The Chronologies of the Apocalypse of Weeks
and the Book of Jubilees
James M. Scott
Both in whole and in part the chronology in the Apocalypse of Weeks (1 En
93:1-10 + 91:11-18) is obviously different from the one in the book of Jubilees,
and it would be easy therefore to assume that the two chronologies are inde
pendent of one another.^1 The main difference between the two works is
clear: although they contain sabbatical chronologies with strong affinities to
Dan 9, which reinterprets the 70 years of Jerusalem's desolation (Jer 29:10) as
seventy "weeks" of years, the respective chronological systems are quite dif
ferent in their overall scope. Whereas the Apocalypse of Weeks encompasses
all of human history within its ten "weeks,"^2 Jubilees heptadically periodizes
only Genesis to Exodus, looking forward to the repossession of the land 40
years hence.^3 VanderKam stresses that although Jubilees interprets the exo-
- Translations of the Apocalypse of Weeks are from George W. E. Nickelsburg and J. C.
VanderKam, trans., 1 Enoch: A New Translation Based on the Hermeneia Commentary (Minne
apolis: Fortress, 2004), 140-43. Translations of the book of Jubilees are from J. C. VanderKam,
trans., The Book of Jubilees, CSCO 511, Scriptores Aethiopici 88 (Louvain: Peeters, 1989). - For a succinct summary of the Apocalypse of Weeks, see J. J. Collins, "From Proph
ecy to Apocalypticism: The Expectation of the End," in The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism,
vol. 1, The Origins of Apocalypticism in Judaism and Christianity, ed. J. J. Collins (New York
and London: Continuum, 2000), 129-61 (esp. 139-40). - For a survey of Jubilees' chronological system, see J. C. VanderKam, The Book of Ju
bilees, Guides to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 9 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
2001), 94-96; VanderKam, "Studies in the Chronology of the Book of Jubilees," in From Rev
elation to Canon: Studies in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Literature, ed. J. C.
VanderKam, JSJSup 62 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 522-44.