Erik Larson
to demons (22:17-22). It is difficult to see how the worship of people who are
described in these terms could ever be acceptable to God.^17
Far less space is devoted to Isaac than to either Abraham or Jacob in
Genesis. The same is true in Jubilees. One addition Jubilees does make in its
account of Isaac is his celebration of the Feast of Weeks with Abraham just
before his death, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Although both
Ishmael and Isaac come to Hebron, it is Isaac who slaughters the sacrifice on
his father's altar there. And it is Isaac who prepares "a joyful feast in front of
his brother Ishmael" (Jub 22:3-4). The passive involvement of Ishmael shows
the future course of his descendants away from the service of God. This may
also explain why in Jub 20:1-9 Abraham commands both Ishmael and Isaac
to circumcise their children and worship the Most High God rather than
idols, although in Jub 15:30, in the midst of another passage dealing with cir
cumcision, the revealing angel says God did not choose to give the covenant
to Ishmael or Esau, but chose Israel instead.
This writing out of the Gentiles by the author of Jubilees continues in
the narrative about Jacob. This may be seen when Jacob leaves Haran and is
pursued by his father-in-law Laban. In Gen 31:53 Laban and Jacob swear an
oath by "the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor." But Jubilees simply
says, "Jacob swore to Laban and Laban to Jacob" (Jub 29:7). Also, in Jubilees
Jacob does not ask his kinsfolk to help build the heap of stones that is to
stand as a witness between himself and Laban (Jub 29:8). Jacob is thus
cleared of involvement in any act that might connect him with the religion
of his father-in-law, who after all was a pagan.^18
Most significant is the retelling of the story of Dinah's rape by Shechem
and the revenge taken by Levi and Simeon. Two points stand out. First, in Ju
bilees, immediately after the basic story has been told, the angel of the pres
ence, who is relating it to Moses, breaks in to give a discourse about the evil of
intermarriage. He warns: "If one does this or shuts his eyes to those who do
impure things and who defile the Lord's sanctuary and to those who profane
his holy name, then the entire nation will be condemned together because of
all this impurity and this contamination. There will be no favoritism nor par-
- Cf. also Jub 15:26-34 where, although it is stated that all nations belong to God
(v. 31), circumcision is given to Israel in order to make them like the angels who were created
circumcised (v. 27). All those not part of this human-angelic assembly, i.e., the Gentiles, are
destined for destruction. If true worship is to imitate or join with the angels, then it would
seem the Gentiles are excluded from it. - Cf. also Jub 31:2, which explicitly says the idols Rachel stole from her father were
destroyed later on.