Eschatological Impulses in Jubileesgo to the place of judgment" (22:22b). In this afterlife the deceased have "no
hope in the land of the living and no remembrance of them after death."^28
After this speech the two of them lay down, Jacob sleeping "in the bosom of
his grandfather Abraham" (22:26). Abraham blessed him again (22:27-30),
and then Abraham expires, attended only by Jacob, who is not aware of his
death until he awakens to find his grandfather "cold as ice" (23:3).
So Jubilees has greatly altered the flow of the story, with many family
events occurring after the birth of Esau and Jacob but before Abraham's
death. The author may have discovered an exegetical anomaly in the Genesis
text, i.e., that the narrative flow of events does not correspond to the chro
nology discerned in the (priestly) text of Genesis.^29 These changes also serve
to heighten the positive characterization of Abraham, which is very impor
tant for Jubilees at this point of the account. The additional stories about
Abraham and his family in Jubilees almost force the author to explain why
Abraham, "perfect with the Lord in everything that he did," lived a much
shorter life than the ancients had. Before the flood, their lives generally ex
tended nineteen jubilees (19 x 49 = 931 years), but Abraham dies after only
175 years ("three jubilees and four weeks of years"; 3 x 49 plus 4x7 years).
The new eschatological section will offer a solution to this problem: the in
crease of evil in the world has inevitably led to a shorter life span for hu
mans. No clearer indicator of the evil can be imagined than their shorter life
span (Jub 23:11), especially as they "grow old quickly" before "the great day
of judgment!' Another and more devastating problem is that "knowledge
will leave them because of their old age" (v. 11). In this literary buildup to the
Apocalypse (w. 14-31), the readers already encounter the eschatological fears
and hopes of the community, especially concerning the day of judgment, a
shorter life span (one and one-half jubilees), and the premature loss of
knowledge. The years they live will be plagued by "difficulties, toil, and dis
tress without peace" (v. 12) deriving from injuries and blows they will receive
continually as punishments (v. 13).
One approach to this text is to attend to the rewriting and redaction of
biblical traditions in this eschatological section of the text.^30 Traditions from
Jer 6:23a (Jub 23:23b) and Deut 28:49-50 (Jub 23:23) and Ps 79:2 (Jub 23:23)
allowed this author to meditate on the message from the angel and to reflect
- Endres, Biblical Interpretation, 45.
- For details, cf. Endres, Biblical Interpretation, 24. The author of Jubilees may have
been following a priestly chronology. - Endres, Biblical Interpretation, 52-62.