had given assur
ance that there would never again be a flood.
As the work continues, the relationship between the two iterations of
the one covenant is further developed. Moses is made party to God's fore
knowledge. Just as God knows that Israel will fail to obey the covenant, so
God knew, when making the covenant with Noah, that its provisions would
be abandoned and would have to be restored (6:18-19). Again, the covenant
itself is no guarantee of human faithfulness, and no determinant of divine