The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees

In spite of some scholars inclination to include the book of Jubilees as another witness to Enochic Judaism, the relationship of Jubilees to the apocalyptic writings and events surrounding the Maccabean revolt has never been adequately clarified. This book builds on scholarship on genre to establish a clear pattern among the ways Jubilees resembles and differs from other apocalypses. Jubilees matches the apocalypses of its day in overall structure and literary morphology. Jubilees also uses the literary genre to raise the issues typical of the apocalypses including revelation, angels and demons, judgment, and eschatology but rejects what the apocalypses typically say about those issues, subverting reader expectations with a corrected view. In addition to the main argument concerning Jubilees, this volume's survey of what is fundamentally apocalyptic about apocalyptic literature advances the understanding of early Jewish apocalyptic literature and in turn, of later apocalypses and comparable perspectives, including those of Paul and the Qumran sectarians.

Introduction

The book of Jubilees was written at a crossroads in Jewish history. In the 

wake of the Maccabean revolt, the most fundamental issues of Jewish 

identity, practice, and authority were fiercely debated. Over time, multiple 

positions emerged, none of which matched the claims of Jubilees per-

fectly. Those who did accept the authority of Jubilees were at the margins 

of the Jewish, and later Christian, intellectual worlds. Thanks mostly to 

the church of Ethiopia and the caves at Qumran, the book was preserved 

remarkably well for modern scholars. Since the nineteenth century, and 

increasingly in recent years, Jubilees has been a rich resource for many 

areas of inquiry in early Judaism. The book is unrivaled for length and 

coherence in the period. For example, Jubilees is almost twice the length of 

Sirach1 and seems to have undergone less revision since the original com-

position. Among those many pages, scholars consistently find something 

of interest to almost any inquiry. 

Among the wealth of information, Jubilees sometimes sends mixed 

signals. Among the diversity of scholarly perspectives, confusion some-

times results. One area of confusion was identified early in the modern 

study of Jubilees and remains unresolved: the relationship of Jubilees to 

contemporary apocalypses such as 1 Enoch and Daniel. Although some 

scholars do not hesitate to put Jubilees and 1 Enoch in the same category, 

and others study Jubilees at length without observing anything apocalyp-

tic about it, most scholars are aware of the tenuous connection. At times 

Jubilees sounds very much like an apocalypse, and at other times not at 

all. Points of similarity and difference are often noted, but without a criti-

1. The comparison is based on the word count of James C. VanderKam’s trans-

lation of Jubilees (48,337 words; see The Book of Jubilees [2 vols.; CSCO 510–511; 

Leuven: Peeters, 1989], vol. 2) and the nrsv translation of Sirach (without the pro

THE SUBVERSION OF THE APOCALYPSES IN JUBILEES

cal standard for prioritizing one feature over another. In order to move 

forward, unexamined assumptions need to be examined, definitions need 

to be clarified, and layers of abstraction distinguished. Fortunately, the 

essential tools have already been established. This study will apply those 

tools to Jubilees, with surprising results. Out of the confusion emerges a 

clear and consistent pattern.

The similarities between Jubilees and the apocalypses lie at the level 

of the literary genre. Jubilees meets every morphological requirement of 

the genre as defined by Semeia 14.2 The differences lie at the level of ideas, 

the claims made about the elements of the morphology. Jubilees radically 

subverts the most basic claims made by the apocalypses. The use of the 

literary genre raises the issues, but Jubilees rejects the typical positions on 

those issues. This can be seen in the three major parts of the definition of 

the literary genre: transcendence on the spatial axis, transcendence on the 

temporal axis, and the revelatory framework.

Every apocalypse, by definition, deals with transcendence on the spa-

tial axis, such as invisible agents, instruments, and places of judgment. 

Jubilees talks about demons, sinful watchers, angelic princes of nations, 

and a cosmic figure evocative of Satan. Typically, apocalypses raise these 

issues because they explain the experience of evil and suffering in the vis-

ible world.3 These agents temporarily interfere with the expected relation-

ship between God and the righteous. In Jubilees they have no relevance for 

the righteous. Ancient sin has no enduring effects for Israel. Demons and 

angelic princes afflict other nations, but Israel has full immunity as long as 

it stays away from Gentiles. 

Similarly, every apocalypse deals with transcendence on the tempo-

ral axis. They address themes such as protology, eschatology, or the struc-

ture and meaning of history. They often include particular motifs such as 

final woes, a day of judgment, and a new creation. Jubilees consistently 

deals with protology and the structure and meaning of history. Chapter 23 

deals with eschatology most explicitly, and essential language and motifs 

of judgment and new creation pervade the book. Typically, the transcen-

dent view of the temporal axis conveys the idea that the present moment 

2. John J. Collins, “Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre,” Semeia 14 (1979): 

1–19. The present study follows the basic approach to morphological definition of the 

literary genre “apocalypse” laid out in Semeia 14. Clarifications, refinements, and chal-

lenges to the definition and the basic approach to genre are discussed below in §1.2.

3. See note 73 below for surveys of the ideas typical of the apocalypses.