nora
(Nora)
#1
Amplified Roles, Idealized Depictions: Women in the Book of Jubilees
ception of Isaac (Jub 26:1-13; Gen 27:1-17) seems understandable within Jubi
lees in light of Abraham's directives concerning Jacob (Jub 19:16-30). In sum,
Rebekah is the impeccable matriarch with no awkward history.
Moreover, an outstanding aspect to the story of this biblical figure is
Rebekah's extensive blessing for Jacob, which, as John Endres observes, is the
longest in Jubilees.^10 For Endres, Jubilees' shaping of Rebekah recalls the role
of a prophetess; for Halpern-Amaru, Jubilees emphasizes Rebekah's mater
nal concern and promotes her as partner in an ideal marriage.^11 In any
event, the portrait of Rebekah is a sympathetic one according to the Weltan
schauung of Jubilees, as the matriarch even appears to outshine Isaac in this
work.^12 Matriarchs like Sarah and Rebekah enjoy elevated roles in Jubilees,
according to Halpern-Amaru, because they are partners with their husbands
in promoting and safeguarding the covenant, in addition to being wives and
mothers of patriarchs.^13
Also, the portraits of women in Jubilees are often keyed to exegesis. Of
ten the reworkings provide additional information about female figures
when the biblical text requires clarification or when divergent biblical tradi
tions might suggest the need for reconciliation.^14 Such dynamics seem to
stand behind the developing portraits of several women in large measure. For
example, how does one account for God creating the human being, male and
female, in his image according to Gen 1:26-28 and then creating first Adam in
Gen 2:7 and then Eve at a later time from Adam's rib (Gen 2:21-25)? The book
of Jubilees clarifies the discrepancy: the man and woman were created in the
first week of creation, which corresponds to the events of Gen 1 (Jub 2:14); on
the sixth day of the second week, the woman is taken out of man, completed
and presented to him (Jub 3:8).^15 This harmonization of creation accounts,
which allows Adam's earlier appearance, also provides an etiology for the law
renness of Sarah (cf. Gen 11:30). Though the motif of barrenness serves well the purposes of
Genesis, it does not conform to the aims or concerns of Jubilees and thus is ignored. The
topic does emerge, however, with the introduction of Hagar as a surrogate wife (cf. Jub 14:21-
24). Loader, 251.
10. Endres, Biblical Interpretation, 84.
11. Respectively, Biblical Interpretation, 84, and Empowerment of Women, 60-61,63.
12. See, for example, Endres, Biblical Interpretation, 83-84,217-18.
13. Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 5,55-64.
14. Cf., for example, Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 6,133-46.
15. Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 11. Cf. also van Ruiten, Primaeval His
tory Interpreted: The Rewriting of Genesis 1-11 in the Book of Jubilees, JSJSup 66 (Leiden: Brill,
2000), 75, and J. R. Levison, Portraits of Adam in Early Judaism from Sirach to 2 Baruch,
JSPSup 1 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press [JSOT], 1988), 90-91. 214-15 n. 10.
