Worship in Jubilees and Enochdistinction between what the two brothers presented to God. But no attempt
at differentiation is found in Jub 4:2 where Abel's offering is referred to as a
sacrifice. This agrees with Josephus, who likewise refers to the actions of
both brothers using the words thuein and thusia {Ant 1.54). More impor
tantly, however, the author of Jubilees has passed over an opportunity to ex
plain how the practice of sacrifice came into being and what it is that makes
a sacrifice acceptable or unacceptable.^4
In the generation after Cain and Abel, in the days of Enosh, a practice
to call upon the name of the Lord was begun (Gen 4:26).^5 So begins commu
nication with God by means of speech, or worship of the word. Jubilees
notes the fact without further comment, merely changing the indefinite
"was begun" to specify Enosh himself: "He was the first one to call on the
Lord's name on the earth" (Jub 4:12). Interestingly, in all the other passages
in Genesis where "calling on the name of the Lord" is mentioned, it is in
connection with the building of an altar (Gen 12:8; 13:4; 26:25). The author of
Jubilees includes all three of these passages in his retelling and adds in
changes of his own. In the first two, which mention Abraham's worship, the
writer gives the actual words of Abraham's address to God and explicitly
states that sacrifice was offered. The third regards Isaac, and one can see the
changes below:
Gen 26:25
"So he built an altar there, called on
the name of the LORD, and pitched
his tent there."
Jub 24:23
"There he built the altar which his
father Abraham had first built. He
called on the Lord's name and
offered a sacrifice to the God of his
father Abraham."- Gary Herion, in considering Genesis, has suggested the very simple and appealing
answer that Cain's sacrifice was unacceptable because it was an offering from the ground
that until the time of Noah lay under a curse. The curse lasted from the time of Gen 3:17 un
til Noah's sacrifice, which elicited God's promise never again to curse the ground. If this so
lution works for Genesis, it works even better for Jubilees where the atoning significance of
Noah's sacrificing is stressed. Cf. G. Herion, "Why God Rejected Cain's Offering: The Obvi
ous Answer," in Fortunate the Eyes That See: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Cele
bration of His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Astrid B. Beck, Andrew H. Bartelt, Paul R. Raabe, and
Chris A. Franke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 52-65. - So MT, though the text is somewhat ambiguous. Cf. the discussion in S. Fraade,
"Enosh and His Generation Revisited," in Biblical Figures outside the Bible, ed. M. E. Stone
and T. Bergren (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity, 1998), 60-61.