Kelley Coblentz Bautch
that while it may be impossible to determine whether Jubilees relied on a
source, it is clear that these names contribute to and function within the nar
rative and assist in defining unions and a family or generation.^27
Kinship also communicates information about respective unions. As
Halpern-Amaru observes, "The level of kinship relation between husband
and wife... begins at the closest degree of consanguinity and progressively
moves further out."^28 It is important for the author that endogamy is at
work from the beginning of the family line. Thus, the initial marriages from
Seth to Azura (Jub 4:11) and Kenan to Mualelit (4:14) are brother-sister
unions. This ensures that the family need not intermarry with Cainites.^29
Thereafter, as the descendants of Seth have grown and the number of
women available within the family has increased, marriages occur between
first cousins.^30 Attention to close kinship wanes by the fifteenth generation,
such that the line of Shem is diluted by irregular unions. To signal a return to
order, the brother-sister union reappears (thus, Abram's marriage to Sarai
[Jub 12:9]). Once endogamous relations are reestablished in this manner,
cousin marriages, such as that of Isaac to Rebekah (Jub 19:10) and Jacob to
Leah and Rachel (27:10; 28:1-10), resume.^31
Such unions cannot afford to be casually undertaken. To give one ex
ample, Halpern-Amaru has observed that in its retelling of the story of the
watchers who mate with women, Jubilees emphasizes that the sin of the
watchers consists of their marriage to whomever they chose;^32 that point —
that the watchers selected mates according to their preferences (Jub 7:21) —
Wives," 113-14); cf. Jub 4:28, 33. Similarly the Animal Apocalypse lists the name of Enoch's
wife as Edna (1 En 85:3), not entirely dissimilar from Jubilees' Edni (Jub 4:20); see van
Ruiten, Primaeval History Interpreted, 123; Rook, no, and also below.
- Rook, "Names of the Wives," 106.
- Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 149.
- See, for example, Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 19, and "The First
Woman," 617. - The descendant would marry the daughter of their father's brother or sister (for
example, Malalael marries Dinah, presented as the daughter of Barakiel, the brother of
Malalael's father [Jub 4:15!). - Cf. Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 34-37. In this instance, one might
think Jubilees to be addressing the scenes of Gen 12:11-13 and 20:2 in which Abram presents
Sarai as his sister. Halpern-Amaru suggests that since Jubilees does not feature a deception
when Abram is in Egypt (Sarai was taken by force and there is no reference to their relation
ship as siblings) and omits the account of Abram in Gerar altogether, the intent does not
seem to be the clarification of the biblical text. Cf. Halpern-Amaru, 36. - Halpern-Amaru, Empowerment of Women, 22, 147.