Annette Yoshiko Reed
- Himmelfarb, A Kingdom of Priests, 51-84.
cine, calendar, laws, human history, the beginning of time, and the end of
the world.
As with its concerns for Jewish temptations to apostasy, this concern
may well resonate with the temptations posed by Hellenistic culture in par
ticular. In light of its calendar and its status at Qumran, Jubilees has often
been culled for hints of inner-Jewish schisms and debates. Yet, far from ex
alting a righteous remnant, Jubilees depicts Israel as a unified whole — so
much so, in fact, that the sins of individuals threaten to defile the entire peo
ple.^41 Perhaps tellingly, the only Jews actively excluded from the bounds of
Israel are those who exclude themselves, by choosing to abandon the marks
of Jewish separateness (e.g., circumcision, Sabbath, endogamy). Like the an
gels who lingered too long on earth in the days before the flood, some of the
author's contemporaries may have found themselves tempted to join
Gentiles in meals, marriage, festivals, and friendship. To them, Jubilees re
veals the cosmic ramifications of such seemingly mundane acts: to follow
"the ways of the nations" is to trade away the status of angels for the rule of
demons.