Erik Larson
people of Israel (2:21; 49:6; 50:9). Often this blessing is connected with praise
and thanksgiving.
An important question is whether, for the author of Jubilees, this
noncultic worship is possible for Gentiles. In Jub 7:20 Noah includes a com
mand to "bless the one who had created them" as he prescribes for his
grandsons what is required of them. But succeeding events make it clear that
they do not live up to their responsibilities. Is the right then forfeited? Espe
cially after the covenant with Abraham when cultic worship becomes the
prerogative of the descendants of Abraham alone? The one passage that
might help answer this is Jub 22:6. After Abraham eats a feast prepared by
Isaac, "he blessed the most high God who created the heavens and the earth,
who made all the fat things of the earth, and gave them to mankind to eat,
drink, and bless their Creator." This would seem to indicate that the Noachic
ordinance still stands. But the rest of Jubilees is so negative about the
Gentiles that one could well imagine that its author never seriously enter
tained the idea that a Gentile would or could offer sincere praise to God (cf.
Jub 22:16-22).
Jubilees and Enoch
Examination of all the passages dealing with worship in the works that make
up 1 Enoch shows that blessing is by far the most common. It appears eight
times in the Book of the Watchers (10:21; 22:14; 25:7; 27:3-5 [3X]; 36:4 [2x]),
sixteen times in the Book of the Parables (39:7,9 [2x], 10,12 [2x], 13; 40:4,5;
47:2; 48:5,10; 61:7, 9; 71:11,12), three times in the Astronomical Book (81:3
[2x], 10), twice in the Book of Dream Visions (83:11; 84:1), and once in the
Epistle of Enoch (90:40). As we have seen, blessing is also characteristic in
descriptions of worship in Jubilees, suggesting an immediate connection. In
Jubilees the only activity mentioned more frequently than blessing is sacri
fice. In stark contrast to Jubilees, however, none of the Enochic works men
tions sacrifice as a way to approach God.^22 It is true that the temple is re
ferred to often in the Animal Apocalypse,^23 and the temple implies sacrifice.
But it is still remarkable that among all the references to worship throughout
the entire corpus, no direct reference to sacrifice occurs. For me this raises
- The sole occurrence of the word is in 1 En 19:1, which speaks about the spirits of
the angels leading men astray to sacrifice to demons. - Cf. 1 En 89:36,40,50,54.56.66-67,72-73,76 (?); 90:28-29,33-34,36; 91:13 (?): 937-8.