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49-600: The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church , as well as by Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews). Jubilees is considered one of the pseudepigrapha by the Eastern Orthodox , Catholic , and Protestant churches. Apart from the Beta Israel community, the book is not considered canonical within any of

98-617: A "Double Sabbath" each year being counted as only one day to arrive at this computation. Jubilees 7:20–29 is possibly an early reference to the Noahide laws . The Hasmoneans adopted Jubilees immediately, and it became a source for the Aramaic Levi Document. Jubilees remained a point of reference for priestly circles (although they disputed its calendric proposal), and the Temple Scroll and " Epistle of Enoch " are based on Jubilees. It

147-400: A "secret or hidden" literature. The Pharisees were familiar with these texts. The Apocalyptic literature is an example of this secret literature. Based on unfulfilled prophecies, these books were not considered scripture, but rather part of a literary form that flourished from 200 BCE to 100 CE. These works usually bore the names of ancient Hebrew worthies to establish their validity among

196-525: A few scattered allusions to the Messianic kingdom. Robert Henry Charles wrote in 1913: This kingdom was to be ruled over by a Messiah sprung, not from Levi —that is, from the Maccabean family—as some of his contemporaries expected—but from Judah . This kingdom would be gradually realized on earth, and the transformation of physical nature would go hand in hand with the ethical transformation of man until there

245-508: 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 . This is also the view held by Clementine literature , Sextus Julius Africanus , Ephrem

294-517: A joint investigation of the cave site was led by Roland de Vaux and Gerald Lankester Harding from 15 February to 5 March 1949. The interest in the scrolls with the hope of money from their sale initiated a long area-wide search by the Ta'amireh to find more such scrolls, the first result of which was the discovery of four caves in Wadi Murabba'at about 15 km (9.3 mi) south of Qumran in 1951. In

343-571: A lost animal. He stumbled onto the first cave containing old scrolls. More Ta'amireh visited the cave and scrolls were taken back to their encampment. They were shown to Mar Samuel of the Syriac Orthodox Church in April 1947 who realised their significance and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was made known. The location of the cave was not revealed for another 18 months, but eventually

392-461: A viscous liquid which Patrich presumed was aromatic balsam residue. In 1991 he discovered several jar stoppers and a complete jar along with date stones and dry dates suggesting occupation, but as the area in front of the cave showed no attempt to convert it into a terrace, he concluded that occupation was not of any length. 11Q was examined and no traces of Qumran era occupation was found. A cave Patrich called Cave 24, which lay between 11Q and 3Q,

441-507: Is also a preserved fragment of a Latin translation of the Greek that contains about a quarter of the whole work. The Geʽez Biblical texts , now numbering twenty-seven, are the primary basis for translations into English. Passages in the texts of Jubilees that are directly parallel to verses in Genesis do not directly reproduce either of the two surviving manuscript traditions. Consequently, even before

490-520: Is an accepted version of this page The Qumran Caves ( Arabic : كهوف قمران Kuhūf Qumrān ; Hebrew : מערות קומראן HaMeara Kumran ) are a series of caves, both natural and artificial, found around the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judaean Desert . It is in these caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Israel Nature and Parks Authority took over the site following

539-579: Is known to have survived, but the Geʽez version is an accurate translation of the fragments in Biblical Hebrew found in the Dead Sea Scrolls . The Book of Jubilees presents a "history of the division of the days of the law and of the testimony, of the events of the years, of their (year) weeks, of their jubilees throughout all the years of the world, as the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai when he went up to receive

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588-466: Is much evidence to suggest Jubilees was written before this date. Jubilees could not have been written very long prior. 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 Animal Apocalypse in 1 Enoch ), such as Enoch's wife being Edna. The Animal Apocalypse claims to predict

637-497: Is now visible from the Qumran esplanade, is actually two caves, one adjacent to the other. De Vaux referred to them as 4a and 4b. When the Ta'amireh removed all the fragments they could before Harding's arrival, there was no way to tell which scrolls belonged to which cave, so they were later all catalogued simply as from 4Q. In excavating the caves hundreds of fragments were still to be found in 4a while only two or three fragments in 4b. 4a

686-843: Is the source for certain of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs , for instance that of Reuben . It was not canonized into the Jewish canon and there is no official record of it in Pharisaic or Rabbinical sources. Some Jubilees traditions are echoed in the 12th-century Midrash Tadshe , the sole exception within Judaism. The earliest clear evidence of it in Jewish tradition is in the Bereshit Rabba (5th century) and Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (9th century). It appears that early Christian writers held

735-577: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel . Iron pickaxe heads from the 1950s were also found, which indicate looting had occurred. In addition, archaeologists discovered pottery, flint blades, arrowheads, and a carnelian seal that date to the Chalcolithic and Neolithic periods. "This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea scrolls in 60 years. Until now, it

784-725: The Maccabean Revolt (which occurred 167–160 BCE) 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. As a result, general reference works such as the Oxford Annotated Bible and the Mercer Dictionary of the Bible conclude the work can be dated to 160–150 BCE. J. Amanda Guire argues that Jubilees

833-669: The Qumran discoveries, R. H. Charles had deduced that the Hebrew original had used an otherwise unrecorded text for Genesis and for the early chapters of Exodus, one independent either of the Masoretic Text (𝕸) or of the Hebrew text that was the basis for the Septuagint . According to one historian, the variation among parallel manuscript traditions that are exhibited by the Septuagint compared with

882-477: The denominations of Judaism . It 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 collected the Dead Sea Scrolls . No complete Hebrew, Greek or Latin version

931-459: The midrashim that had already been worked on in the Books of Chronicles . With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in 1947, Charles' Pharisaic hypothesis of the origin of Jubilees has been almost completely abandoned. The dating of Jubilees has been problematic for Biblical scholars. While the oldest extant copies of Jubilees can be assigned based on the handwriting to about 100 BCE, there

980-754: The 6th century where it became part of the Ethiopic Bible . In the Christian tradition of the Syriac language , Jubilees is first received in extant sources from the mid-6th to early-7th century Cave of Treasures , and then in Letter 13 to John of Litarba, and Scholion 10, both authored by Jacob of Edessa (d. 708). Later still is the Catena Severi (compiled 861), the Syriac reception of an Arabic chronicle of Agapius of Mabbug, and

1029-662: The Book of Jubilees in high regard, as many of them cited and alluded to Jubilees in their writings. In relationship to the New Testament, the Book of Jubilees contains one of the earliest references to the idea that God gave the Law to Moses through an angelic mediator. This idea is likewise reflected in the Epistle to the Galatians . Ethiopic-speaking Christians translated Jubilees into Geʽez before

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1078-652: The Qumran area another cave was discovered, now referred to as Cave 2Q (1Q was the first scroll-bearing cave), in February 1952. However, only a few fragments were found in the cave. Fear of the destruction of archaeological evidence with the discovery of caves by the Bedouin led to a campaign by the French and American Schools to explore all other caves to find any remaining scrolls. Although 230 natural caves, crevices and other possible hiding places were examined in an 8-kilometer area along

1127-500: The Syrian , Augustine of Hippo , and John Chrysostom among many early Christian authorities. 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 makes an incestuous reference regarding

1176-497: The animals lost their power of speech when Adam and Eve were expelled. Following the Deluge, the earth was apportioned into three divisions for the three sons of Noah , and his sixteen grandsons. After the destruction of the Tower of Babel , their families were scattered to their respective allotments, and Hebrew was forgotten, until Abraham was taught it by the angels. Jubilees also contains

1225-507: The cliffs near Qumran, only 40 contained any artifacts and one alone, 3Q, produced texts, the most unusual being the Copper Scroll . 4Q was discovered in September 1952 by the Ta'amireh. De Vaux, on being offered a vast amount of fragments, contacted Harding who drove to the Qumran site to find that the Bedouin had discovered caves very near the Qumran ruins. These were Caves 4Q, 5Q, and 6Q,

1274-451: The creation, up to Moses receiving the scriptures upon Sinai during the Exodus, is calculated as fifty Jubilees, less the 40 years still to be spent wandering in the desert before entering Canaan – or 2,410 years. Four classes of angels are mentioned: angels of the presence , angels of sanctifications, guardian angels over individuals, and angels presiding over the phenomena of nature. Enoch was

1323-445: The discovery of extensive fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls , the earliest surviving manuscripts of Jubilees were four complete Geʽez texts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries and several quotations by the early Church Fathers such as Epiphanius , Justin Martyr , Origen , Diodorus of Tarsus , Isidore of Alexandria , Isidore of Seville , Eutychius of Alexandria , John Malalas , George Syncellus , and George Kedrenos . There

1372-569: The end of the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the West Bank and seized Qumran. Israel has since invested heavily in the area to establish the Qumran caves as a site of "uniquely Israeli Jewish heritage". The caves are recognized in Israel as a National Heritage Site , despite the caves being in occupied Palestinian territories ; as such, the designation has drawn criticism. The limestone cliffs above Qumran contain numerous caves that have been used over

1421-526: The end of the Qumran esplanade, all of which had collapsed and had been eroded, and a fourth cave, 10Q, on the outcrop which housed caves 4Q and 5Q. The last cave containing scrolls to be found, once again by the Ta'amireh, was Qumran Cave 11 (11Q), discovered in early 1956. Among its contents were the Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus scroll , the Great Psalms Scroll , and the Temple Scroll , though

1470-639: The errors in idolatry. In these passages, Abraham always addresses his words to local people, and he does not leave their land. This probably reflects Islam’s position that aims at converting idol worshippers to monotheistic religion and settling in their place of residence." Jewish apocrypha Certain sects of Second Temple Judaism, such as the Essenes in Judaea and the Therapeutae in Alexandria , were said to have

1519-400: The first man initiated by the angels in the art of writing, and wrote down, accordingly, all the secrets of astronomy, of chronology, and of the world's epochs. As regards demonology, the writer's position is largely that of the deuterocanonical writings from both New and Old Testament times. The Book of Jubilees narrates the genesis of angels on the first day of Creation and the story of how

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1568-485: The inhabitants of Qumran along with other artificial caves that have long ago eroded away from the edge of the marl terrace. Broshi and Eshel concentrated their interest in the area just north of Qumran, examining two caves they designated as C and F in a small ravine. The former had part of its ceiling caved in and was filled with silt from flash floods, but contained 280 potsherds. Cave F had completely collapsed, but when excavated yielded 110 potsherds. They concluded that

1617-459: The latter had been spirited away and its recovery was to prove long and complex. In February 2017, the discovery of cave 12Q was announced, the contents of which included completely broken storage jars and scroll fragments, but no scrolls themselves. The cave was investigated by J. Randall Price and students of Liberty University in Virginia , along with an international team of archaeologists from

1666-506: The millennia: the first traces of occupation are from the Chalcolithic period then onward to the Arab period. The artificial caves relate to the period of the settlement at Qumran and were cut into the marl bluffs of the terrace on which Qumran sits. In late 1946 or early 1947, a Bedouin boy of the Ta'amireh tribe, Muhammid Ahmed el-Hamed called edh-Dhib (the wolf), found a cave after searching for

1715-476: The most important of which was 4Q which originally contained around three-quarters of all the scrolls found in the immediate Qumran area. The first two of these caves had been cut into the marl terrace. The third was at the entrance to the Qumran Gorge just below the aqueduct. In 1955, a survey of the terrace brought to light a staircase leading down to the remains of three more artificial caves, 7Q, 8Q and 9Q at

1764-498: The near vicinity of Qumran: 4Qa, 4Qb, 5Q, 7Q, 8Q, 9Q, 10Q, an oval cave west of 5Q, and two caves to the north in a separate ravine. Their location necessitates a direct connection with the Qumran settlement. The three caves at the end of the esplanade could only be accessed via the settlement. These caves are thought to have been cut for storage and habitation. Marl is a soft stone and makes excavation relatively easy, but as seen with Caves 7Q–9Q they have not survived well. 4Q, which

1813-501: The seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge." Writings that were wholly apart from scriptural texts were designated as Hitsonim (literally: external) by the Sanhedrin and reading them was forbidden. In the following centuries, these apocrypha fell out of use in Judaism. Qumran Caves This

1862-449: The son of Adam and Eve, Cain, and his wife. In chapter iv (1–12) (Cain and Abel), it mentions that Cain took his sister Awan to be his wife and Enoch was their child. It also mentions that Seth (the third son of Adam and Eve) married his sister Azura . According to this book, Hebrew is the language of Heaven, and was originally spoken by all creatures in the Garden, animals and man; however,

1911-536: The tables of the law and of the commandment" as revealed to Moses (in addition to the Torah or "Instruction") by angels while he was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. The chronology given in Jubilees is based on multiples of seven. The jubilee year is the year that follows the passage of seven "weeks of years" (seven cycles of sabbatical years , or 49 total years), into which all of time has been divided. Until

1960-472: The true writers' contemporaries. 2 Esdras reinforces this theory: when Ezra was inspired to dictate the sacred scriptures that were destroyed in the overthrow of Jerusalem, So during the forty days ninety-four books were written. And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; but keep

2009-602: The writings of Michael the Syrian (d. 1199), Barhebraeus (d. 1286), and the Anonymous Chronicle by 1234. Jan van Reeth argues that the Book of Jubilees had great influence on the formation of early Islam . Etsuko Katsumata, comparing the Book of Jubilees and the Quran, notices significant differences, especially regarding Abraham's role in the Quranic narrative . He says that "The Quran has many passages in which Abraham expounds

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2058-906: The 𝕸, and which are embodied in the further variants among the Dead Sea Scrolls, demonstrates that even canonical Hebrew texts did not possess any single "authorized" manuscript tradition before the Common Era . Others write about the existence of three main textual manuscript traditions (namely the Babylonian, Palestinian and pre-𝕸 "proto" textual traditions). Although the pre-𝕸 text may have indeed been authoritative back then, arguments can be made for and against this concept. Between 1947 and 1956, approximately fifteen scrolls of Jubilees were found in five caves at Qumran , all written in Biblical Hebrew . The large number of manuscripts (more than for any Biblical books except for Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis, in descending order) indicates that Jubilees

2107-517: Was 8 m long and 3.25 m wide with tapering walls reaching 3 m in height. In 1984–1985 Joseph Patrich and Yigael Yadin carried out a systematic survey of over 57 caves north of Qumran and two to the south. In 1985–1991 Patrich excavated five caves, including Caves 3Q and 11Q. One of Patrich's conclusions was that the caves "did not serve as habitations for the members of the Dead Sea Sect, but rather as stores and hiding places". It

2156-542: Was a new heaven and a new earth. Thus, finally, all sin and pain would disappear and men would live to the age of 1,000 years in happiness and peace, and after death enjoy a blessed immortality in the spirit world. Jubilees insists (in Chapter ;6) on a 364 day yearly calendar, made up of four quarters of 13 weeks each, rather than a year of 12 lunar months, which it says is off by 10 days per year (the actual number being about 11¼ days). It also insists on

2205-605: Was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave," reported Dr. Oren Gutfeld, the head of the excavations. According to Israel Hasson, Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the discovery of this cave showed that significant works were waiting to be done in the Judean Desert and some of important ones were waiting to be revealed. In all there are ten marl cut caves in

2254-502: Was discovered that under the rocks in Cave 3Q there were only a few Chalcolithic sherds, showing that the ceiling had collapsed before any Qumran-era occupation. The cave was uninhabited and used only to store the scrolls left there. In 1988 in the cave Patrich designated as Cave 13, just north of 3Q, a small juglet was found from the Herodian era, which was wrapped in palm fibres and contained

2303-472: Was large and habitable, but showed no sign of long-term habitation. Cave FQ37 (named in the 1952 survey) located high up on the cliff face 2 kilometers south of Qumran was also an improbable site for permanent dwelling, due to its inaccessibility. In late 1995 and early 1996, Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel carried out further excavations in the caves north of Qumran. They reported other caves not examined by Patrich and believed that they served as dwellings for

2352-406: Was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of the Qumran texts with the Geʽez version, performed by James VanderKam, found that the Geʽez was in most respects an accurate and literalistic translation. R. H. Charles (1855–1931) became the first Biblical scholar to propose an origin for Jubilees. Charles suggested that the author of Jubilees may have been a Pharisee and that Jubilees was the product of

2401-469: Was written in c. 170–150 BCE by a Palestinian Jew of "priestly background and Hassidic or Essene persuasion", based on his knowledge of Canaanite geography, biblical festivals and laws. Jubilees covers much of the same ground as Genesis, but often with additional detail, and addressing Moses in the second person as the entire history of creation, and of Israel up to that point, is recounted in divisions of 49 years each, or "Jubilees". The elapsed time from

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