Tradition and Innovation in the Calendar of JubileesII. The Year Quarters
A manifest trait of the year in Jubilees is its division into four quarters and
the special importance of the cardinal days for the year's structure. This ele
ment existed already in Mesopotamian prototypes of the 364DY.^36 In AB the
division is also apparent, mainly in chaps. 72 and 82. The four cardinal days
form the skeleton of the Enochic year, marking the borders between the an
nual seasons. This key role of the cardinal days became more pronounced
when the framework of 360 days — originally underlying the schemes in AB
— gave place to the 364DY.^37 This change resulted in a vivid debate on the
exact status of the four additional days (1 En 75 and 82).
- The question whether or not Jubilees' chronological system complies with that of
AW and other visions of history (past or future) in units of weeks of jubilees is pertinent
here. This question is debated in the chapter by Scott in this volume and in Christof Berner,
"50 Jubilees and Beyond? Some Observations on the Chronological Structure of the Book of
Jubilees," Hen 30, no. 2 (2008), and cannot be settled here. It seems, however, that Jubilees is
fairly independent from AW, if not in the overall sum of years then in the method of count
ing the distinct time units. - For the sources of Jubilees see the chapter by Segal in the present volume.
- J. Ben-Dov and W. Horowitz, "The 364 -Day Year in Mesopotamia and Qumran"
(in Hebrew), Meghilloti (2003): 3-26. - P. Sacchi, "The Two Calendars of the Book of Astronomy," in Jewish Apocalyptic
and Its History, JSPSup 20 (Sheffield: JSOT, 1990), 128-39; G. Boccaccini, "The Solar Calen
dars of Daniel and Enoch," in The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception, ed. J. J. Collins
and P. W. Flint, VTSup 83 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 2:311-28.
idea further, presenting it in 6:29 as the structural essence of the 364DY. Al
though the Qumran sources acknowledge that the year consists of 4 x 13
weeks, this figure is never declared as the essence of the year, as is done in Jub
6:29-30. The impression about the nonconformist nature of Jubilees'
calendrical thought thus gains further support.^34
The idiosyncrasies of Jubilees' calendar cannot be explained as origi
nating differently than other 364DCT texts. The circles that authored the
texts belonging to that tradition are simply too small and too related to each
other to arise from highly divergent Sitze im Leben. Generally it would seem
that Jubilees crystallized on the background of Enochic texts like AB and
AW, in addition to halakic texts from the milieu of T,^35 but that the author
chose to differ from these traditions, often to a very pronounced extent, in
cases dictated by his ideological and interpretative preferences.