The Reception of the Book of Exodus in the Book of Jubilees

Lutz Doering

The Book of Jubilees has come to be known as “the Little Genesis” (ἡ λεπτὴ Γένεσις), so it is usually the first book of the Torah that comes to mind when scholars examine the reception of the Pentateuch in Jubilees. Nonetheless, the Book of Exodus plays an important role in Jubilees structurally, conceptually, materially, and linguistically.

1 The Narrative Setting of Jubilees As Reflective of the Book’s Exodus Reception

Jubilees is usually regarded as an example of “Rewritten Bible” or, less anachro- nistically speaking, “Rewritten Scripture.” Despite some recent debate about this label—and whether Jubilees neatly fits into it—this can still be taken to be a helpful category.1 However, it is insufficient to look merely for the develop- ment of any lager blocks of the Exodus narrative as rewritten in Jubilees. Such an approach has led some earlier scholars to the assertion that Jubilees rewrites the material from Genesis 1 (creation; cf. Jub. 1–2) to Exodus 12 (exodus and passover; cf. Jub. 48–49).2 This is of course true, but it is only part of the evi- dence.

1 For Jubilees as a piece of “Rewritten Scripture,” see James C. VanderKam, “Recent Scholarship on the Book of Jubilees,” cbr 6 (2008): 405–431, esp. 409–410, who speaks of “that elastic category ‘Rewritten Scripture’” (409). Cf. the general evaluation of the category by Sidnie White Crawford, Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 1–14, referring to recent debate, and her treatment of Jubilees at 60–83. John J. Collins, “The Genre of the Book of Jubilees,” in A Teacher for All Generations: Essays in Honor of James C. VanderKam (ed. Eric F. Mason et al.; JSJSup 153; Leiden: Brill, 2011), 737–755, considers Jubilees “a hybrid work” (754) and suggests viewing it “in the context both of rewritten narrative and of apocalypses” (755). 2 E.g., Eberhard Schwarz, Identität durch Abgrenzung: Abgrenzungsprozesse in Israel im. vor- christlichen Jahrhundert und ihre traditionsgeschichtlichen Voraussetzungen. Zugleich ein Bei- trag zur Erforschung des Jubiläenbuches (ehs 162; Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1982), 17, and litera- ture cited at 156 n. 1.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/9789004282667_021 486 doering

Importantly, the setting of Jubilees is at Mount Sinai, where the angel of presence dictates to Moses an account from the creation until the entry into the land of Israel, with a preview of a salvific future (cf. Jub. 50:5) comprising the establishment of the eschatological “Temple of the Lord” in Jerusalem (cf. Jub. 1:27, 29).3 The wording of Jub. 1:1–4 suggests that this setting of Jubilees is modeled after Exod 24:12–18:4

Jub. 1:1–4 Exod 24:12–18

1 During the first year of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, in the third month—on the sixteenth of the month— the Lord said to Moses: “Come up to me 12 The Lord said to Moses: “Come up to on the mountain. I will give you the me on the mountain, and wait there; and two stone tablets of the law and the I will give you the tablets of stone and commandments which I have written so the law and the commandment, which I that you may teach them.” have written to teach them.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant 2 So Moses went up the mountain of the Joshua, and Moses went up into the Lord. mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”

3 The details of this future and the question of whether or not Jub. 1:27, 29 belongs to the original composition of Jubilees are debated among scholars; see my brief discussion in Lutz Doering, “Urzeit-Endzeit Correlation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Pseudepigrapha,” in Eschatologie— Eschatology: The Sixth Durham-Tübingen Research Symposium. Eschatology in Old Testament, Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (Tübingen, September, 2009) (ed. Hans-Joachim Eck- stein, Christof Landmesser, and Hermann Lichtenberger; wunt 272; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 19–58, esp. 33–36. 4 The establishment of the text of, and English translations from, Jubilees follow (with slight variations) James C. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees (2 vols.; csco 510/511, Scriptores Aethio- pici 87/88; Leuven: Peeters, 1989). English translations of biblical texts follow, with adapta- tions, the nrsv.