The Relationship between Jubilees and the Early Enochic Booksfluence on AB and the fairly clear presence of it in Jubilees certainly suggest
that AB is the product of an earlier era.
Furthermore, many scholars have concluded from Jub 4:17-18, 21 that
the author of Jubilees had knowledge of AB, the contents of which seem
quite well summarized, especially in v. 17.^22 Opinion varies whether v. 21 re
fers to AB or the second half of BW (1 En 17-36).
J. A. T. G. van Ruiten and M. A. Knibb have pointed out, however, that
although Jub 4:17-18 mentions Enoch composing a work whose description
sounds like AB, there are in fact no passages in Jubilees that exhibit demon
strable literary dependency on the text of AB, in marked contrast to the liter
ary relationship between Jubilees and Genesis.^23
It is true that the author of Jubilees does not reproduce the text of AB
in the same way he reproduces the text of Genesis. However, this need not
mean that the text of AB was unavailable to him; only that he chose to han
dle the Enochic texts differently than that of Genesis. While he follows the
biblical text fairly closely at times, he is content merely to summarize the
contents of AB and other Enochic works.
The influence of AB on Jubilees is, oddly, not as significant as one
might expect. Of course, the two works have several commonalities:
- The 364-day "solar" calendar is the only legitimate one.
- Astronomical and meteorological phenomena are guided by spiritual
beings (cf. Jub 2:2; 1 En 82:7-20). - The natural order is scrupulously obedient to divine laws.
- Enoch is the first astrologer, having been educated by angels.
However, all these commonalities were probably widely present in second
temple Judaism. Therefore, one cannot say that Jubilees borrowed the 364-
day calendar directly from AB. Rather, both works probably reflect a com
mon calendrical tradition.
The differences between AB and Jubilees are actually more interesting
than the similarities:
- See VanderKam, "Enoch Traditions in Jubilees and Other Second-Century
Sources," in SBLSP 13 (1978), 229-51 (here 233-34); Milik, The Books of Enoch, 11; P. Grelot,
"Henoch et ses Ecritures," RB 82 (1975): 481-500 (here 484-85). - Van Ruiten, "Literary Dependency," 90-93; M. A. Knibb, "Which Parts of 1 Enoch
Were Known to jubilees? A Note on the Interpretation of Jubilees 4.16-25," in Reading from
Right to Left: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of David J. A. Clines, ed. C. Exum and
H. G. M. Williamson, JSOTSup 373 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003), 254-62.