Gabriele Boccacciniclaimed but the situation was not as hopeless. They did not deny that de
mons played a very important role in bringing evil to earth — who could
have denied it in the wake of the tragedy of those days? — yet they claimed
that the demons' role was limited to the outside world and to the traitors of
Israel.^35 The "true" Israelites had after all the possibility to take their destiny
in their own hands, provided they remained separated from the impurity of
the Gentiles.
The balanced synthesis of Enochic and Mosaic elements allowed them
to transform what was a tiny movement of dissent and protest of disenfran
chised priests into a new form of Judaism, "a form occupying a space be
tween Enochic and Zadokite Judaism,"^36 which (being both Zadokite and
Enochic) should no longer be labeled either Zadokite or Enochic. In the
name of Moses and Enoch, Jubilees could strengthen God's control over the
universe through a strict historical and calendrical determinism, while
maintaining the idea of corruption and decline of history. By making God's
covenant with Israel not a historical deal but one of the unchangeable and
preordained rules of the universe, Jubilees made a strong point that the sin
of the fallen angels had not destroyed the uniqueness of the chosen people
but affected only the rest of the world. As the covenant was unconditionally
offered (the Jews are born in the covenant) and no corruption had disrupted
the covenant, the problem was now how to remain blameless in the covenant
in a corrupt world.
That is the great genius of Jubilees. The covenant stands firmly not be
cause the universe is uncorrupted and incorruptible (as the Zadokites
claimed) but in spite of the corruption of the universe. Contrary to the
Enochic tradition, Israel is not defenseless. There is a "medicine" given to the
sons of Noah and the covenant embraces and protects the circumcised Jews,
unless they expose themselves to the impurity of the outside world that is
dominated by evil forces. As the chosen people are subjected to the demons
only if they do not follow God's will, the path is opened to a discussion on
which behavior should be kept in order "to stay in" and which behavior in
stead causes apostasy and leads Israel "out." The "shift in focus: from the
threat of demons to the danger of associating with Gentiles," which Reed
highlighted at the conference, is a shift from a passive to a proactive attitude
toward the presence of evil that early Enochians had so dramatically de-
- J. C. VanderKam, "The Demons in the 'Book of Jubilees,'" in Die Damonen, ed.
Armin Lange et al. (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003), 339-64. - Sacchi, "History," 404.