Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

Jubilees, Qumran, and the Essenes

nents of a sectarian worldview: antagonism in relation to the outside world;

social separation from outsiders; and a developed sense of "difference" in

their self-identity and practices or rituals.^14 The belief system of the Qum

ran sects, especially the yahad, is based on condemning Jews outside the sect

and social separation from the surrounding society.^15 Contacts such as those

created by commerce are limited or inspected by the sect rules or by the

overseers.^16 The rest of the Jews are doomed as long as they persist in reject

ing the sect's doctrine.^17 Simply stated, Jubilees does not correspond to the

definition of a sectarian ideology. The Qumran sectarians do not adopt Jubi

lees' prohibition on the use of the moon in calculations, and instead follow

Enoch's Astronomical Book harmonizing solar and lunar sequences with

each other.^18

The social position of Jubilees is somewhat clarified in chap. 23 (the

so-called Jubilees apocalypse), where the author juxtaposes the "elders" with

the "young ones." The two parties debate "the law and the covenant" (23:16),

especially the calendar. The author associates the elders with impurity, con

tamination, detestation, and corruption and accuses them of "defiling the

holy of holies with the impure corruption of their contamination" (23:21b).

The author of Jubilees views his movement as the true Israel, but surpris

ingly, unlike the Community Rule or the Damascus Covenant, he does not

seem to claim that the elders will be cut off from the nation. At the age of

punishment, it seems that all Jews will suffer (23:21-25). No matter how sin

ful the elders may be, the author does not regard them as doomed. He also

implies that the elders will ultimately accept the teachings of the young ones

(23:26-31). Thus, according to the author, the unity of the Jewish people will

be preserved.

The elders in Jub 23 represent the traditional and conservative elite,

while the young ones are a radical party that challenges the degenerated con-

14. For the definition of sectarianism see R. Stark and W. S. Bainbridge, The Future of

Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University

of California Press, 1985), 49-60.

15. £. Regev, "Abominated Temple and a Holy Community: The Formation of the

Concepts of Purity and Impurity in Qumran," DSD 10, no. 2 (2003): 243-78 (here 256-75).

Cf. CD 13:14-17; 20:6-8; lQS 5:15-16; 8:20; 9:7-9.

CD 7:9-13; 8:2-3; 19:5-11; iQS 4:18-20; 9:23; Licht, The Thanksgiving Scroll, 32-33.

18. U. Glessmer, "Calendars in the Qumran Scrolls," in The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty

Years, ed. J. C. VanderKam and P. W. Flint (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 2:213-78 (here 244-55). 4Q252

1 i 8-10 also rectifies the Jub 5:27 error in claiming that the 150 days in Gen 8:3 constituted five

months (Glessmer, 258-59).