The Manuscript Tradition of Jubilees#2270: The first twenty-three lines, as the editors note, are a reproduc
tion, with some changes, of Jub 46:6-12; 47:i.^36 This previously unedited text
is, unlike so much of the remaining Greek material, a very close quotation of
an extended passage from Jubilees.
For the sake of completeness, attention should be drawn to six citations
in Didymus the Blind that he attributes to what he calls the Book of the Cove
nant (rj (3fpXoc Tfjc 5ia9tJKr|c). Five of these appear in his commentary on
Genesis, and a sixth in his commentary on Job. In no case does he cite from it;
he always speaks indirectly about it. Some editors of Didymus's works have
claimed that these come from Jubilees, and one must admit that there is a
similarity in content between four of the six citations and Jubilees. Closer
study shows, however, that they are not likely to have been drawn from Jubi
lees, though the Book of the Covenant would be a good name for it.^37
IV. Latin
There was a Latin translation of Jubilees, made from a Greek model, and one
partial copy of it is available. That copy was published by Ceriani in 1861.^38
He found it in the manuscript designated Ambrosiana C 73 Inf. The manu-
- La chaine sur la Genese: Edition integrate IV Chapitres 29 a 50, 455.
- For the texts and the views of the editors, see D. Luhrmann, "Alttestamentliche
Pseudepigraphen bei Didymos von Alexandrien," ZAW 104 (1992): 231-49, here 239-45.
Luhrmann denies that the Book of the Covenant in these passages is Jubilees. A. Crislip has
recently published parts of a Coptic text, P.CtYBR inv. 495, which he dates to the fourth to
fifth century C.E. The fiorilegium quotes at least six passages, four of which are from Jubi
lees: 8:28-30; 7:14-16; 15:3; 4:33 (an allusion). Crislip says we should not rule out the possibil
ity there was a Coptic translation of Jubilees ("The Book of Jubilees in Coptic: An Early
Christian Fiorilegium on the Family of Noah," BASP 40 [2003]: 27-44, with pis. 1-2). The
Coptic material may have come from a Greek source. In addition, W. Lowndes Lipscomb
has published an Armenian list of the names of, among others, the patriarchs and their
wives, with the wives' names corresponding to the ones given in Jub 3:34-11:14. As he notes,
there are five other texts (besides his list and the one in Jubilees) that provide these names,
and he offers a chart comparing the names in all seven. The others are the Syriac list of
names (see above), the scholia in the LXX minuscule 135, and three late Hebrew texts ("A
Tradition from the Book of Jubilees in Armenian," JJS 29 [1978]: 149-63). It is possible that
the Armenian list also came from a Greek intermediary, though Syriac is not excluded. - Ceriani, "Fragmenta Parvae Genesis et Assumptionis Mosis ex Veteri Versione
Latina," in Monumenta Sacra et Profana, 1:9-64; for the Jubilees text see 15-54. Ronsch (Das
Buch der Jubilden, 10-95, with commentary on 96-196), Charles (The Ethiopic Version of the
Hebrew Book of Jubilees), and I (The Book of Jubilees, 1:270-300) have reissued the text.