Kelley Coblentz Bautch
of the parturient of Lev 12:1-5: women remain impure for seven days after the
birth of a male child and fourteen days for a female child (Jub 3:8).^16
Jubilees' commitment to particular theological positions or to polemi
cal views also affects the representations of biblical women. For example, Ju
bilees elaborates upon Gen 35:22 (cf. also Gen 49:4 and 1 Chron 5:1), which
only briefly notes sexual relations between Reuben and Bilhah. The account
in Jubilees not only clarifies the nature of the encounter, but also entirely ex
culpates Bilhah. Jub 33:2-8 makes clear that Bilhah does not participate in
any way in the encounter; she is innocent. In fact, Jubilees defends Bilhah by
presenting her as a victim of rape.^17 There may be a responsibility, however,
to defend Bilhah as mother of Naphtali, a tribal chief toward whom Jubilees
is sympathetic.^18
Jubilees magnifies women especially through the addition of charac
ters to the genealogical record, women lacking in the biblical narratives.
Wives and mothers of the patriarchs are given names; similarly, paternal lin
eage — in this context, in fact, what amounts to their credentials, per
Halpern-Amaru — is identified.^19 Whereas Genesis does not address the
matter of the wives of Cain and Seth (their identity or origin; cf. Gen 4:17,26;
5:6-7), Jubilees supplies the names of their wives (respectively, Awan [Jub
4:9] and Azura [Jub 4 :11]), who are also presented as their sisters. Addi
tionally, Jubilees includes and names the wives of the patriarchs who de
scend from Seth (cf. Gen 5). The concern for comprehensiveness in listing
the women who are part of the Sethite line is extended throughout Jubilees
(Cain's line is ignored, however, following his death [Jub 4:31-32], and subse
quently the genealogy of Irad to Lamech of Gen 4:18-24 is omitted).^20
The addition of these women addresses omissions in the biblical gene
alogies and also serves polemic purposes as well. Such a concern for compre
hensiveness in the genealogies is tied to heralding proper unions, and mar
riage is no small matter in Jubilees given its emphasis on endogamy.^21 The
- M. Segal, The Book of Jubilees: Rewritten Bible, Redaction, Ideology, and Theology,
JSJSup 117 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 52. - Segal, The Book ofJubilees, 74; cf. Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 110-11.
- Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 108, 118-19.
- Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 4, and "The First Woman, Wives and
Mothers in Jubilees" JBL 113 (1994): 609-26 (here 622). - Van Ruiten, Primaeval History Interpreted, 119, 174-75.
- See, for example, Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 4-5; VanderKam, The
Book of Jubilees, 132; Loader, Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees, 186-96; and also L. Arcari, "The Myth
of the Watchers and the Problem of Intermarriage in Jubilees," Hen 31, no. 1 (2009).