Tradition and Innovation in the Calendar of Jubileessearched for the content of the Enochic writings known to the author of Ju
bilees based on this passage.^9 It is generally accepted that AB, in some textual
form, was already an established branch of Enochic wisdom at the time Jubi
lees was written. Accordingly, it should be noted that the septenary termi
nology in Jub 4:17 does not refer to the inner division of the year but rather
to long-range units of years. Thus, this terminology is rightly considered a
projection of ideas from the Apocalypse of Weeks (AW), since AB never uses
the number seven with regard to the 364DY.^10 Only once does AB mention
"a count of weeks," hr'ata sanbat (79:4, lit. "a law of the week"), but this is
done, for some unknown reason, with regard to the lunar year! The refer
ence to Enoch in Jub 4:17 is therefore loyal to the original spirit of AB and
AW, while Jubilees itself carries the septenary idea further, presenting it in
6:29 as the very essence of the structure of the 364DY.
From the book of Jubilees it is apparent that the septenary principle
was also active in the small-scale design of the 364-day year, which was di
vided very neatly into weeks. This idea is presented in Jub 6:29-30, the only
explicit statement in Jubilees on the structure of the year. These two verses
first relate to the year quarters and then to the entire year: "Each of them
(consists of) 13 weeks;... All the days of the commandments will be 52
weeks of days; (they will make) the entire year complete." In this passage the
number of 52 weeks in a year is not a mere circumstance, an outcome of the
number 364. Rather it forms the very definition of the year and of its com
ponents. In Jubilees' eyes, a "complete" year equals a stretch of 52 weeks, or
rather four periods of 13 weeks each.^11 No other place within the 364DCT
makes this point so clear.^12 In fact, it is not made again in the book of Jubi
lees. In contrast, the year is more commonly defined using the twelve
months, each quarter containing three such months. This is common in 1 En
72 but also in Qumran calendars such as 4Q320 3 ii—4 i; 4Q394 frgs. 1-2;
4Q394 frgs. 3-7 i; 6Q17.
- See J. C. VanderKam, From Revelation to Canon: Studies in the Hebrew Bible and
Second Temple Literature, JSJSup 62 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 310-18; recently A. Y. Reed, Fallen
Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2005), 87-89. For updated bibliography and renewed evaluation of the matter, see the contri
bution of J. Bergsma in this volume. - M. Albani, Astronomie und Schbpfungsglaube. Untersuchungen zum astronomischen
Henochbuch, WMANT 68 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1994), 278-80. - See Ravid, "The Book of Jubilees," 383ff.
- The closest place is nQPsa XXVII, which counts 52 songs for the Sabbaths of the
year alongside the 364 days, the 30 festivals, and the 12 heads of months.