Eschatological Impulses in Jubilees
John C. Endres, S.J.
The book of Jubilees presents itself as a "history" of Israel through the per
spective of Moses. It begins at Mount Sinai (Exod 24) with the revelation to
Moses by God, who tells him that Israel would stray from the covenant they
had just concluded with God; they would sin and be punished until they re
pented and returned to God. This course of events would serve to demon
strate God's great mercy in dealing with Israel. Later in chap. 1 God tells Mo
ses to write down this entire message, which an angel of presence would
dictate to him from the (heavenly) tablets on which this entire story was al
ready inscribed. This angel proceeds to recount Israel's life and history from
the creation of the world to the first Passover of the Hebrews in Egypt (Gen 1
through Exod 24). Much of this book reads like a work of "rewritten Bible,"
retelling the biblical tradition with a particular focus on the lives of the pa
triarchs and matriarchs as the setting for Israel's self-identity. As this author
retells the ancient story, his emphases inculcate a number of important mo
tifs, including: the covenant between God and the people, the laws that allow
people to remain faithful covenant partners, the significant Jewish festivals
of the year, the solar calendar by which they should be calculated and ob
served, clear notions about the spirit world and demons, and the importance
of prayer to God. One could think of it as a theological history whose ideol
ogy is clearly discerned from the way it rewrites earlier sources. Scholars
have excavated this text for information on many aspects of early Jewish life
in the second century B.C.E. Studies of its halakah, of course, concern corre
spondences with the different religious groupings of the era, but the signifi-