Reconsidering Jubilees: Prophecy and Exemplaritystrable on the basis of the textual witnesses from the period of second
temple Judaism. While it is true that there are many examples of written au
thority and scribal figures who are interpreting the earlier texts, we can find
such examples of prophetic writtenness in preexilic materials as well as in
ancient Near Eastern traditions. In addition, texts that exhibit the features of
what is categorized as prophetic continue to be found in the late second tem
ple texts.^19 Rather than thinking of interpretation of texts and the develop
ment of prophecy, we should consider it one of many forms of revelation in
preexilic and postexilic texts.^20 Throughout the second temple period and
beyond we have texts that continue to claim that they are able to connect
with the divine via heavenly journey, conversation with angels, and inspired
interpretation of older, authoritative prophetic texts and/or traditions.
But surely the idea of revelation as interpretation sounds paradoxical.
For, according to well-established ways of thinking, revelation and interpre
tation are distinct: there is revelation, which somehow gives rise to scripture;
and then there is interpretation, which aims to understand and apply scrip
ture, and hence to grasp what is revealed in revelation. The project of writing
and reworking earlier revelation is sometimes considered radically distinct
from receiving prophecy. Somehow textuality itself is considered earthly (as
opposed to heavenly) and bereft of the immediacy (even pristine quality) of
divine vision.
The act of writing itself and a written witness to revelation can be
forms of the revelatory (e.g., Esther, Josiah's discovered scroll, Mishneh To
rah, among others).^21 But the act of writing itself can also bear witness to the
permanence of divine presence for the community even in the face of im
pending or recalled destruction (e.g., Jub 1).
Jubilees can tell us a great deal about the nature of an open corpus of
prophetic texts in second temple Judean tradition. The prophetic corpus is
not a closed canon: new traditions are being composed as the corpus of au
thoritative literature grows. Scholars have challenged the dichotomy be
tween the apocalyptic and the prophetic, and thereby opened up the path to
- For a recent discussion of prophecy at Qumran, see A. P. Jassen, Mediating the Di
vine: Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism, STDJ
(Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). - See my forthcoming work on this subject, "Discourse Attributed to a Heavenly
Founder: Emulation and Imitation," in Prophetic Ends. - See my essay "The Symbolic Significance of Writing in Prophetic Traditions," in
Theldea of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor ofJames L. Kugel, ed. H. Najman and J. H.
Newman, JSJSup 83 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 139-73.