Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

The Relationship between Jubilees and the Early Enochic Books

(VAT 9412). Full explanations of the numerous connections between
Enochic AB and the MUL.APIN texts have been made by Neugebauer and
VanderKam — the details need not detain us here.^5 Suffice it to quote
Neugebauer: "There is no visible trace [in the Enochic AB] of the sophisti­
cated Babylonian astronomy of the Persian or Seleucid-Parthian period."^6

While Neugebauer denies that this information is of any help in dating
the composition of Enochic AB,^7 it seems to this author, at least, that the ab­
sence from AB of any of the advances in ancient Near Eastern astronomy from
the Persian or Hellenistic periods argues for an origin of this literature in the
Babylonian exile. AB may be an appropriation of the astral science of Babylon
to which the Judean scribes/scholars were exposed during this time period.^8

3. External Evidence. Pseudo-Eupolemus seems to know AB. Two frag­
   ments of Pseudo-Eupolemus's work on the Jewish people, cited by Alexan­
   der Polyhistor and preserved in turn by Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History
   9.17.2-9; 18.2), make reference to Enoch's astronomical knowledge. Accord­
   ing to Pseudo-Eupolemus, Enoch (1) was instructed in astrology by the an­
   gels, and so (2) became the first astrologer, and (3) transmitted his knowl­
   edge to Methuselah. These three elements are the basic premises of AB,
   leading to the conclusion that Pseudo-Eupolemus was familiar with the
   work. Pseudo-Eupolemus's date of writing is difficult to establish, but circa
   200 B.C.E. is a reasonable hypothesis.^9 This would again place the terminus
   ad quern of AB in the late third century B.C.E.

The manuscript, internal, and external evidence suggest a date of compo­
sition of Aramaic AB at least in the third century B.C.E. and probably earlier.

B. The Date of the Book of the Watchers

The Book of the Watchers is generally dated circa 200 B.C.E. or earlier, yet af­
ter AB, based on the following data:

5. See discussion in O. Neugebauer and M. Black, The "Astronomical" Chapters of the
   Ethiopic Book of Enoch (72 to 82) (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1981), 11-12, 20; VanderKam,
   Enoch, 92-104.


6. Neugebauer, "Astronomical" Chapters, 4; VanderKam, Enoch, 102.


7. Neugebauer, "Astronomical" Chapters, 4.


8. Cf. VanderKam, Enoch, 101-2; Milik, The Books of Enoch, 12-18; J. Ben-Dov, "The
   Babylonian Lunar Three in Calendrical Scrolls from Qumran," ZA 95 (2005): 104-20, esp. 107-
   8,112; Drawnel, "Some Notes on Scribal Craft and the Origins of the Enochic Literature."


9. VanderKam, Enoch, 85.