The Book of Jubilees and the Origin of EvilWhile in Jubilees the flood is primarily a response to sins among hu
mans (as in Genesis), the divine punishments against the angels and giants
take different forms, respectively (as in l Enoch). In Jubilees the angels are
punished by being bound and sent to the nether regions of the earth (5:6,
10), a scenario that according to the Book of the Watchers is carried out
against 'Asa'el (1 En 10:4-6, 8). This motif, as in the Animal Apocalypse (1 En
88:3), may reflect the influence of the Tartarus tradition known, for example,
from Hesiod's Theogony. As for the giants, their punishment in Jubilees is re
stricted to their intramural violence (5:7, 9; 7:22-24) that again may be com
pared with the Book of the Watchers (1 En 7:3; 10:12) where, however, in 10:12
this includes the fallen angels as well.
The form of punishment meted out to the giants in Jubilees may go
back to a double interpretation of the ambiguous Hebrew verb TIT of Gen
6:3. (1) In Jubilees 5:8 the verb is understood in the sense of "to dwell" (as in
the LXX) — "My spirit will not dwell on people forever for they are flesh.
Their life span is to be 120 years." (2) Distinguishable from the Greek transla
tion, however, Jubilees applies the term "flesh" in Gen 6:3 not to human be
ings, but to the giants who, though they simulate humans by having bodies,
destroy one another in advance of the flood (5:9). In this way, it is made clear
that the giants are in the unfolding narrative not expected to survive the
flood, let alone to live long enough to be punished through it; the flood itself
is not the form of punishment they receive.
If the angels and giants have introduced, or at least increased, evil in
the world, their malevolent deeds do not lead to a wholesale corruption of
human nature. Quite the contrary: after their punishments are recounted
and their condemnation on the day of judgment confirmed (5:10-11), Jub
5:12 states that God "made a new and righteous nature for all his creatures
so that they would not sin with their whole nature until eternity. Everyone
will be righteous — each according to his kind — for all time" (emphasis
mine). This re-creation or renewal of human nature may seem puzzling in
the aftermath of the antediluvian upheavals. However, it is not unqualified:
the writer allows for a propensity to sin within human beings while main
taining that the punishment of the watchers and their offspring addressed
something within humanity that had gone irretrievably awry on account of
them. Jubilees thus hints at, but does not develop, a theological anthropol
ogy that views the human race as a whole as having been affected by the an
gelic rebellion, a consequence that is partially dealt with through God's re
storative activity.
iii. While the punishment through the flood and intramural violence