Martha Himmelfarb
many texts to extend the idea of the correspondence between angels in heaven
and priests on earth to suggest that a select group of nonpriestly human beings
are also the counterparts of the angels. But Jubilees stands apart from other
texts of the second temple period in a very important way. In contrast to the
Book of the Watchers, which depicts one exemplary human being as the equal
of the angels, or to the sectarian scrolls, which understand all members of the
sectarian community as the earthly counterparts of the angels, Jubilees claims
that it is not extraordinarily righteous heroes of the past or members of a sec
tarian elite but the entire Jewish people that is like the angels.^28
Even more striking is the contrast between Jubilees and the sectarian
scrolls. For the sectarians the true Israel, the children of light, were defined
by piety. For Jubilees, on the other hand, Israel is a people defined by geneal
ogy without regard to piety; Jubilees has no place for conversion to Juda
ism.^29 Both the good and the wicked are Israel, or, as the rabbis, who are sur
prisingly close to Jubilees on this point, would later put it, "Even if he sins,
an Israelite remains an Israelite" (b. Sanhedrin 44a).^30 Thus Israel is a king
dom of priests in part because one becomes an Israelite by birth rather than
merit, just as Jewish priests attained their status through descent from Aaron
rather than by any claim to piety or learning.^31
I take Jubilees' insistence on genealogy as the way to define membership
in the people of Israel as a sign of active opposition to the sectarian impulse
that emerged in the Hasmonean era.^32 In his contribution to this volume,
Aharon Shemesh suggests that frg. 7 of 4Q265 provides further evidence for
Jubilees' Torah-like status at Qumran because it consists of three instances of
reworking of Jubilees, including revision of Jubilees' Sabbath laws and the
laws governing relations with Gentiles, both in light of the yahad's view of it
self as Israel and all other Jews as Gentiles.^33 Though Shemesh appears to ac-
- 1 make this point in greater detail in my book, A Kingdom of Priests: Ancestry and
Merit in Ancient Judaism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 53-84. - Himmelfarb, A Kingdom of Priests, 72-78.
- For the rabbis' view on the genealogical character of Jewish identity, see
Himmelfarb, A Kingdom of Priests, 160-85, esP- W-Si- - For the significance of Jubilees' insistence on genealogy for defining the Jewish
people as well as the priesthood, see Betsy Halpern-Amaru, The Empowerment of Women in
the Book of Jubilees (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 154-55. - I prefer a date for Jubilees during the last third of the second century B.C.E.
(Himmelfarb, A Kingdom of Priests, 77), but this dating is not crucial for my argument. - Aharon Shemesh, "4Q265 and the Authoritative Status of Jubilees at Qumran." On
authoritative status at Qumran, see also Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, "The Authoritative
Status of Jubilees at Qumran," Hen 31, no. 2 (2008).