Jonathan Ben-Dov
If Sabbath observance was important for the author, one would expect
to find it attached to one of the narratives in the distinct style of the book.
My argument, one may claim, is an argument from silence, but, after all, so is
Jaubert's!
Jubilees fails to refer to a central aspect of the Jewish septenary time
reckoning: the "pentacontad" count of days between the two harvest festivals,
endorsed in Lev 23:15-21 and Deut 16:9, and greatly expanded in the Temple
Scroll (henceforth: T).^24 Although the author in chap. 6 dedicates a long di
gression to hag ha-shevu'im, and despite the great awareness of the author of
numerical aspects of the calendar, it is never mentioned that the festival oc
curs fifty days after a previous harvest festival. Given the utter importance of
the debate on the date of harvest festivals in second temple Judaism, it is diffi
cult to understand how a disciple of the 364DCT would neglect to present his
opinion in this matter. Furthermore, the "additional" harvest festivals of the
wine and oil, mentioned in T (nQTa XVIII-XXII), are absent from Jubilees.
To be sure, Jubilees does not completely ignore the harvest festivals. In
29:16 the four cardinal days are marked as special dates for the dispatch of
agricultural goods as the seasons revolve (see further below). In 32:12-13,
when dealing with the second tithe, the author refers to special harvest festi
vals for each type of crop, with halakoth reminiscent of T: "For the seed is to
be eaten in its year until the time for harvesting the seed of the year; the wine
(will be drunk) until the time for wine; and the olive (will be used) until the
proper time of its season. Any of it that is left over and grows old is to be
(considered) contaminated."^25 But when should these "times" be fixed? The
dates were not specified in chap. 32. A clue may be found in Jub 7:1-2, al
though the evidence is not unproblematic. In 7:1-2 Noah collects the vine
from his orchard in year 4 of this orchard's planting. As a strict follower of
the Pentateuchal law (Lev 19:23-25), Noah saves this produce, which was har
vested at the beginning of month VII (year 4), until the beginning of year 5
(day 1 of month I); only then does he consume it together with that day's fes
tal sacrifices. Baumgarten deduced from this passage that the author of Jubi
lees marked the cardinal days of the year (l/I, l/VII) as the festivals of wine
harvest, in contrast to the dates indicated in T.^26
- J. M. Baumgarten, "The Calendars of the Book of Jubilees and the Temple Scroll,"
VT37 (1987): 71-78; Ravid, "The Book of Jubilees," 378ff. But cf. J. C. VanderKam, "The Tem
ple Scroll and the Book of Jubilees," in Temple Scroll Studies, ed. G. J. Brooke, JSPSup 7 (Shef
field: JSOT, 1989), 211-36. VanderKam's reservations are discussed below. - VanderKam, "The Temple Scroll," 225.
- Baumgarten, "Calendars," 73-74. Although this passage is orientated toward the