Daniel and Jubilees
Matthias Heme
The purpose of this paper is to compare two Jewish writings from the sec
ond temple period, Daniel and Jubilees. The two books are linked by several
affinities. First, both texts were written roughly at the same time, possibly
within a decade of each other. The book of Daniel reached its final form dur
ing the years 167-164 B.C.E., the time of the persecutions under Anti
ochus IV. The date of composition of the book of Jubilees is more elusive,
though a date in the 160s or 150s B.C.E. seems most likely.^1 Second, Daniel
and Jubilees are both in their own way products of the Maccabean revolt. In
Daniel the references to Antiochus are unambiguous and explicit. In Jubilees
the connection with the Maccabean uprising is more tentative and has to be
inferred. The prohibition of nakedness (Jub 3:30-31; cf. 1 Mace 1:14; 2 Mace
4:12) and the "prediction" of a time of apostasy during which the Israelites
will no longer practice circumcision (Jub 15:33-34; cf. 1 Mace 1:15) are often
quoted in this regard, though these passages may simply refer to controver
sial issues that arose during the advance of Hellenism in general. Third, both
Daniel and Jubilees are of a considerable apocalyptic bent. Since neither
Daniel nor Moses, Jubilees' protagonist, is ever taken into heaven, both texts
belong, in terms of form criticism, to the group of "historical" apocalypses.
- J. C. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, Guides to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 9
(Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 17-21; similarly G. W. E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Lit
erature between the Bible and the Mishnah, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006), opts for a
date "in the early 160s" (73).