From a Movement of Dissent to a Distinct Form of Judaismby the Zadokite priesthood), and the Enochic tradition, as preserved in the
books of Enoch (a parallel pre-Maccabean tradition with strong anti-
Zadokite elements).^17 In earlier texts, Mosaic and Enochic traditions show
evidence of mutual influence, even competition and dissent, but as far as we
know, Jubilees is the first document to mention explicitly both traditions
and to address theoretically the problem of their relationship.
As with any merging of traditions, the question of which component
(the Zadokite or the Enochic) prevailed in their meeting from the ideologi
cal point of view is delicate and very difficult to assess.
If we look at the figures of Enoch and Moses, there is no doubt that in
the narrative of Jubilees the figure of Moses supersedes Enoch as the central
mediator and Sinai emerges as the privileged place of revelation, as John
Bergsma and Dorothy Peters correctly point out.^18 Enoch was "the first who
learned writing" (Jub 4:17), but it was Moses who on Mount Sinai was the re
pository of both the Pentateuch and Jubilees. Moses (not Enoch) is the trait
d'union of both traditions. The role of Enoch as revealer remains confined to
progenitor of one tradition only, that of Jubilees.
On the other hand, if we look at the ideologies of Enoch and Moses, we
have a different picture. The recognition of the primacy of Moses as the cen
tral revelatory figure does not mean uncritical acceptance of the Zadokite
worldview. On the contrary, by taking up the myth of the fallen angels (Jub
7 :i2ff.), Jubilees shares the generative idea of Enochic Judaism, that the uni
verse and history are under the influence of rebellious demonic forces. As a
consequence, history is condemned to be a process of decline and degenera
tion until the time of God's final vindication — an eschatological and apoc
alyptic "counterstory" that is totally extraneous to the "master narrative" of
the Mosaic Torah and dramatically alters its theological outlook.
In my Beyond the Essene Hypothesis, after stressing these many ele
ments of continuity between the Enochic tradition and Jubilees, I con
cluded that Jubilees was the work of an author who, following the tradi
tion of Enoch, succeeded "in harmonizing Mosaic revelation and Enochic
revelation, and in subordinating the former to the latter."^19 In this sense I
warned that the exaltation of Moses and "the acceptance of the Mosaic
- G. Boccaccini, Roots of Rabbinic Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).
- John S. Bergsma, "The Relationship between Jubilees and the Early Enochic Books
(Astronomical Book and Book of the Watchers)," in this volume; Dorothy Peters, "Noah
Traditions in Jubilees: Evidence for the Struggle between Enochic and Mosaic Authority,"
Hen 31, no. 1 (2009). - Boccaccini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis, 90.