Worship in Jubilees and Enoch
Erik Larson
Worship in Genesis was simple, direct, and personal. People sacrifice, set up a
pillar and pour oil on it, pray, worship, prostrate themselves, and bless. There
is only one priest of the true God mentioned in Genesis, Melchizedek. There
is no one place where God is worshiped. Instead, there are many sites where
altars are built and many places where worship takes place such as Mount
Ararat, Bethel, Beersheba, Mamre, Mount Moriah, and Shechem. There are
many acts of sacrifice, but never is there an act of atonement in Genesis.^1
The question this paper seeks to address is how the book of Jubilees re
sponds to this situation. What aspects of the worship of God does its author
play up and what aspects does he minimize? And not only that, but whose
worship does he play up and whose does he minimize? We will then com
pare the results with how worship is described in the works that make up
1 Enoch.
Worship in Jubilees
The sole act of worship attributed to Adam in Jubilees is the burning of in
cense. According to Jub 3:27, "On that day, as he was leaving the Garden of
- The word kipper does occur in Gen 6:14 and 32:20. But in the first instance it refers
to covering the ark with pitch, and in the second to Jacob's attempt at appeasing Esau when
he goes back to the land of Canaan.