The Manuscript Tradition of Jubileestheir readings with the versional evidence led me to the conclusion that, de
spite a long history of copying and multiple translations, the Ethiopic text of
Jubilees is in surprisingly good shape — in contrast to some other Jewish
works such as 1 Enoch. A number of factors probably contributed to the tex
tual stability of Jubilees.
- Jubilees retells familiar stories from Genesis and Exodus; this fact
could have hindered major deviation. A related factor is, however, also worth
underscoring: the text of Jubilees does not show signs of being modified in
the direction of the biblical texts in the various languages through which it
passed. So, for example, when one compares all of Ethiopic Jubilees' cita
tions from Genesis and Exodus with the ancient versions for those passages,
the version with which it disagrees most frequently is the Ethiopic version of
Genesis and Exodus.^42 - Jubilees as an entire unit was accorded high status by some Jews and
Christians. The evidence for the esteem in which it was held at Qumran has
been summarized a number of times, and the fact that it is regularly in
cluded in Ethiopic manuscripts that contain the books of the Old Testament
shows its standing in the Abyssinian church. - As a reflection of that high status, writers of various kinds of litera
ture drew upon Jubilees and its traditions to clarify passages in Genesis/Exo
dus or to fill in gaps that they left. This was the case for midrashists and for
chronographers. The fact that they drew material from passages early and
late in the book raises the likelihood that full versions of the book existed
even in the languages for which we at present lack a manuscript copy (Greek,
Syriac). - See, for example, VanderKam, Textual and Historical Studies, 103-205; "Jubilees
and the Hebrew Texts of Genesis-Exodus," Text 14 (1988): 71-86.