Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

David W. Suter

pie to be built on Mount Zion by God's hands at the end of days. The Apoca

lypse of Weeks in 1 Enoch is similar to the Animal Apocalypse. It treats the

generation of the restoration as an apostate generation, does not mention

the second temple at all, and anticipates God's building the eschatological

temple at the end of days.

Although there is no direct reference to Jeremiah's prophecy in Jubi

lees, the book reflects the same understanding of the second temple and the

eschatological temple that appears in the Animal Apocalypse and the Apoc

alypse of Weeks in 1 Enoch. In Jub 1, the restoration of the temple on Mount

Zion is treated as an eschatological rather than a "historical" event. The pres

ent of the writer is one of the sons of Israel going astray among the Gentiles.

He anticipates the time when Israel, among the Gentiles, will repent and be

restored to the land, and when God will create a clean heart within them for

all eternity. Twice it is said that God will build his sanctuary on Mount Zion

for all eternity. With the rebuilding of the temple, God will be king on

Mount Zion for all eternity. The heavenly bodies will be renewed for peace

and blessing, and God will defend his people from the Gentiles. While it is

possible to read the passage as referring to the restoration of the second tem

ple, its general tenor is eschatological, written during the time of the second

temple with the implication that the restoration is yet to happen.

Beyond chap. 1, Knibb finds this treatment of the second temple and

the eschatological temple implied elsewhere in Jubilees. In Rebecca's blessing

of Jacob in 25:14-22, the matriarch prays that God will dwell with his people

and that his sanctuary will be built in their midst for all ages (see 25:21b).

The eschatological passage in Jub 23:8-32 asserts that the "evil generation" of

v. 14 will "defile the holy of holies through the impure corruption of their

contamination" (v. 21).^16 The reference to defiling the Holy of Holies Knibb

takes as implicating the high priest in the corruption. He interprets the cor

ruption as involving illegitimate marriages, implied by the allusion to sexual

impurity (reflecting the Hebrew zenuth) and contamination in w. 14 and 21

(cf. Jub 30:15, where the author warns that marriages with foreigners will de

file the Lord's sanctuary). Knibb relates the polemic to the one in the Book

of the Watchers in 1 Enoch^17 and observes that Jubilees reflects the perspec

tive of dissident priests opposed to the Jerusalemite priesdy establishment.^18

Knibb, "Temple and Cult," 410.

See my study of the polemic in D. W. Suter, "Fallen Angel, Fallen Priest: The Prob
lem of Family Purity in 1 Enoch 6-16," HUCA 50 (1979): 115-35.

Knibb, "Temple and Cult," 409-10.