The secrets of the calendar lost Book of Jubilees

Few sentences say so much as this:

“In the Book of Jubilees, the story is the visible manifestation of a time already written in heaven.”
— James C. VanderKam, a historian of judaism of the Second Temple

1. General introduction

The Book of Jubileesalso known as “Little Genesis” (Leptogenesis in Greek) or “Revelation of Moses”, is a reprocessing and reinterpretation of Genesis and Exodus.
Its purpose was to preserve and re-interpret the sacred history under a theological framework and chronological different: the jubilee timein cycles of 49 years (7×7), according to the mosaic law of Leviticus 25.

It was drafted in a context where the jewish identity was threatened by the hellenistic influence. The text offers a vision strictly legalistic and priestly of the story, emphasizing the purity, the observance of law and the separation of the chosen people of the gentile nations.

2. Authorship, date and historical context

Source

The scholars agree that it was composed in Hebrew to mid-second century a.C. (between 160 and 140 to.C.)during the period hasmoneo (time of the Maccabees).
The copies found at Qumran —around 15-fragments— confirm your antiquity and its dissemination among the essenes.

Authorship likely

It is unknown to the author, but is attributed to a scribe or priest, levitewith a deep training in the Torah and in apocalyptic literature. The aim was to offer a version purified from the biblical storyfree from the ambiguities of the masoretic text.

Ideological context

The book reflects the cultural resistance and religious jewish before the hellenization.
Critical alliances with pagans and proposes a strict observance of the laws mosaic as a safeguard of the people. His tone is nationalist, exclusivist and legalisticwith a marked vision angelológica and cosmic.

3. Content and structure

The Book of Jubilees covers the history from the Creation of the world until the giving of the Law at Sinai (as the Genesis and the Exodus), but the rewrites with a chronological framework based on jubilees.

General structure

• Chapters 1-2: Revelation to Moses at Sinai. God commands that you record all the history in “tables celestial”.
• Chapters 3-23: Rewriting of Genesis: from Adam to the death of Abraham.
• Chapters 24-50: From Jacob until the giving of the Law.

Each event is dated with precision: years, weeks, and the jubilees.
Example: “In the second year of the first week of the first jubilee, Adam was created”.

4. Theological themes main

1. The sacred time and jubilees

The text introduces a system of chronology sacred: the history of the world is divided into cycles of 49 years old.
This system is not symbolic: it is the cosmic structure of the time it was revealed to Moses by angels.

2. The angels and the tables celestial

The angels of the presence and angels of sanctification act as guardians of the divine order, and of the knowledge.
The “copy heavenly” of the story —the tables celestial— contains the eternal plan of God, which Moses received at Sinai.

3. The sin and the purity

Jubilees intensifies the concern for the ritual purity and moral, especially around the marriage, the power and the calendar.
The sin of the Watchers (fallen angels who joined to human women, cf. Enoch 6-11) occupies a central place as the source of the corruption of the world.

4. The solar calendar

One of the most controversial issues: the book imposes a solar calendar of 364 daysin opposition to the lunar calendar adopted by judaism officer.
This calendar was key to the essenes of Qumran and secured the celebration exact the holidays without depend upon astronomical observations or authorities of priests.

5. The election of Israel

The text praises the everlasting covenant between God and Israel, pre-existing even before the creation.
Abraham is presented as model of perfect obedience, and Jacob as the legitimate heir in front of Esau, a symbol of the nations.

5. Manuscripts and transmission of textual

In Qumran

Found more than a dozen fragments the Book of Jubilees between Dead Sea scrolls (Cuevas 1, 2, 3, 4, 11).
These fragments are written in Hebrew, confirming that the text it was not originally Greekbut a document jew of Palestine.

Translations later

• Ethiopian (Gender ez): is the version the most complete and well preserved- the basis of all modern editions.
• Greek and Latin: are retained only fragments.
• Syriac: some short passages.

In the Church Ethiopian Orthodox, the Book of Jubilees is canon and is included in its Old Testament.

6. Relationship with other apocryphal texts and biblical

• With the Genesis and Exodus: rewrites both, adding legal interpretations and chronological.
• With the Book of Enoch: you share theology and mythology angelológica. Both of them circulated at Qumran.
• With the samaritan Pentateuch: it shares its emphasis on ritual purity, and on mount Gerizim.
• With the New Testament: indirectly influences in authors such as Luke and Paul, especially on the notions of “bygone days”, “tables celestial” and “predestination”.

7. Doctrines and specific laws

The Book of Jubilees imposes an interpretation the more rigid of the Torah, in which:

• The holidays are pre-set from the creation.
• The Saturday it is cosmic, observed even by the angels.
• The circumcision it is eternal, not merely human.
• The clean and unclean animals are known from Adam, not from Moses.
• The idolatry it is the worst of sins, the root of the pollution of the world.

8. Influence in jewish thought and christian

Judaism

Although rejected by the canon rabbinical influence in communities like Qumran. Its emphasis on the solar calendar, the purity and the observance of the Law anticipates the rules of the Rule of the Community (1QS).

Early christianity

Some topics jubilee —the creation, the chronology of the world, the eternal sabbath— is reflected in authors such as Epistle of Barnabas, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyon.
The idea of a celestial Law pre-existing influenced the theology of the Logos.

9. The theological message and its ultimate purpose

The Book of Jubilees seeks not only to narrate: search reorder the sacred history according to a model perfect, eternal and revealed.
Your message can be summarised as follows:

“Human history is the imperfect copy of a story heavenly already written.”

The text tries restore the sanctity of the time, the Law and the genealogyin opposition to the chaos world's moral hellenistic.

10. Value historical and academic

For historians and biblical scholars, the Book of Jubilees is:

• A crucial source for understanding the judaism of the Second Temple.
• A direct link between the Torah and apocalyptic literature.
• A testimony of the diversity of jewish thought before the biblical canon definitive.

11. Summary

12. Conclusion

The Book of Jubilees it is a a fundamental part of the religious thought intertestamentario.
Acts as a bridge between biblical judaism and the apocalyptic, between history and prophecy, between the human and the divine time.
Provides a cosmological vision of the sacred order, where every human act —from the Saturday until the genealogy— echoes, eternal in the “tables of the sky”.