Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

The Chronologies of the Apocalypse of Weeks and the Book of Jubilees

of the creation until] the time of the new creation when the heavens, the

earth, and all their creatures will be renewed like the powers of the sky

and like all the creatures of the earth, until the time when the temple of

the Lord will be created in Jerusalem on Mt. Zion. All the luminaries will

be renewed for (the purposes of) healing, health, and blessing for all the

elect ones of Israel and so that it may remain this way from that time

throughout all the days of the earth.

The reference here to the renewal of the luminaries can be compared to Isa
65:17 ("For I am about to create new heavens.. ."), especially since Jubilees
refers to "the new creation" in this context. Moreover, Jub 23, which has
many similarities to chap. 1 and once again adumbrates world history from
creation to new creation, clearly alludes to the new creation expected in Isa
65:17-25, with its hope of increased human longevity in the latter days.^16
In the foregoing we have seen that there are several remarkable similari­
ties between the Apocalypse of Weeks and the book of Jubilees as apoca­
lypses. There is even a strong possibility that Jubilees alludes to the Apoca­
lypse of Weeks. Now we are in a position to explore a tentative reconstruction
of Jubilees' chronological system. As we shall see, Jubilees is not only be­
holden to the Apocalypse of Weeks for some of its fundamental chronologi­
cal perspectives, especially those pertaining to the dating of the exile and its
aftermath, but is also critical of the Enochic work at certain crucial points.

II. A Reconstruction of Jubilees' Chronological System

Jubilees is a polemical writing with a distinctly priestly orientation that seeks
to prove the validity of its own position over against other competing per­
spectives with respect to two major issues — sacred space and sacred time.
Like other pseudepigrapha in the second temple period, Jubilees is vying for
predominance in the name of divine revelation transmitted through author­
itative figures of the past. To this end, Jubilees portrays itself not only as con­
taining the divine revelation written on heavenly tablets and given through
angelic mediation to Moses on Mount Sinai, but also, and more importantly,
as encapsulating the very revelation that angels had already given to Enoch
in the antediluvian period.

According to Jub 4:21 (cf. Gen 5:22), Enoch was "with God's angels for

16. Cf. Scott, On Earth, 103-25, 138-39.