David R. Jackson
revelation designed to counter these influences and so maintain the distinc
tive lifestyle of the elect.
In the books of Enoch that Jubilees used, possession of and adherence
to the revelations given to Enoch defined the elect (1 En 1:1-3).^19 This body of
revelation was first given to Enoch (Jub 4:17-188, 21, 23b; 7:38-39) and then
passed down, supplemented, and renewed through the elect line of Noah
(8:10-12,18; 10:13), Shem (10:14), Abraham (11:16; 12:25-27; 21:10; 41:28), Jacob
(19:14; 32:24-26; 39:6), and Levi (45:16). After Amram taught Moses to write
(47:9)> it came to Moses on Mount Sinai (1:1-18) as an addition to "the first
law" (2:24; 6:22). At this location we are presented with the reality that Israel
then possessed two canons.
Reading Jubilees within the context of the 'Aza'el exemplar, we have a
framework for the relationship between this revelation and "the first law" or
Torah also revealed to Moses.^20 We might best describe this relationship as a
"two-canon" system. This concept labels a body of texts deemed to be au
thentic revelations by God, and thus authoritative, without precluding the
reception of further additions over time. It does not then justify the claim
that the canon was, at this time, "open."^21 Probably at no time in history has
there ever been "one canon" on which all Jews or all Christians agreed.
"Canon" has always been a marker of divisions. That does not mean that
these canons were "open." Nor does it assume that a canon had to be defined
by a top-down decree. Rather, it recognizes a bottom-up process of persua
sion rather than coercion.^22
2007), 107-14. See also Henryk Drawnel, "Some Notes on Scribal Craft and the Origins of the
Enochic Literature," Hen 31, no. 1 (2009).
- See also 1 En 79:1; 81:1-2, 6; 82:1-10; 83:1-2; 91:1; 92:1; 94:2; 97:1-6; 98:3; 106:19-107:1,
and George W. E. Nickelsburg, "The Nature and Function of Revelation in 1 Enoch, Jubilees,
and Some Qumranic Documents," in Pseudepigraphic Perspectives: The Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Esther Chazon and Michael Stone, STDJ
31 (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 92-120. - See the concise and helpful discussion in VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, Guides
to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 9 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 136-41, of
Jubilees' use of not only the Torah but also other parts of the Tanakh, noting in particular
that Jub 30:12 refers to the Genesis narrative (Gen 34) as "the words of the Law." - See James C. VanderKam, "Revealed Literature in the Second Temple Period," in
From Revelation to Canon: Studies in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Literature, ed.
James C. VanderKam (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 1-30. - Ulrich's distinction between "a collection of authoritative books of scripture" and a
canon breaks down where that "collection" could be identified by its adherents — whether or
not a copy of that list is extant. See Eugene Ulrich, "The Notion and Definition of Canon," in
The Canon Debate, ed. Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders (Peabody, Mass.: