James M. Scottmost scholars have viewed Jubilees as a literary unity. This is not to deny that
the book contains many anomalies. As VanderKam acknowledges, there are
in fact a number of mistakes or inconsistencies in the book, but "all of them
are explicable in simpler terms than assuming sundry editions of the book."^9
Superficially, Jubilees is a reworking of Gen l to Exod 24 (or even to
chap. 32),^10 and, as shown by the beginning and the end of the book, the set
ting of the book is portrayed as the actual revelation given to Moses on
Mount Sinai. Thus, Jubilees opens (1:1-4) with the Lord summoning Moses to
ascend the mountain to meet with him, referring to Moses' stay on the moun
tain (Exod 24:18; cf. 34:28) that took place the day after the covenantal cere
monies described in Exod 19-24. The book also ends with a direct reference to
the revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai (Jub 50:2: "On Mt. Sinai I [sc. the an
gel of the presence] told you about the sabbaths of the land and the years of
jubilees in the Sabbaths of the years"). Scattered throughout Jubilees are sev
eral reminders that the contents of this book are addressed to Moses (on
Mount Sinai and through angelic mediation). Obviously, therefore, the au
thor of Jubilees wanted the revelation and covenant at Sinai to be understood
in light of the whole biblical history that preceded it (Genesis-Exodus).
Yet Jubilees is not so much a covenantal book as an apocalypse within a
covenantal setting that inherently lends it authority. As a result, the Sinaitic
covenant is somewhat relativized, so that, for example, the election of Israel
goes back, not to the exodus from Egypt or to the making of the covenant at
Sinai, but rather to the very beginning of creation (Jub 2:19-22). Moreover,
many of the laws given to Israel on Sinai according to the biblical record are
dated back to earlier periods (e.g., the Festival of Weeks was instituted not at
Sinai [Exod 23:16; 34:22] but when Noah disembarked from the ark [Jub 6:17-
19]). Since the direct authority of divine revelation was needed to achieve this
relativization, we can be fairly sure that chaps. 1 and 23 belonged to Jubilees
originally. I have argued that the reason for this backdating and relativization
is directly linked to a central thesis of the book: the revelation on Sinai is a re
iteration of the deterministic divine plan for the world, whereby all things on
earth, especially the cultus in the land, will eventually correspond to the way
im Antiken Judentum, BZAW 363 (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 2006), 234-328;
M. Segal, The Book of Jubilees: Rewritten Bible, Redaction, Ideology, and Theology, JSJSup 117
(Leiden: Brill, 2007).- VanderKam, "Studies in the Chronology," 540.
- Cf. J. C. VanderKam, "The End of the Matter? Jubilees 50:6-13 and the Unity of the
Book," in Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity, and Tradition in Ancient Judaism, ed.
L. LiDonnici and A. Lieber, JSJSup 119 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 267-84 (278-79).