Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

The Festivals of Pesah and Massot in the Book of Jubilees

In a mismarot-like division, the Jubilees exegesis separates day and
night into three parts, with the last third of the day and first third of the
night both termed "evening." Hence "between the evenings" refers to the
period of time between the evening of the day and the end of the evening of
the day, i.e., "from the third part of the day until the third part of the night"
(Jub 49:10). The offering is to be sacrificed "in the boundary of the evening"
of the day (49:12), a time frame refined in 49:19 by a phrase from Deut 16:6,
WAWH ("in the evening when the sun sets"). Notably, that

same phrase is employed in the prescription of Jub 49:1 to denote the time
of the eating of the pesah. Still, the exegesis remains consistent. Under­
standing TTHTYN NIDD DTJ/D as when the sun begins its descent (the eve­
ning of the day), the command in the Pesah statute combines the phrase
with "in the third part of the day" (fub 49:19) to denote the time for the sac­
rifice, i.e., the eighth hour of the day.^25 Conversely, treating the phrase as re­
ferring to the time when the sun completes its descent (the evening of the
night), the prescription in Jub 49:1 combines it with "at night," an allusion
to Deut 16:1, to denote the time for the eating. A comparable time frame for
the eating is given in the Pesah statute (Jub 49:12). The sacrifice is to be
eaten "during the evening hour(s) until the third part of the night," i.e., the
eighth hour of the night, with its end point emphasized by an emended ver­
sion of Exod 12:10.^26

Prescriptive Recollection of Massot

The Jubilees treatment of Massot is immediately appended to the Pesah stat­
ute. Indeed, within the same verse, the Pesah statute closes with a restate­
ment of the command for a commemoration that spans two dates (Jub
49:22a)^27 and Massot is introduced as a commemoration of the seven re-

25. The argument from the plural of evening is unique to Jubilees; but the extension
    of time for the sacrifice is also found in Philo (Laws 2.145) and rabbinic literature (Mekilta
    Bo 5; m. Pesahim 5:1).


26. "You shall not leave any of it over until morning; if any of it is left until morning,
    you shall burn it" (Exod 12:10). "Any of its meat that is left over from the third part of the
    night and beyond is to be burned" (Jub 49:12).


27. The restatement, like all the date-related legislation in the statute, employs coded
    terminology — "Now you Moses order the Israelites to keep the statute of the pesah as it was
    commanded to you so that you may tell them... the day of the days (lit.)," i.e., the day
    (date) of the sacrifice and the day (date) of the eating.