James C. VanderKam
script is a palimpsest, and the text of Jubilees and that of the Testament of
Moses occupy the lower level and are thus difficult to read. Ceriani was able
to decipher a large amount of text, beginning at Jub 13:10 and running, with
gaps, until 49:22. "In these sections [twenty-five of them] one finds all or
parts of 439 verses (335 of the total of 1307 verses in the Ethiopic version).
Much has been lost at the beginning, but once the legible Latin begins it pre
serves nearly half of the text. That is, if one subtracts the number of verses
from 1:1-13:9 (the section of text that precedes the beginning of the first deci
pherable Latin passage), the percentage of the verses available in Latin is 47.5
(439 °f 9^2 3)- It can safely be said that both in quantity and quality, the Latin
is second only to the Ethiopic version."^39 It is difficult to overemphasize the
importance of this text. Ceriani dated the copy to the fifth or sixth century
C.E. This means that it is approximately a millennium older than the earliest
surviving copy of Jubilees in Ethiopic (see below). One hopes that with
modern photographic techniques more of the manuscript could be read.
The Latin and Ethiopic (see below) translations furnish independent reflec
tions of the lost Greek version of Jubilees.
V. Ethiopic
The complete (as nearly as we can tell) book of Jubilees has survived only in
manuscripts inscribed in the classical language of Ethiopia. August
Dillmann was able to use two poor copies of the text when he published his
edition in 1859 (38 and 51 in the list below),^40 and Charles used the readings
from Dillmann's two manuscripts (taken from Dillmann's edition) and from
two others (12 and 25) for his edition of 1895. When I prepared my edition of
Jubilees (1989), twenty-seven copies of the book had been identified and
made available in one form or another.
9* 14th century
12* 15th century
17* 15th century
20* I5th-i6th century- VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 2:xviii.
- Charles, Mashafa Kufale sive Liber Jubilaeorum, qui idem a Graecis 'H Aemf)
Teveaig inscribitur, aethiopice ad duorum librorum manuscriptorum fidem primum editit
(Kiel: C. G. L. van Maack; London: Williams and Norgate, 1859).