Tradition and Innovation in the Calendar of Jubileesthis respect Jubilees resembles date formulas in the Hebrew Bible, where the
days of the week are not invoked.^17 The reason for the difference could either
be that at the time Jubilees was composed the naming of weekdays was not
yet common, or rather, the author made a deliberate choice to discard this
practice, seeking to imitate the biblical norm.
Secondly, the ostensible importance of the Sabbath in the framework
of the book stands in glaring contrast to its near absence from the narratives.
Besides in chaps. 2 and 50, the Sabbath is mentioned in the admonitions of
1:10,14; 6:34-38; and 23:19, always as part of a formulaic chain of Israelite reli
gious institutions.^18 This formula of covenant keeping (in fact, more of cov
enant breaking) is well known from elsewhere, notably in pesher Hosea and
in pseudoprophetic literature (1QDM, 4QDM?, 4Q390).^19 Important as it is,
it does not attest to an outstanding status for the Sabbath in Jubilees.
It is remarkable that the Sabbath is altogether absent from the narratives.
Doering has noted that "The use of the term 'the seventh day' is quite reserved
... although the author of Jubilees... quite clearly shows a sense of numerical
references, it is not the quality of the heptad which is the focus of his inter
est."^20 The absence of the Sabbath from the narratives was often interpreted
(following Jaubert) as a sign for the abstention from travel or from any other
secular task on the Sabbath.^21 However, the fruit of a lively argument on
Jaubert's hypothesis in recent decades is that practically every piece of evi
dence brought forth by Jaubert maybe contested.^22 Furthermore, Baumgarten
noted several quite clear cases where the Sabbath is violated in Jubilees.^23
- Cf. A. Lemaire, "Les formules de datation en Palestine au premier millenaire avant
J.-C," in Temps vecu. Temps pense, ed. F. Briquel-Chatonet (Paris: Gabalda, 1998), 53-82. A
useful analogy may be the psalms designated for daily recitation in Jewish liturgy. While this
function of the psalms does not appear in the MT (except for the title of Ps 92, which, how
ever, must be understood otherwise), it is included in the titles for those psalms in the Sep-
tuagint Psalter. - Doering, "Concept of the Sabbath," 183.
- Werman, "The Book of Jubilees," 49-53; E. J. C. Tigchelaar, "A Cave 4 Fragment of
Divre Mosheh (4QDM) and the Text of 1Q22 1:7-10 and Jubilees 1:9,14," DSD 12, no. 3 (2005):
303-12- - Doering, "Concept of the Sabbath," 191.
- Jaubert, "Le calendrier des Jubiles et de la secte de Qumran"; VanderKam, From
Revelation to Canon, 81-85; R- T. Beckwith, Calendar, Chronology, and Worship, AJEC 61
(Leiden: Brill, 2005), 54-55. - E.g., Baumgarten, Studies in Qumran Law, 101-14; B. Z. Wacholder and S. Wacholder,
"Patterns of Biblical Dates and Qumran's Calendar," HUCA 66 (1995): 1-40 (here 4-8). - J. M. Baumgarten, "Some Problems of the Jubilees Calendar in Current Research,"
VT32 (1982): 485-89.