Eschatological Impulses in Jubilees
Punishment (2322-25)
Punishment will come as the people are delivered up to the violence of "sin
ful nations who will have no mercy or kindness for them and who will show
partiality to no one" (v. 23). There are visions of bloodshed and chaos and
young children whose "heads will turn white with gray hair" (v. 25). Their
condition will be dire. Even their outcries to God and prayers for rescue will
go unheeded (v. 24).
Turning Point/Repentance (2326)
As usual in this pattern, there comes a turning point; here it is signaled only
by the notice that "the children will begin to study the laws, to seek out the
commands, and to return to the right way." Perhaps all three verbs function
synonymously: studying laws, searching out God's commands, and return
ing to God's ways. The verb "return" (myt/meta, probably translating 2W)
also appeared in the similar passage in Jub 1:15, in which God says, "After this
they will return to me." One connotation of this verb is "to be converted
(relig. sense),^34 and it fits well this context.
Salvation by God (232,7-31)
Salvation by God has a dual appearance in this text: an earthly, newly ac
quired longevity, and passing through death of the just.^35 God's saving acts
are not explicitly political, even though the punishments in w. 22-25 have of
ten been interpreted in this way.^36 Eschatological signs of salvation include
longer lifetimes, lived in peace and joy, without satans or evil destroyers; in
short, people in the eschaton will enjoy lives of "blessing and healing" (v. 29).
Especially significant is the notion that the life span of the just may again
34. T. Lambdin, Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez), HSS 24 (Missoula: Scholars
Press, 1978), 417-
35. Cf. G. Aranda Perez, "Los Mil Aflos en el Libro de los Jubileos y Ap 20,1-10," EstBib
57 (1999): 39-6o, esp. 44-47.