John C. Endres, S.J.
riods: "God's judgement over the created world, God's victory over evil, the
complete eradication of evil, and the triumph of God's people."^11 Michael
Knibb presents a larger cluster of characteristics familiar from second tem
ple Jewish literature.^12 These include: the idea of a final judgment where the
righteous will be rewarded and the wicked punished; the idea of a last great
battle with forces of evil; descriptions (in the form of blessings) of the bless
ings of the new age; the expectation of a new Jerusalem; rules for ordering
life in a new age; an explanation for the delay in expected time of the end;
belief in resurrection of the dead; messianic beliefs. I will indicate the pres
ence of several of these motifs in the Jubilees' texts to be considered.
II. Eschatological Texts Par Excellence
Scholars of Jubilees generally identify two lengthy texts with strong eschato
logical language and content.^13 The first is God's message to Moses on Mount
Sinai, in 1:^-29 (a narrative with clear roots in Exod 24). It follows the mes
sage in the prologue, that we have here "the words regarding the divisions of
the times of the law and of the testimony, of the events of the years, of the
weeks of their jubilees throughout all the years of eternity as he related (them)
to Moses on Mt. Sinai when he went up to receive the stone tablets" (prologue,
first part).^14 The second passage is the apocalypse in Jub 23:14-31, which fol
lows the death of Abraham (23:1-8). I will describe and discuss each text, sug
gest some common themes and patterns, and indicate ways in which they offer
a perspective through which one can view the entire book of Jubilees.
- Xeravits, King, Priest, Prophet, 3.
- M. Knibb, "Eschatology and Messianism in the Dead Sea Scrolls," in The Dead Sea
Scrolls after Fifty Years: Volume II, ed. P. Flint and J. VanderKam (Leiden, Boston, and Co
logne: Brill, 1999), 379-402 (here 381-82). - J. VanderKam, "The End of the Matter? Jubilees 50:6-13 and the Unity of the
Book," in Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity, and Tradition in Ancient Judaism, ed.
L. LiDonnici and A. Lieber, JSJSup (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007), 267-84 (esp. 267-72).
VanderKam, 270, notes that "the passages which Testuz considered additions were eschato
logical ones," i.e., 1:7-25,28; 23:11-32; and 24:28^30; cf. M. Testuz, Les idees religieuses du Livre
des Jubiles (Geneva: Librairie E. Droz; Paris: Librairie Minard, 1960), 39-40. VanderKam ex
amines a third passage, Jub 50:6-13, also considered eschatological (VanderKam, 270). The
salient point is the identification of "odd" passages as likely candidates for the presentation
of an eschatological vision in this book. - Unless otherwise noted, all translations are from J. VanderKam, trans., The Book of
Jubilees, CSCO 88 (Louvain: Peeters, 1989), hereafter VanderKam, Jubilees.