James M. Scott
The author of Jubilees knows, of course, that Israel's time in the land
was doomed to failure, as the Deuteronomic pattern of sin-exile-restoration
(SER) in chap, l makes clear. Thus, Jub 1:7 directly states: "I know their defi
ance and their stubbornness (even) before I bring them into the land which I
promised by oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." The sins of Israel in the
land will include, among other things, violations of the calendar: abandon
ing God's covenantal festivals, his sabbaths, and the jubilee (1:10,14). Elabo
rating on Israel's life in the land and employing once again the Deutero
nomic SER pattern, Jub 23 expects that the people will have "forgotten
commandment, covenant, festival, month, sabbath, jubilee, and every ver
dict" (v. 19). The fact that chap. 23 is referring to Israel's sinful life in the land
before the exile is confirmed by comparing to it 50:5, which refers to the res
toration period (see above). This corresponds to 23:29, which likewise refers
to the restoration: "They will complete and live their entire lifetimes peace
fully and joyfully. There will be neither a satan nor any evil one who will de
stroy." In other words, Jubilees recognizes that Israel's entire time in the land
before the exile would be characterized by sin, but that this condition would
be rectified at the time of the restoration. Hence, the theme of Israel's ex
pected sin in the land is reiterated in very similar terms in chaps. 1, 23, and
50, thus giving these mutually reinforcing chapters a framing function for
the book as a whole.
If, as VanderKam has recently argued, Jub 50:1-5 coheres seamlessly
with the rest of the book,^18 then all three of the interconnected framing
chapters have a claim to being original. Moreover, since all three chapters
look forward to the restoration period, when Israel will reenter the land and
reestablish the cultus on a new basis corresponding to that in heaven from
the beginning, the surface narrative of the book stops where it does, at "T
minus 40 years" before entrance into the land, for two main reasons: (1) be
cause, from the author's perspective, the original entrance into the land was
already long past, and (2) because Israel's history essentially recapitulates it
self at the time of the restoration: the eschatological entrance into the land
corresponds chronologically to the original entrance into the land. Indeed,
Jubilees is all about recapitulation. The two overarching trajectories of the
book demonstrate that the new creation recapitulates the original creation,
and the entrance of the eschatological priesthood into the future temple of
- Cf. VanderKam, "End of the Matter?" 267-84, who shows not only that Jub 50:6-13
accords with the author's manner of introducing laws throughout the book but also that the
entire chapter coheres well with the rest of the book.