Book of Jubilees (Apocrypha) aka the Little Genesis or Leptogenesis - Cain, Moses, Enoch, Nephilim

[Niemand]

Cain's offspring, the Tower of Babel and interbreeding with angels!

Intro
I don't think I've ever read Jubilees right through, but my impression of it is that it retells portions of Genesis. I'm very neutral on the book. I don't get the impression it is inspired, and I don't find most of what I've read particularly memorable. [Pazooka elsewhere talks about how it mentions "angels are born circumcised "... maybe I didn't get to that bit.]

However, board members will find some points of interest in its descriptions of the angels (plus human interbreeding, Tower of Babel, offspring of Cain etc. There is some wild stuff in here!

This is one of the longer Apocryphal works so a lot to chew on.

Canonicity
Jubilees is part of the Ethiopian Tewahedo (Native Church) canon, along with Enoch. The only other church to use it is the Eritrean Tewahedo which is an offshoot of it. The Copts may have used it historically.

It is not considered canon elsewhere. It may have been written in Hebrew originally but that is unclear.

Wikipedia:

[Jubilees] was well known to Early Christians, as evidenced by the writings of Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also utilized by the community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. No complete Greek or Latin version is known to have survived, but the Ge'ez [Ethiopian] version has been shown to be an accurate translation of the versions found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The LDS Bible Dictionary mentions Jubilees in its entry on Apocrypha.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... a?lang=eng

Audiobook
Christopher Glyn has produced two audiobook videos on YouTube. I find him very listenable so have linked his content elsewhere.

Part 1 - 3 hours, 10 mins

Part 2 - 2 hours, 29 mins

Summary

I'll let Britannica do the heavy lifting on this one:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Book-of-Jubilees
Book of Jubilees, also called the Little Genesis, pseudepigraphal work (not included in any canon of scripture), [except Ethiopian?- N] most notable for its chronological schema, by which events described in Genesis on through Exodus 12 are dated by jubilees of 49 years, each of which is composed of seven cycles of seven years. The institution of a jubilee calendar supposedly would ensure the observance of Jewish religious festivals and holy days on the proper dates and, by setting Jews apart from their Gentile neighbours, would emphasize the Old Testament picture of Israel as the covenant community of God.

In addition to paraphrasing and embellishing on Genesis, Jubilees also relates stories explaining the origin of contemporary Jewish laws and customs. An older (hence, to the Hellenistic mind, more sacred) origin is attributed to the Mosaic Law and many of the legal precepts in Leviticus by asserting that the patriarchs in Genesis observed laws and festivals that actually came into existence after the age of the patriarchs.

Jubilees, in its final form, was likely written about 100 BC, though it incorporates much older mythological traditions. Its isolationist religious spirit and its strictness led the Essene sect of Jews at Qumrān in Palestine to quote extensively from it in the Damascus Document, one of their major works. Jubilees is also closely connected with the Genesis Apocryphon, which also parallels Genesis and was favoured by the Qumrān community. Several fragments of the original Hebrew edition of Jubilees were found in the Qumrān library.

Jubilees is preserved in its entirety only in an Ethiopic translation, which was derived from a Greek translation made from the Hebrew. Fragments of the Greek and Hebrew texts are also extant.


Additional info from Wikipedia and possible interrelationship with Book of Enoch:

Jubilees at 4:17-25 records that Enoch "saw in a vision what has happened and what will occur", and the book contains many points of information otherwise found earliest in the Enochian "Animal Apocalypse" (1 Enoch chapters 83-90), such as Enoch's wife being Edna. The Animal Apocalypse claims to predict the Maccabean Revolt (which occurred 167-160 BC) and is commonly dated to that time. The direction of dependence has been controversial, but the consensus since 2008 has been that the Animal Apocalypse came first and Jubilees after.

The Book of Jubilees narrates the genesis of angels on the first day of Creation and the story of how a group of fallen angels mated with mortal females, giving rise to a race of giants known as the Nephilim, and then to their descendants, the Elioud. The Ethiopian version states that the "angels" were in fact the disobedient offspring of Seth (Deqiqa Set), while the "mortal females" were daughters of Cain... Their hybrid children, the Nephilim in existence during the time of Noah, were wiped out by the great flood. Jubilees also states that God granted ten percent of the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim to try to lead mankind astray after the flood.

Jubilees 7:20–29 is possibly an early reference to the Noahide laws.

Jubilees bases its take on Enoch on the "Book of Watchers", 1 Enoch 1–36.
Its sequence of events leading to the Flood match those of the "Dream Visions", 1 Enoch 83–90.

Chat GPT
It seems Chat GPT is aware of this work, although it is interesting what it gets right and wrong. For one, none of the Jews presently use this book, and for another, it omits the Ethiopian connection.

Me: What apocryphal books also talk about Sodom?

Chat GPT: Several apocryphal books, also known as the Deuterocanonical books, mention Sodom and the story of its destruction...

... The Book of Jubilees, is a Jewish work from the Second Temple period that gives an account of the world from the creation to Moses' time. It gives a detailed account of the events that led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, pointing out the sins of the people as the reason behind the destruction.

The book of Enoch, which is considered as a pseudepigrapha (non-canonical) book by most of the Christians and Jewish tradition, also talks about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and it gives a detailed account of the sins of the people of Sodom, mentioning the sins of fornication, sexual immorality, and sexual perversion.

These books are not considered as part of the canon of the Holy Bible by most of the Christian denominations and most of the Jewish tradition.

Mentions on the Forum

Describing the City of Enoch
viewtopic.php?t=67208&hilit=Jubilees

And a second witness from the Book of Jubilees chapter IV:

9. And Cain took ’Âwân his sister to be his wife and she bare him Enoch at the close of the fourth jubilee. And in the first year of the first week of the fifth jubilee, houses were built on the earth, and Cain built a city, and called its name after the name of his son Enoch.

https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jub/jub16.htm

viewtopic.php?p=1339965&hilit=Jubilees#p1339965

The Book of Jubilees fills in the blanks of where I think harakim was going:

[Putting the rest in italics so it is visible]

And Moses was on the Mount forty days and forty nights, and God taught him the earlier and the later history of the division of all the days of the law and of the testimony.
And He said: 'Incline thine heart to every word which I shall speak to thee on this mount, and write them in a book in order that their generations may see how I have not forsaken them for all the evil which they have wrought in transgressing the covenant which I establish between Me and thee for their generations this day on Mount Sinai...
And do thou write for thyself all these words which I declare unto, thee this day, for I know their rebellion and their stiff neck, before I bring them into the land of which I sware to their fathers, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: ' Unto your seed will I give a land flowing with milk and honey.
And they will eat and be satisfied, and they will turn to strange gods, to (gods) which cannot deliver them from aught of their tribulation: and this witness shall be heard for a witness against them. For they will forget all My commandments, (even) all that I command them, and they will walk after the Gentiles, and after their uncleanness, and after their shame, and will serve their gods, and these will prove unto them an offence and a tribulation and an affliction and a snare.
And many will perish and they will be taken captive, and will fall into the hands of the enemy, because they have forsaken My ordinances and My commandments, and the festivals of My covenant, and My sabbaths, and My holy place which I have hallowed for Myself in their midst, and My tabernacle, and My sanctuary, which I have hallowed for Myself in the midst of the land, that I should set my name upon it, and that it should dwell (there).
And they will make to themselves high places and groves and graven images, and they will worship, each his own (graven image), so as to go astray, and they will sacrifice their children to demons, and to all the works of the error of their hearts.
And I will send witnesses unto them, that I may witness against them, but they will not hear, and will slay the witnesses also, and they will persecute those who seek the law, and they will abrogate and change everything so as to work evil before My eyes.
And I will hide My face from them, and I will deliver them into the hand of the Gentiles for captivity, and for a prey, and for devouring, and I will remove them from the midst of the land, and I will scatter them amongst the Gentiles.
And they will forget all My law and all My commandments and all My judgments, and will go astray as to new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances.
And after this they will turn to Me from amongst the Gentiles with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength, and I will gather them from amongst all the Gentiles, and they will seek me, so that I shall be found of them, when they seek me with all their heart and with all their souls.

Peeps also quotes Jubilees here
viewtopic.php?p=1277615&hilit=Jubilees#p1277615
Jubilees 10. Noah's Sons led astray by Evil Spirits; Noah's Prayer; Mastêmâ; Death of Noah (x. 1-17; cf. Gen. ix. 28).
X. 1 And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noah; and to make to err and destroy them.
2. And the sons of Noah came to Noah their father, and they told him concerning the demons which were, leading astray and blinding and slaying his sons' sons.
3. And he prayed before the Lord his God, and said:
God of the spirits of all flesh, who hast shown mercy unto me,
And hast saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood,
And hast not caused me to perish as Thou didst the sons of perdition; For Thy grace hath been great towards me, And great hath been Thy mercy to my soul;
Let Thy grace be lift up upon my sons,
And let not wicked spirits rule over them
Lest they should destroy them from the earth.
4. But do Thou bless me and my sons, that we may increase and multiply and replenish the earth.
5. And Thou knowest how Thy Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, acted in my day: and as for these spirits which are living, imprison them and hold them fast in the place of condemnation, and let them not bring destruction on the sons of thy servant, my God; for these are malignant, and created in order to destroy.
6. And let them not rule over the spirits of the living; for Thou alone canst exercise dominion over them. And let them not have power over the sons of the righteous from henceforth and for evermore."
7. And the Lord our God bade us to bind all.
8. And the chief of the spirits, Mastêmâ, came and said: "Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them hearken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for great is the wickedness of the sons of men."
9. And He said: "Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation."
10. And one of us He commanded that we should teach Noah all their medicines; for He knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness.
11. And we did according to all His words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation, and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the earth.
12. And we explained to Noah all the medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he might heal them with herbs of the earth.
13. And Noah wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine. Thus the evil spirits were precluded from (hurting) the sons of Noah.
14. And he gave all that he had written to Shem, his eldest son; for he loved him exceedingly above all his sons.
15. And Noah slept with his fathers, and was buried on Mount Lûbâr in the land of Ararat.
16. Nine hundred and fifty years he completed in his life, nineteen jubilees and two weeks and five years.
17. And in his life on earth he excelled the children of men save Enoch because of the righteousness, wherein he was perfect. For Enoch's office was ordained for a testimony to the generations of the world, so that he should recount all the deeds of generation unto generation, till the day of judgment.
https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jub/jub24.htm

--
This is part of my ongoing series on Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical works:

1 Esdras inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1343974

2 Esdras (the most relevant book in the Apocrypha?) inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1344302

1 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?t=69454

2 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?t=69468

3 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?t=69496

4 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?t=69515

Book of Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremy/Jeremiah
viewtopic.php?t=69433

Book of Tobit inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1341501

Apocryphal additions to Esther inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1343414

Bel and the Dragon (quoted in full, KJV; inc audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?t=69261

Prayer of Azarias and Hymn of the Three Children (quoted in full KJV, inc. audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?p=1341611

Book of Judith and the Book of Mormon, inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?t=69402

Book of Susanna inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?t=69386

Wisdom of Solomon
viewtopic.php?t=69469

Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus
viewtopic.php?t=69412

Prayer of Mannases (aka Mannaseh; quoted in full KJV, inc. audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?t=69263

Psalm 151 (quoted in full, NRSV)
viewtopic.php?t=63875

Epistle to the Laodiceans (NT, quoted in full Wycliffe's translation, )
viewtopic.php?t=64025

The Book of Odes - this is an Eastern Orthodox work of limited interest, but included for the sake of completeness.
viewtopic.php?t=69470

Outside the Western and Eastern Orthodox Canon...

The Ethiopian canon. This includes brief info on the books of Sinodos, Ethiopian Clement, Ethiopian Covenant, and Didascalia as well as a list of other works in the canon.
viewtopic.php?t=69540

The Book of Enoch
viewtopic.php?t=69577

3 Corinthians (Armenian canon)
viewtopic.php?t=69567

And also:
Antilegomena: the books which barely made it into the Bible - Revelation, the Song of Solomon, Jude, Esther etc.
viewtopic.php?t=69609

[abijah]

right before I saw this thread I was wondering to myself when/if you would get to jubilees

Like I said before, my understanding of the apocrypha is still pretty meager, but based on what things I've heard from what others (who largely know what they're talking about imo), and knowledge-tidbits I've picked up here and there along the way, 'Jubilees' may well likely be among the most accurate of the apocryphal works, as well as among the most important/relevant . It'll likely be among the first texts I dig into once I get around to studying non-canonicals more intently. From what I understand, it (like the Book of Enoch) was a text basically everyone in 2nd-temple era judaism was well familiar-with and factored into their worldview in how they interpreted the Old Testament.

I know I've heard it been brought up multiple times on the Lord of Spirits podcast, usually in the context of explaining the origin/nature/role of evil spirits in the post-Flood era, how they are a 'remnant' of the leftovers from Noah's Flood who try to sort of strike a deal with God (which He accepts) that if He temporarily forbears from banishing them to the abyss, they will afflict those who make sinful choices (a scourge by which God can stir people up into repentance):

Jubilees 10
8And the chief of the spirits, Mastêmâ, came and said: 'Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them harken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for great is the wickedness of the sons of men.'
9 And He said: Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation.'
11 ...all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the earth.

Spoiler

This is sort of put in narrative form, for example, in the book of Jubilees, where, when these spirits—you know, the flood wipes out a lot, and we read in Scripture that the descendants of Abraham, leading up to David, wipe out the rest of the Nephilim, these giants.

[The chief of the spirits] named Mastema in the book of Jubilees goes to God to cut a deal, and sort of says “Well, if you allow some of us to remain in the world and don’t throw all of us into the abyss,” which is where the previous spirits were imprisoned; it says, “If you don’t throw us in the abyss, if you let us remain in the world until the last judgment, we will afflict the wicked, sort of on your behalf. We’ll go and afflict the wicked, and you can use that to bring them to repentance.” They’re kind of cutting this deal: “We’ll only hurt bad people.”

So in the book of Jubilees, God sort of agrees that he will use the evil spirits. Even though they meant it for evil, God uses it for good. But this idea, even though we don’t see it explicitly laid out in the Scriptures, is sort of resident all the way through. Why are they unclean spirits? What makes them unclean?

This is why when Jesus steps on the scene for His earthly ministry that the demons are *surprised* to see Him, as if He wasn't supposed to be there (yet), and they felt impinged on the time that'd been allotted them by God before the Final Judgment to tempt/afflict fallen man:

Matthew 8
28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

It's stuff like this that provides such key context and backdrop for both the Old and New Testaments, in order to see and interpret how ancient Israelites or 2nd-Temple Jews would've understood things.

[abijah]

I happened upon this just now while searching for the lord of spirits quote (same website) and figured it might be worth sharing for any interested:

The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish text from the Second Temple period. As a text, it played a significant role in the religion of the first century AD. Josephus made heavy use of it in his Antiquities. In addition to being a textual composition, Jubilees is a repository for a vast swathe of Jewish religious and historical traditions providing a window into the understanding and practices of Jewish people during this period. Many of the ideas found in Jubilees appear in the New Testament, casually mixed as traditions with the text of the Hebrew scriptures themselves. In a handful of places, the New Testament authors seem to cite Jubilees directly. Many of the earliest Fathers reference this text as well. Though it is less well-known than the related 1 Enoch, it is a text which is no less influential or important.

The Book of Jubilees was written in the middle part of the second century BC, very likely in Palestine. The earliest known manuscript portions are in Hebrew and Aramaic and were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. A major portion of the text also exists in Latin and a great deal of the Greek can be reconstructed from patristic citations. The entirety of the text of Jubilees is available from Ethiopian sources in Ge’ez recension. Its Ge’ez title is, “Book of Divisions.” The text is, in general, considered canonical by both Ethiopian Jews and Christians resulting in its preservation in various codices. The comparison of the text in these various languages allows for a high degree of certitude regarding the state of the text in the Second Temple period as the New Testament authors would have known it. There are many links in themes and content between Jubilees and the Enochic literature. It was so foundational to the community at Qumran which produced the Dead Sea Scrolls that it is the third most commonly found text, following Genesis and 1 Enoch.

At its core, Jubilees is an expansionistic re-telling of the narratives of Genesis and Exodus. In many sections, it operates under the same principle as many of the Aramaic targums, incorporating other traditional elements, even whole stories, into the maintained Biblical text. In other places, it greatly condenses and summarizes the material of Genesis and Exodus, seemingly in places of less interest to the author. In the places where the original text of Genesis and Exodus is maintained, even in the Hebrew fragments of Jubilees, the Hebrew text does not match either the traditional Hebrew text or the Hebrew text which underlies the Greek Old Testament tradition. This implies that the text which the author of Jubilees reworked was another, independent text or text tradition so far undiscovered. This point once again to the fact that in the Second Temple period and at the time of Christ, there was not a set text of the Hebrew Scriptures. Rather, the Hebrew Scriptures represented a wider textual tradition that included several forms of the texts which would later make up the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament.

Beyond this early witness to the text and understanding of Genesis and the early portion of Exodus in the Second Temple period, Jubilees makes several significant contributions to the understanding of Jewish religion in the period. It does this in two primary ways, through the traditional material incorporated into the text and through the arrangement of that text. Jubilees purports to report the vision received by Moses at Mt. Sinai when he received the Torah from the Angel of the Presence. The text is therefore based on the presupposition that Moses’ knowledge of the primordial history recorded in Genesis came to him through such a visionary experience in his prophetic role. This brings to bear apocalyptic themes in the text, though apocalyptic is a feature of the entire text of the Scriptures. The reason for the title of the book is its organization and structure.

As for the authors of the Enochic literature, the calendar was of key importance to the author of Jubilees. Jubilees retroactively describes the history of the world to the point of Moses in light of the structure given to time by the Torah itself. It, therefore, divides the primeval history according to weekly sabbaths, festal cycles, sabbath years, and jubilee years although strictly speaking these structures and feasts had not yet been instituted. This results in anachronisms such as the Feast of Tabernacles being celebrated by the patriarchs in Canaan centuries before the wilderness wanderings which inspired it. Jubilees, however, taking its cue from the structure of the creation of the world in Genesis 1 as a week ending in a sabbath, sees these structures of measurement as built into time itself. They have therefore existed since time was itself created, since the beginning of this age, whether or not humanity recognized their existence. This, in turn, suggests something about the nature of the Torah. If the moral, religious, and even temporal structures encoded in the Torah are embedded in the creation itself, this makes the Torah not legislation but revelation. This conception of the Torah is paralleled by St. Paul’s argument in Romans 1 and 2, in which the apostle states that the God of Israel is knowable from the creation itself, such that Gentiles who have been attentive to that creation can become a Torah for themselves (Rom 2:14).

Thematically, much of Jubilees focuses on the spiritual beings of the invisible creation, both ranks of angels and the origins of demons in general and disembodied demonic spirits in particular. Angels are assigned to every aspect of creation and as guardians of human persons and nations by God to administer his rule. The story of the origin of Mastema is narrated. Jubilees narrates the story of the Watchers in a manner parallel to that of the Enochic literature, as the angels who left their former estate, entered into sexual congress with human women and produced the race of giants destroyed by the flood in the days of Noah and by the descendants of Abraham subsequently. It goes further, however, in describing the means by which one-tenth of those spirits were allowed to remain upon the earth, explaining the unclean spirits of the Hebrew scriptures and demons as described by Tobit and the Synoptic Gospels. These themes are integrated with the calendar structure of the book as a whole through Jubilees’ understanding of the link between events in this world and those in the spiritual world. Events in this world, in this age, are the product of either participation by humans in the work of Yahweh, the God of Israel or in the rebellion of the evil spiritual powers. Because human persons bridge the invisible and visible creations by being constituted of body and soul, the events of these two worlds overlap. In the Book of Jubilees, the casting down of the Watchers into the abyss is accompanied by the defeat of the Rephaim and the Amorites by the armies of Israel. While this is true as a general principle of history for the author of Jubilees, it is nowhere more true than in the context of worship in its various cycles in which heavens and earth unite as one; the worship of humans with that of the angels.

The influence of Jubilees manifests itself in the New Testament in two ways. There are a number of instances in which traditions contained within the text of Jubilees are references by New Testament authors. In these cases, it would be difficult to demonstrate that Jubilees is a source for the New Testament document. Both texts may simply be drawing on a common tradition. But in these instances, the book of Jubilees represents the earliest known textual form of the tradition in question. St. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, for example, repeatedly references traditions not contained in the traditional text of Genesis and Exodus but included in the book of Jubilees. He references the remains of not only Jacob but all of the patriarchs being brought back to the tomb at Shechem (Acts 7:15-16; Jub 46:9). He references the age of Moses at the time of his killing of the Egyptian as recorded in Jubilees (Acts 7:23; Jub 47:10-12). He likewise references the number of years which Moses spent in Midian (Acts 7:30; Jub 48:1). St. Stephen references the law as having been given by angels, a tradition recorded in an earlier form in Jubilees (Acts 7:53; Jub 1:27). Suffice it to say that St. Stephen narrates the early history of Israel in a way parallel to the book of Jubilees.

Second Peter likewise appears to reference traditions contained within the book of Jubilees. This is in addition to the clear allusions in 2 Peter to elements of the Enochic literature (eg. 2:4-10). Noah is referred to as a “preacher of righteousness” by St. Peter here, despite there being no account in Genesis 6-7 of Noah preaching to anyone (2 Pet 2:5). Jubilees not only describes Noah as a preacher to his corrupt generation but records one of his sermons (Jub 7:20-39). The description of the renewal of the heavens and the earth in 2 Peter 3:13 is paralleled by the language of Jubilees 1:29. This particular expression of the restoration of creation is not spelled out before Jubilees in sources currently possessed. St. Peter cites the maxim that to the Lord, “one day is as a thousand years” (2 Pet 3:8). Jubilees likewise records this expression (Jub 4:30).

There are several cases, however, in the New Testament which appear to be something closer to direct citations. Possibly the most important of these is a quotation from Christ himself in St. Luke’s Gospel. Christ quotes the Wisdom of God as saying, “I will send prophets and apostles to them and some of them they will kill and will persecute” (Luke 11:49). This appears, based on key vocabulary, to be an abbreviated quotation of Jubilees 1:12. In the context of Jubilees, this was spoken by the God who revealed himself to Moses regarding the fact that the Israelites would later go astray and murder his prophets. The murder of the prophets of God by Israel is precisely the context in which Christ makes this quotation in Luke (11:47-51). A second reference by Christ appears to take place in St. John’s Gospel. Christ promises his disciples and apostles that when the Holy Spirit comes, he will cause them to remember all the things which Jesus said and did which they had seen (John 14:26). In Jubilees, God in his encounter with Jacob at Bethel, following Jacob’s vision, tells him in the same words that he will cause him to remember all the things which he saw in the vision so that he will later understand them (Jub 32:25).

St. Paul, likewise, appears to reference the Book of Jubilees on a few occasions. In 2 Corinthians 6:15, at the end of a catena of Old Testament quotations about the people of God coming out and being separate and holy to the God of Israel, the apostle appends the quotation, “I will be a Father to you and you will be sons and daughters to me” (2 Cor 6:18). Many English Bibles footnote this text as being a reference to 2 Samuel 7:14, in which Yahweh tells David that he will be a father to Solomon and Solomon a son to him. In the context of St. Paul’s quotation, this makes little sense. The reference in 2 Samuel is to the tradition of the king of Israel as the son of God, anticipatory to the Messiah. St. Paul’s citation, on the other hand, is directed toward the entire people of Israel, explicitly toward men and women equally. He nowhere implies that this is with reference to them being made to be kings (and queens?) based on their holiness. The book of Jubilees, however, provides a direct parallel quotation in which the God of Israel tells Moses regarding the people of Israel that when they keep his commandments, he will be a father to them and they will be his children (Jub 1:24).

St. Paul makes other passing references to details found in the Book of Jubilees elsewhere in his epistles. In 2 Thess 2:3, he refers to the coming antichrist as the “son of perdition.” This is one of the titles given to the giants destroyed by the flood (Jub 10:3). In his Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul uses the phrase “Gentile sinners” to refer to those outside of the Christian community (2:15). This same phrase is found in Jubilees in a similar context (Jub 23:23-24). A further detail cited by St. Paul in Galatians has caused considerable trouble to scholars devoted to a literal interpretation of Biblical numbers. St. Paul states that the Torah was given 430 years after the confirmation of the covenant with Abraham (Gal 3:17). This does not match the typically constructed timeline of the book of Genesis and Exodus utilized by scholars. It is also difficult to get that number to jibe with the dating given in Exodus 12:40 which states that Israel was in Egypt for 430 years. The Book of Jubilees, however, in line with its structure according to cycles and years records the period of time from the birth of Isaac to the giving of the Torah as precisely 430 years (Jub 15:4). Because the timeline of Jubilees is composed with such precision, this is likely a citation of the information from Jubilees rather than a shared tradition.

The Apocalypse of St. John contains at least two allusions to the Book of Jubilees. The phrase is used twice in the Apocalypse regarding the identity of the church that it has been made “a kingdom and priests,” rather than the more common “a kingdom of priests” or even “a royal priesthood” (Rev 1:6; 5:10). This wording is found, however, in the Book of Jubilees as a promise to God’s people Israel (Jub 16:18). Jubilees 2:2 speaks of particular angels giving voice at the time of the giving of the Torah. These angels are assigned to particular aspects of creation. These are the “angels of the voices and of the thunder and of the lightnings.” Repeatedly in the Apocalypse, as St. John stands in the heavens, at key moments, he hears, “lightnings and voices and thunderings” (Rev 4:5; 11:19; 16:18).

These are key and clear examples of the influence of Jubilees and the traditions which it contains upon the authors of the New Testament. Many more examples could be given. Likewise, countless examples of points of connection could be given to Orthodox worship and liturgy. As but one example, one of the prayers of the Trisagion for the Departed begins with the words, “O God of spirits and of all flesh…” This is the phrase that begins Noah’s prayer asking for the deliverance of his children and grandchildren from the power of demons in Jubilees 10:3. Suffice it to say that the Book of Jubilees, regardless of canonical status, is a critically important witness to the interpretation and religious significance of Genesis and Exodus in the first century AD. It is invaluable as background to the apostles and New Testament writers in understanding their religious worldview and experience. The texts which make up the Christian Scriptures are not timeless texts. They were produced by real men in real times and places, men, times, and places chosen by God for this purpose. They cannot be understood outside of this divinely chosen context.

[Niemand]

Wikipedia article on Nimrod.

The Book of Jubilees mentions the name of "Nebrod" (the Greek form of Nimrod) only as being the father of Azurad, the wife of Eber and mother of Peleg (8:7). This account would thus make Nimrod an ancestor of Abraham, and hence of all Hebrews.

Some interesting points from here
https://www.gotquestions.org/book-of-Jubilees.html

As portrayed in the Book of Jubilees, Jacob does not lie to his father; Isaac eventually declares Jacob to be his true heir, an elderly Jacob settles on Leah as the wife he loves, and Abram’s deceit of Pharaoh is never mentioned. Clearly, these heroes of the faith are handled with kid gloves by the author of Jubilees; in contrast, Scripture presents a candid record of their faults.

Language question. There is strong evidence this book was composed in Hebrew rather than Greek (as with 4 Maccabees, the New Testament and some parts of the Apocrypha)

The only complete text of the Book of Jubilees still extant is an Ethiopic manuscript from the sixth century AD. It contains 1,307 verses. Most scholars believe that the book was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. That theory is bolstered by the discovery among the Dead Sea Scrolls of fragmented Hebrew texts containing portions of the Book of Jubilees.

So far, at least fifteen separate manuscripts of the Book of Jubilees have been identified at Qumran. All have been reduced to fragments (“The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Book of Jubilees,” VanderKam, J., and Morgan, S., The Missouri Review, the College of Arts & Science of the University of Missouri, 12/1/1992), and those fragments provide only about 3 percent of the total content of the book. There are also some fragments of Jubilees existing today in Greek and Latin, but nowhere near a complete book in either of those languages or in Hebrew.

Jubilees supports a solar calendar (as we use) as opposed to a lunar calendar (as used by Jews and Muslims)

The author of Jubilees writes that, after the flood, God says to Noah, “Command thou the children of Israel that they observe the years according to this reckoning—three hundred and sixty-four days, and (these) will constitute a complete year” (Jubilees 5:32). The 364-day solar year (rather than the 360-day lunar year) is one of the main thrusts of the Book of Jubilees.

Some scholars have pointed out that it appears that Jubilees was written precisely for the purpose of pushing the author’s commitment to a solar-based calendar. In Jubilees, God is concerned that His people might “disturb all their seasons and the years will be dislodged . . . and they will neglect their ordinances” (Jubilees 6:33). It’s true that the sun keeps a more regular schedule than the moon. So, in Jubilees, to prevent confusion and to keep holy days from getting “dislodged,” God instituted the 364-day solar calendar. Under that system, since 7 is a factor of 364, the same date falls on the same day of the week each year (e.g., every year July 4 would be on the same day of the week).

[Niemand]

Jubilees quoted by me in the thread on homosexuality in scripture.

viewtopic.php?t=61327

Jubilees 16 on Sodom and Gomorrah
5 And in this month the Lord executed his judgments on Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Zeboim, and all the region of the Jordan, and He burned them with fire and brimstone, and destroyed them until this day, even as [lo] I have declared unto thee all their works, that they are wicked and sinners exceedingly, and that they defile themselves and commit fornication in their flesh, and work uncleanness on the earth. 6 And, in like manner, God will execute judgment on the places where they have done according to the uncleanness of the Sodomites, like unto the judgment of Sodom. 7 But Lot we saved; for God remembered Abraham, and sent him out from the midst of the overthrow. 8 And he and his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as had not been on the earth since the days of Adam till his time; for the man lay with his daughters. 9 And, behold, it was commanded and engraven concerning all his seed, on the heavenly tablets, to remove them and root them out, and to execute judgment upon them like the judgment of Sodom, and to leave no seed of the man on earth on the day of condemnation.

Latest Apocrypha
OT works
Four Apocryphal Psalms - 152, 153, 154, 155
viewtopic.php?t=69985

1 Meqabyan (Ethiopian canon), another lost book?
viewtopic.php?t=69855

2 Meqabyan (Ethiopian canon), - the return of Tsirutsaydan
viewtopic.php?t=69971

3 Meqabyan (Ethiopian canon) a Question of Satan
viewtopic.php?t=1367649

New Testament Apocrypha
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viewtopic.php?t=69760

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viewtopic.php?t=69679

1 Clement: Papist propaganda or a window into the early church?
viewtopic.php?p=1368842

2 Clement – inclement Gnosticism?
viewtopic.php?t=70327

The Didache or Teachings of the Apostles
viewtopic.php?t=69698

And related:
Is Q canonical? How about the Gospel of Thomas? The answer's more complicated than you think.
viewtopic.php?t=69715

The LDS Bible Dictionary on Lost Books and non-canonical works referred to in the Bible.
viewtopic.php?t=69805

The Samaritans, their canon and its significance
viewtopic.php?t=69905

My thread about the Koran, and its use of figures from the Bible, the Apocrypha and extracanonical material. How useful a source is the Koran itself? Does it have any real extra information on Biblical figures? This is something of work in progress.
viewtopic.php?t=70169

Was Zoroaster/Zarathustra a lost prophet of God? Some surprising links between this largely forgotten figure and Judaism, plus the Gathas.
viewtopic.php?t=65938

[Niemand]

Latest Apocrypha etc.
Underrated Bible stories #3: Habakkuk's Hair-raising Experience (from Bel & the Dragon in the KJV Apocrypha)
viewtopic.php?t=69509

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Armenian canon): are these lost books by the founders of each Tribe of Israel or a later forgery?
viewtopic.php?t=71314

Ethiopian Canon...
The First and Second Books of Adam and Eve (the Conflict with Satan)
viewtopic.php?t=70846

Other New Testament works
The Three different Apocalypses of Peter: Guides to the universe or sadism? The ancient Apocalypse of Peter, the Arabic Apocalypse of Peter and the Nag Hammadi/Gnostic Text of the same name.
viewtopic.php?t=70682

A post on the Restored Branch, an English LDS microsect and its canon which includes works from the Nag Hammadi and Gnostic texts: these are the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Phillip, the Gospel of Truth (sic), the Letter of the Apostle Paul, the Sophia (Wisdom) of Jesus the Christ, the Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles and the Letter of Peter which he sent to Philip.
viewtopic.php?t=70413

Celtic legends about the Bible, including the visits of Biblical figures to western Europe, the Michael Line, Holy Grail/Arthurian legend, and Pontius Pilate. Discusses the Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles (the Sonnini Manuscript), Magna Tabula Glastonia, writings of Nicephorus, Leabhar Gabhala/Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of Settlements), the Mabinogion etc.
viewtopic.php?t=71061

On other interrelated religions:
My thread on a bizarre Middle Eastern sect and their beliefs. Are the Yezidis of the Middle East an ancient Satanist group or a lost Jewish tribe? And what is the connection between their religion and today's rainbow flag? Is this strange group simply misunderstood?
viewtopic.php?t=70625

[Niemand]

Latest Apocrypha etc
Will the real Book of Jasher please stand up? At least a dozen works are claimed to be the Book of Jasher, but did it ever exist in the first place?
viewtopic.php?p=1438746

The Book of Gad the Seer, a work referred to in the Old Testament which may have been preserved by a small group of Jews in India. Some of its content is stunning including references to a sacrificed lamb who is sent by God and the future tribulation.
viewtopic.php?t=71421

The Ascension of Isaiah, visions of Christ and Antichrist
viewtopic.php?t=71598

The Book of the Cock – an unfortunately named gospel still in current use in Ethiopia.
viewtopic.php?t=71338

The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, an early endorsement of Paul or a forgery?
viewtopic.php?p=1400884

The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus - a beautiful short epistle about the relations of Christians and non-Christians, and the Tree of Knowledge
viewtopic.php?p=1404032

End Times Prophecy in Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha: A guide
Includes discussions of 2 Esdras, (1) Enoch, Nicodemus, Ascension of Isaiah, Gad the Seer and the Shepherd of Hermas
viewtopic.php?t=71659

New Age Bibles: Urantia, Oahspe, Kolbrin, Oera Linda, Crowley's Book of the Law, a Course in Miracles etc. These works, usually channelled, provide a very different take on spirituality yet are strangely similar to one another. How should we approach these new works and are they just demonic?
viewtopic.php?p=1433133