1. SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE BOOK.
The Book of Jubilees is in certain limited aspects the most important book in this volume for the student of religion. Without it we could of course have inferred from Ezra and Nehemiah, the Priests' Code, and the later chapters of Zechariah the supreme position that the law had achieved in Judaism, but without Jubilees we could hardly have imagined such an absolute supremacy as finds expression in this book. This absolute supremacy of the law carried with it, as we have seen in the General Introduction, the suppression of prophecy -at all events of the open exercise of the prophetic gifts. And yet these gifts persisted during all the so-called centuries of silence-from Malachi down to N.T. times, but owing to the fatal incubus of the law these gifts could not find expression save in pseudepigraphic literature. Thus Jubilees represents the triumph of the movement, which had been at work for the past three centuries or more.
And yet this most triumphant manifesto of legalism contained within its pages the element that was destined to dispute its supremacy and finally to reduce the law to the wholly secondary position that alone it could rightly claim. This element of course is apocalyptic, which was the source of the higher theology in Judaism, and subsequently was the parent of Christianity, wherein apocalyptic ceased to be pseudonymous and became one with prophecy.
The Book of Jubilees was written in Hebrew by a Pharisee between the year of the accession of Hyrcanus to the high priesthood in 135 and his breach with the Pharisees some years before his death in 105 B.C. It is the most advanced pre-Christian representative of the midrashic tendency, which has already been at work in the Old Testament Chronicles. As the Chronicler had rewritten the history of Israel and Judah from the basis of the Priests' Code, so our author re-edited from the Pharisaic standpoint of his time the history of events from the creation to the publication, or, according to the author's view, the republication of the law on Sinai. In the course of re-editing he incorporated a large body of traditional lore, which the midrashic process had put at his disposal, and also not a few fresh legal enactments that the exigencies of the past had called forth. His work constitutes an enlarged Targum on Genesis and Exodus, in which difficulties in the biblical narrative are solved, gaps supplied, dogmatically offensive elements removed, and the genuine spirit of later Judaism infused into the primitive history of the world. His object was to defend Judaism against the attacks of the hellenistic spirit that had been in the ascendant one generation earlier and was still powerful, and to prove that the law was of everlasting validity. From our author's contentions and his embittered attacks on the paganisers and apostates, we may infer that Hellenism had urged that the levitical ordinances of the law were only of transitory significance, that they had not been observed by the founders of the nation, and that the time had now come for them to be swept away, and for Israel to take its place in the brotherhood of the nations. Our author regarded all such views as fatal to the very existence of Jewish religion and nationality. But it is not as such that he assailed them, but on the ground of their falsehood. The law, he teaches, is of everlasting validity. Though revealed in time it was superior to time. Before it had been made known in gundry portions to the fathers it had been kept in heaven by the angels, and to its observance henceforward there was no limit in time or in eternity.
Writing in the palmiest days of the Maccabean dominion,in the high-priesthood of John Hyrcanus, looked for the immediate advent of the Messianic kingdom. 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 till there 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.
2. VARIOUS TITLES OF THE BOOK.
Our book was known by two distinct titles even in Hebrew. (a) Jubilees
(b) The Little Genesis
(c) Apocalypse of Moses and other alleged names of the book.
(a) Jubilees. This appears from Epiphanius (Haer. xxxix. 6) to have been its usual designation. It is found also in the Syriac Fragment entitled 'Names of the Wives of the Patriarchs according to the Hebrew Book of Jubilees,' first published by Ceriani, Mon. sacra et profana, ii. 1.9-10, and reprinted by the present writer in his edition of The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees. This name admirably describes the book, as it divides into jubilee periods of forty-nine years each the history of the world from the creation to the legislation on Sinai. The writer pursues a perfectly symmetrical development of the heptadic system. Israel enters Canaan at the close of the fiftieth jubilee, i.e. 2450.
(b) The Little Genesis. The epithet 'little' does not refer to the extent of the book, for it is larger than the canonical Genesis, but to its character. It deals more fully with details than the biblical work. The Hebrew title was variously rendered in Greek. 1 [(Gk.) he lepte Genesis (or Lepte Genesis)] as in Epiphanius, Syncellus, Zonaras, Glycas. 2 [(Gk.) he Leptogenesis] in Didymus of Alexandria and in Latin writers, as we may infer from the Decree of Gelasius. 3 [Gk.) ta lepta geneseos] in Syncellus. 4 [(Gk.) Mikrogenesis] in Jerome, who was acquainted with the Hebrew original.
(c) 1 The Apocalypse of Moses.
2 The Testament of Moses.
3 The Book of Adam's Daughters.
4 The Life of Adam.
1 The Apocalypse of Moses. This title had some currency in the time of Synceflus (see i. 5, 49). It forms an appropriate designation since it makes Moses the recipient of all the disclosures in the book. 2 The Testament of Moses. This title is found in the Catena of Nicephorus, i. 175, where it precedes a quotation from x. 21 of our book. It has, however, nothing to do with the Testament of Moses, which has become universally known under the wrong title -the Assumption of Moses. Ronsch and other scholars formerly sought to identify Jubilees with this second Testament of Moses, but this identification is shown to be impossible by the fact that in the Stichometry of Nicephorus 4,300 stichoi are assigned to Jubilees and only 1100 to this Testament of Moses. On the probability of a Testament of Moses having been in circulation -which was in reality an expansion of Jubilees ii-iii see my edition of Jubilees, p. xviii. 3 The Book of Adam's Daughters. This book is identified with Jubilees in the Decree of Gelasius, but it probably consisted merely of certain excerpts from Jubilees dealing with the names and histories of the women mentioned in it. Such a collection, as we have already seen, exists in Syriac, and its Greek prototype was used by the scribe of the LXX MS. no.135 in Holmes and Parsons' edition. 4 The Life of Adam. This title is found in Syncellus i. 7-9. It seems to have been an enlarged edition of the portion of Jubilees, which dealt with the life of Adam.
3. THE ETHIOPIC MSS.
There are four Ethiopic MSS., a b c d, the first and fourth of which belong to the National Library in Paris, the second to the British Museum, and the third to the University Library at Tubingen. Of these a b (of the fifteenth and sixteenth century respectively) are the most trustworthy, though they cannot be followed exclusively. In a, furthermore, the readings of the Ethiopic version of Genesis have replaced the original against bed in iii. 4, 6, 7, 19, 29; iv. 4, 8, &c. For a full description of these MSS. the reader can consult Charles's Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees, pp. xii seqq.
4. THE ANCIENT VERSIONS-GREEK, ETHIOPIC, LATIN, SYRIAC.
(a) The Greek Version is lost save for some fragments which survive in Epiphanius [(Gk.) peri Metron kai Stathmon] (ed. Dindorf, vol. iv. 27-8). This fragment, which consists of ii. 2-21, is published with critical notes in Charles's edition of the Ethiopic text. Other fragments of this version are preserved in Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Antioch, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, John of Malala, Syncellus, Cedrenus. Syncellus attributes to the Canonical Genesis statements derived from our text. This version is the parent of the Ethiopic and Latin Versions.
(b) The Ethiopic Version. This version is most accurate and trustworthy and indeed as a rule servilely literal. It has, of course, suffered from the corruptions naturally incident to transmission through MSS. Thus dittographies are frequent and lacunae are of occasional occurrence, but the version is singularly free from the glosses and corrections of unscrupulous scribes, though the temptation must have been great to bring it into accord with the Ethiopic version of Genesis. To this source, indeed, we must trace a few perversions of the text: 'my wife' in iii. 6 instead of 'wife'; xv 12; xvii. 12 ('her bottle' instead of 'the bottle'); xxiv. 19 (where the words 'a well' are not found in the Latin version of Jubilees, nor in the Mass., Sam., LXX, Syr., and Vulg. of Gen. xxvi. 19). In the above passages the whole version is influenced, but in a much greater degree has this influence operated on MS. a. Thus in iii. 4, 6, 7, 19, 29, iv. 4, 8, v.3, vi. 9, &c., the readings of the Ethiopic version of Genesis have replaced the original text. In the case of b there appears to be only one instance of this nature in xv. 15 (see Charles's Text, pp. xii seqq.).
For instances of corruption native to this version, see Charles on ii. 2, 7, 21, vi. 21, vii. 22, x. 6, 21, xvi. 18, xxiv. 20, 29, xxxi. 2, xxxix. 4, xli. 15, xlv. 4, xlviii. 6.
(c) The Latin Version. This version, of which about one-fourth has been preserved, was first published by Ceriani in his Monnmenta sacra et profana, 1861, tom. i. fase. i. 15-62. It contains the following sections: xiii. 10b-21; xv. 20b-31a; xvi. 5b-xvii. 6a; xviii. 10b-xix. 25; xx. 5b-xxi. 10a; xxii. 2-19a; xxiii. 8b-23a; xxiv. 13-xxv. 1a; xxvi. 8b-23a; xxvii. 11b-24a; xxviii. 16b-27a; xxix. 8b-xxxi. 1a; xxxi. 9b-1 8, 29b-32; xxxii. 1-8a, 18b-xxxiii. 9a, 18b-xxxiv. 5a; xxxv. 3b-12a; xxxvi. 20b-xxxvii. 5a; xxxviii. 1b-16a; xxxix. 9-xl. 8a; xli. 6b-18; xlii. 2b-14a; xlv. 8-xlvi. 1, 12-xlviii. 5; xlix. 7b-22. This version was next edited by Ronsch in 1874, Das Buch der Fubilaen . . . unter Befugung des revidirten Textes der . . . lateinisehen Fragmente. This work attests enormous industry and great learning, but is deficient in judgement and critical acumen. Ronsch was of opinion that this Latin version was made in Egypt or its neighbourhood by a Palestinian Jew about the middle of the fifth century (pp.459-60). In 1895 Charles edited this text afresh in conjunction with the Ethiopic in the Oxford Anecdota (The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees). To this work and that of Ronsch above the reader must be referred for a fuller treatment of this subject. Here we may draw attention to the following points. This version, where it is preserved, is almost of equal value with the Ethiopic. It has, however, suffered more at the hands of correctors. Thus it has been corrected in conformity with the LXX in xlvi. 14, where it adds 'et Oon' against all other authorities. The Ethiopic version of Exod. i. 11 might have been expected to bring about this addition in our Ethiopic text, but it did not. Two similar instances will be found in xvii. 5, xxiv. 20. Again the Latin version seems to have been influenced by the Vulgate in xxix. 13. xlii. II (canos meos where our Ethiopic text = [(Gk.) mou to geras] as in LXX of Gen. xlii. 38); and probably also in xlvii. 7, 8, and certainly in xlv. 12, where it reads 'in tota terra' for 'in terra'. Of course there is the possibility that the Latin has reproduced faithfully the Greek and that the Greek was faulty; or in case it was correct, that it was the Greek presupposed by our Ethiopic version that was at fault.
Two other passages are deserving of attention, xix. 14 and xxxix. 13. In the former the Latin version 'et creverunt et iuvenes facti sunt' agrees with the Ethiopic version of Gen. xxv. 27 against the Ethiopic version of Jubilees and all other authorities on Gen. xxv. 27. Here the peculiar reading can be best explained as having originated in the Greek. In the second passage, the clause 'eorum quae fiebant in carcere' agrees with the Ethiopic version of Gen. xxxix. 23 against the Ethiopic version of Jubilees and all other authorities on Gen. xxxix. 23. On the other hand, there is a large array of passages in which the Latin version preserves the true text over against corruptions or omissions in the Ethiopic version: cf. xvi. 16, xix. 5, 10, 11, xx. 6, 10, xxi. 3, xxii. 3, &c. (see my Text, p. xvi).
(d) The Syriac Version. The evidence as to the existence of a Syriac is not conclusive. It is based on the fact that a British Museum MS. (Add. 12154, fol. 180) contains a Syriac fragment entitled, Names of the Wives of the Patriarchs according to the Hebrew Book called Jubilees.' It was first published by Ceriani in his Monumeitta Sacra, 1861, torn. ii. fasc. i. 9-10, and reprinted by Charles as Appendix III to his Text of Jubilees (p. 183).
5. THE ETHIOPIC AND LATIN VERSIONS-TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GREEK.
Like all the biblical literature in Ethiopic, Jubilees was translated into Ethiopic from the Greek. Greek words such as [drus, balanos, lips, schinos, pharaggs, &c., are transliterated into Ethiopic. Secondly, many passages must be retranslated into Greek before we can discover the source of their corruptions. And finally, many names are transliterated as they appear in Greek and not in Hebrew.
That the Latin is derived directly from the Greek is no less obvious. Thus in xxxix. 12 [(Lt.) timoris = (Gk.) deilias], a corruption of douleias; in xxxviii. 13 [(Lt.) honorem = (Gk.) timen], which should have been rendered by (Lt.) tributum. Another class of mistranslations may be seen in passages where the Greek article is rendered by the Latin demonstrative as in (Lt.) huius Abrahae xxix. i6, huic Istrael xxxi. 15. Other evidence pointing in the same direction is to be found in the Greek constructions which have been reproduced in the Latin; such as xvii. 3 (Lt.) mem or fuit sermones' = (Gk.) hemnesthe tous logous: in xv. 22 (Lt.) consummavit loquens = (Gk.) Sunetelese lalon: in xxii. 8 (Lt.) 'in omnibus quibus dedisti' = en pasin ois edokas.
6. THE GREEK-A TRANSLATION FROM THE HEBREW.
The early date of our book -the second century B.C.- and the fact that it was written in Palestine speak for a Semitic original, and the evidence for such an original is conclusive. But the question at once arises, was the original written in Hebrew or Aramaic? Certain proper names in the Latin version ending in -in seem to bespeak an Aramaic original, as Cettin xxiv. 28; Adurin xxxviii. 8,9; Filistin xxiv. 14-16. But since in all these cases the Ethiopic transliterations end in -n and not in -nit is not improbable that this Aramaising in the Latin version is due to the translator, who, as Ronsch has concluded on other grounds, was a Palestinian Jew. Again, in the list of the twelve trees suitable for burning on the altar some are transliterations of Aramaic names. But in a late Hebrew work -written at the close of the second century B.C.- the popular names of such objects would naturally be used. Moreover, in certain cases the Hebrew may have already been forgotten, or, when the tree had been lately introduced, been non-existent.
But the arguments for a Hebrew original are many and weighty. (1) A work which claims to be from the hand of Moses would naturally be written in Hebrew; for Hebrew, according to our author, was the sacred and national language, xii. 25-6; xliii. 15. (2) The revival of the national spirit is, so far as we know, accompanied by a revival of the national language. (3) The existing text must be retranslated into Hebrew in order to explain unintelligible expressions and restore the true text. Thus (Ar.) la 'eleja in xliii. 11 = (Gk.) en emoi; which is a mistranslation in this context of (Hb.); for (Hb.) here = (Gk.) deomai, 'pray,' as in Gen. xliv. 18. In xlvii. 9 the text = (Lt.) 'domum (= Hb. ) Faraonis', but the context demands (Lt.) 'filiam (= Hb.) Faraonis',though here the argument is not conclusive, since (Hb.) might have been corruptly written for (Hb.) which in Aramaic = 'daughter'. Again in xxxvi. 10 (cp. also xxxix. 6) the text = (Gk.) ouk anabesetai (= ja'arg) (Gk.) eis to biblion tes zoes. But ja'arg must = 'will be recorded'. Now this meaning is unattested elsewhere in Ethiopic, but the difficulty is solved when we find that it is a Hebrew idiom: see I Chron. xxvii. 24, 2 Chron. xx. 34. (4) Many paronomasiae discover themselves on retranslation into Hebrew, as in iv. 9 there is a play on the name Enoch, in iv. 15 on Jared, in viii. 8 on Peleg, &c. (5) Many passages are preserved in Rabbinic writings, and the book has much matter in common with the Testaments xii Patriarchs, 'which was written about the same date in Hebrew. Both books, in fact, use a chronology peculiar to themselves. (6) Fragments of the original Hebrew text or of the sources used by its author are to be found in the Book of Noah and the Midrasch Wajjisau in Jellinek's Beth-ha-Midrasch, iii. 155-6, 3-5, reprinted in Charles's edition of the Ethiopic text on pp. 179-81.
7. TEXTUAL AFFINITIES.
A minute study of the text shows that it attests an independent form of the Hebrew text of Genesis and the early chapters of Exodus. Thus it agrees with individual authorities such as the Samaritan or the LXX, or the Syriac, or the Vulgate, or the Targum of Onkelos against all the rest. Or again it agrees with two or more of these authorities in opposition to the rest, as for instance with the Massoretic and Samaritan against the LXX, Syriac and Vulgate, or with the Massoretic and Onkelos against the Samaritan, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate, or with the Massoretic, Samaritan and Syriac against the LXX or Vulgate. But the reader must here be referred to Charles's Book of Jubilees (pp. xxxiii--xxxix) for a full classification of these instances. A study of these phenomena proves that our book represents some form of the Hebrew text midway between the forms presupposed by the LXX and the Syriac; for it agrees more frequently with the LXX, or with combinations into which the LXX enters, than with any other single authority. Next to the LXX it agrees most often with the Syriac or with combinations into which the Syriac enters. On the other hand, its independence of the LXX is shown by a large array of readings, where it has the support of the Samaritan and Massoretic, or of these with various combinations of the Syriac, Vulgate and Onkelos. From these and like considerations we may conclude that the textual evidence points to the composition of our book at some period between 250 B.C. and 100 A.D. and at a time nearer the earlier date than the latter. 4
8. THE VALUE OF THE BOOK OF JUBILEES IN THE CRITICISM OF THE MASSORETIC TEXT OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS.
From a study of the facts which are referred to in the preceding Section it will be clear that before and after the Christian era the Hebrew text did not possess any hard and fast tradition. It will further be obvious that the Massoretic form of this text, which has so long been generally as conservative of the most ancient tradition and as therefore final, is after all only one of many phases through which the text passed in the process of over 1,000 years, ie. 400 B.C. till A.D. 600, or thereabouts.
As we pursue the examination of the materials just mentioned we shall see grounds for regarding the Massoretic text as the result partly of conscious recension and partly of unconscious change extending over many centuries. How this process affected the text in the centuries immediately preceding and subsequent to the Christian era, we have some means of determining in the Hebrew-Samaritan text which, however much it may have been tampered with on religious or polemical grounds, still preserves in many cases the older reading, even as it preserves the older of the alphabet. Next we have the LXX of the Pentateuch, to which we may assign the date 200 B.C.; next the Book of Jubilees just before the Christian era; the Syriac Pentateuch before A.D. 100; the Vulgate of the fourth century; the Targums of Onkelos and Ps.-Jon. in their present form A.D. 300-600.
We have above remarked that the evidence of 6 shows that the Massoretic text is only one of the phases through which the Hebrew text has passed; and if we consider afresh the materials of evidence suggested in that Section in connexion with their dates, and given in some fullness in the Introductions to Charles's Text and Commentary, we shall discover that in some respects it is one of the latest phases of the Hebrew Pentateuch that has been stereotyped by Jewish scholars in the Massoretic text.
This conclusion will tally perfectly with the tradition that all existing Massoretic MSS. are derived in the main from one archetype, i.e. the Hebrew Codex left behind him by Ben Asher, who lived in the tenth century, and whose family had lived at Tiberias in the eighth.
We shall now proceed to give a list of readings in the Massoretic text which should be corrected into accord with the readings attested by such great authorities as the Sam., LXX, Jub., Syr., VuIg.
The following list was published in Charles's Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees in 1895. More than two-thirds of the emendations of the Book of Genesis here suggested were subsequently accepted independently, on the evidence of the Sam., LXX, Syr., Vulg., without a knowledge of Jubilees, by C.J. Ball in his edition of the Hebrew Text of Genesis, 1896, by Kittel in his edition of the Hebrew Text of Genesis, 1905, and more than half in the recent Commentary of Gunkel.
[What follows contains many phrases written in Hebrew. At the time of scanning there was not an accessible means to accurately reproduce the Hebrew script. If this information is desired please see Mr. Charles book.]
9. DATE OF (a) THE ORIGINAL TEXT AND (b) OF THE VERSIONS.
(a) Jubilees was written between 153 B.C. and the year of Hyrcanus' breach with the Pharisees. (1) It was written during the pontificate of the Maccabean family, and not earlier than 155 B.C., when this office was assumed by Jonathan the Maccabee. For in xxxii. 1, Levi is called a 'priest of the Most High God.' Now the only Jewish high-priests who bore this title were the Maccabean, who appear to have assumed it as reviving the order of Melchizedek when they displaced the Zadokite order of Aaron. Despite the objections of the Pharisees, it was used by the Maccabean princes down to Hyrcanus II (Jos. Ant. xvi. 6.2). (2) It was written before 96 B.C.; for since our author was of the strictest sect a Pharisee and at the same time an upholder of the Maccabean pontificate, Jubilees cannot have been written later than 96, when the Pharisees and Alexander Jannaeus were openly engaged in mortal strife. (3) It was written before the public breach between Hyrcanus and the Pharisees when Hyrcanus joined the Sadducean party. As Hyrcanus died in 105, our book was written between 153 and 105.
But it is possible to define these limits more closely. The book presupposes as its historical background the most flourishing period of the Maccabean hegemony -such as that under Simon and Hyrcanus. The conquest of Edom, which was achieved by the latter, is referred to in xxxviii. 14. Again our text reflects accurately the intense hatred of Judah towards the Philistines in the second century B.C. It declares that they will fall into the hands of the righteous nation, and we learn from I Macc. and Josephus that Ashdod and Gaza were destroyed by Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus respectively. But it is in the destruction of Samaria, which is adumbrated in the destruction of Shechem, xxx. 4-6, that we are to look for the true terminus a quo. Now all accounts agree in representing the destruction of Samaria as effected by Hyrcanus about four years before his death. Hence we conclude that Jubilees was written between 109 and 105 B.C.
Many other phenomena point to the second-century origin of our book, which are given in Charles's edition, pp. lviii-lxvi. Amongst these we might mention the currency of older and severer forms of the halacha than prevailed in the rabbinical schools, or were registered in the Mishnah. The severe halacha regarding the sabbath in 1.8, 12, were indubitably in force in the second century B.C., if not earlier, but were afterwards mitigated by the Mishnah and later Judaism. Again the strict halacha in xv. 14 regarding circumcision on the eighth day was a current, probably the current, view in the second century B.C. and earlier, since it has the support of the Samaritan text and the LXX. This strict law was subsequently relaxed in the Mishnah. In xxxii. 15 the severe law of tithing found in Lev. xxvii. 15 is enforced, but rabbinic tradition sought to weaken the statement. As regards the halacha laid down in iii. 31 regarding the duty of covering one's shame, it is highly probable that such a halacha did exist in the second century B.C., when Judaism was protesting against the exposure of the person in the Greek games. See also iii. 8-14 notes and xx. 4 note.
Other cases of strict rules afterwards relaxed are the limitation of trees for use with burnt offerings (see xxi. 12-15 notes), the restriction of the eating of the passover to the court of the Lords house (see xlix. 20 note), the close adherence to the exacting demand of Lev. xix. 24 that the fourth year's fruit should be holy (see vii. 36 notes), though here we have a variant reading. Note that the rest of the firstfruits belong to the priests, who are to eat them 'before the altar.' On the other hand, the thank-offerings in xxi. 8-10 do not belong to the priest. The computation of the Feast of Weeks is different from the later prevalent Pharisaic reckoning (see xv. 1 note; xvi. 13, xliv. 4-5), while the account of the Feast of Tabernacles in xvi. 21-31 is peculiar to Jubilees.
Finally, we might draw attention to the fact that the Pharisaic regulation about pouring water on the altar (Jer. Sukk. iv. 6; Sukk. 44a) at the feast of tabernacles appears to have been unknown to him. We know that the attempt of the Pharisees to enforce its adoption on Alexander Jannaeus resulted in a massacre of the former. Attention might also be drawn to the fact that the Priests and Levites still numbered in their ranks, as in the days of the author of Chronicles, the masters of the schools and the men of learning, and that these positions were not filled as in the days of Shammai and Hillel by men drawn from the laity. This inference is to be deduced from the fact that the Levites are represented as the guardians of the sacred books and of the secret lore transmitted from the worthies of old time (x. 4, xlv. 16).
(b) Date of the Ethiopic and Latin Versions. There is no evidence for determining the exact date of the Ethiopic version, but since it was practically regarded as a canonical book it was probably made in the sixth century. Ronsch, as we have already pointed out in 4, gives some evidence for regarding the Latin version as made in the fifth century.
10 JUBILEES FROM ONE AUTHOR BUT BASED ON EASTERN BOOKS AND TRADITIONS.
Our book is the work of one author, but is largely based on earlier books and traditions. The narrative of Genesis forms of course the bulk of the book, but much that is characteristic in it is due to his use of many pseudepigraphic and ancient traditions. Amongst the former might be mentioned the Book of Noah, from which in a modified form he borrows vii. 20-39, x. 1-15. In vii. 26-39 he reproduces his source so faithfully that he leaves the persons unchanged, and forgets to adapt this fragment to its new context. Similarly our author lays the Book of Enoch under contribution, and is of great value in this respect in determining the dates of the various sections of this book. See Introd. to I Book of Enoch, in loc. For other authorities and traditions used by our author see Charles's edition, 13.
11. JUBILEES IS A PRODUCT OF THE MIDRASHIC TENDENCY WHICH HAD BEEN ALREADY AT WORK IN THE O.T. BOOKS OF CHRONICLES.
The Chronicler rewrote with an object the earlier history of Israel and Judah already recounted in Samuel and Kings. His object was to represent David and his pious successors as observing all the prescripts of the law according to the Priests' Code. In the course of this process all facts that did not square with the Chronicler's presuppositions were either omitted or transformed. Now the author of Jubilees sought to do for Genesis what the Chronicler had done for Samuel and Kings, and so he rewrote it in such a way as to show that the law was rigorously observed even by the Patriarchs. The author represents his book to be as a whole a revelation of God to Moses, forming a supplement to and an interpretation of the Pentateuch, which he designates 'the first law' (vi. 22). This revelation was in part a secret republication of the traditions handed down from father to son in antediluvian and subsequent times. From the time of Moses onwards it was preserved in the hands of the priesthood, till the time came for its being made known.
Our author's procedure is of course in direct antagonism with the presuppositions of the Priests' Code in Genesis, for according to this code 'Noah may build no altar, Abraham offer no sacrifice, Jacob erect no sacred pillar. No offering is recorded till Aaron and his sons are ready' (Carpenter, The Hexateuch, i. 124). This fact seems to emphasize in the strongest manner how freely our author reinterpreted his authorities for the past. But he was only using to the full a right that had been exercised for nearly four centuries already in regard to Prophecy and for four or thereabouts in regard to the law.
12. OBJECT OF JUBILEES -THE DEFENCE AND EXPOSITION OF JUDAISM FROM THE PHARISAIC STANDPOINT OF THE SECOND CENTURY B.C.
The object of our author was to defend Judaism against the disintegrating effects of Hellenism, and this he did (a) by glorifying the law as an eternal ordinance and representing the patriarchs as models of piety; (b) by glorifying Israel and insisting on its separation from the Gentiles; and (e) by denouncing the Gentiles and particularly Israel's national enemies. In this last respect Judaism regarded its own attitude to the Gentiles as not only justifiable but also just, because it was a reflection of the divine.
But on (a) it is to be observed further that to our author the law, as a whole, was the realization in time of what was in a sense timeless and eternal. It was observed not only on earth by Israel but in heaven. Parts of the law might have only a time reference, to Israel on earth, but in the privileges of circumcision and the Sabbath, as its highest and everlasting expression, the highest orders of archangels in heaven shared with Israel (ii. i8, 19, 21; xv. 26-28). The law, therefore, was supreme, and could admit of no assessor in the form of Prophecy. There was no longer any prophet because the law had made the free exercise of his gift an offence against itself and God. So far, therefore, as Prophecy existed, it could exist only under the guise of pseudonymity. The seer, who had like Daniel and others a message for his time, could only gain a hearing by issuing it under the name of some ancient worthy.
13. THE AUTHOR -A PHARISEE WHO RECOGNIZED THE MACCABEAN PONTIFICATE AND WAS PROBABLY A PRIEST.
Since our author was an upholder of the everlasting validity of the law, and held the strictest views on circumcision, the Sabbath, and the duty of complete separation from the Gentiles, since he believed in angels and demons and a blessed immortality, he was unquestionably a Pharisee of the strictest sect. In the next place, he was a supporter of the Maccabean pontificate. He glorifies Levi's successors as high-priests and civil rulers, and applies to them the title priests of the Most High God '-the title assumed by the Maccabean princes (xxxii. 1). He was not, however, so thoroughgoing an admirer of this dynasty as the authors of Test. Lev. xviii. or Ps. cx, who expected the Messiah to come forth from the Maccabean family. Finally, that our author was a priest might reasonably be inferred from the exaltation of Levi over Judah (xxxi-xxxii), and from the statement in xlv. i6 that the secret traditions, which our author claims to publish, were kept in the hands of Levi's descendants.
14. INFLUENCE ON LATER LITERATURE.
On the influence of Jubilees on I Enoch i-v, xci-civ, Wisdom (?), 4 Ezra, Chronicles of Jerachmeel, Midrash Tadshe, Book of Jasher, the Samaritan Chronicle, on Patristic and other writings, and on the New Testament writers, see Charles's edition, pp. lxxiii-lxxxvi.
15. THEOLOGY. SOME OF OUR AUTHOR'S VIEWS.
Freedom and determinism. The author of Jubilees is a true Pharisee in that he combines belief in Divine omnipotence and providence with the belief in human freedom and responsibility. He would have adopted heartily the statement of the Pss. Sol. ix. 7 (written some sixty years or more later) (Gk.) ta erga emon en ekloge kai exousia tes psuches emon, tou poiesai dikaiosunen kai adikian en ergois cheiron emon: v. 6 anthropos kai e meris autou para soi en stathmo ou prosthesei tou pleonasai para to krima sou, o theos. Thus the path in which a man should walk is ordained for him and the judgement of all men predetermined on the heavenly tablets: 'And the judgment of all is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets in righteousness -even the judgment of all who depart from the path which is ordained for them to walk in' (v.13). This idea of an absolute determinism underlies many conceptions of the heavenly tablets (see Charles's edition, iii. 10 note). On the other hand, man's freedom and responsibility are fully recognized: 'If they walk not therein, judgment is written down for every creature' (v. 13): 'Beware lest thou walk in their ways, And tread in their paths, And sin a sin unto death before the Most High God. Else He will give thee back into the hand of thy transgression.' Even when a man has sinned deeply he can repent and be forgiven (xli. 24 seq.), but the human will needs the strengthening of a moral dynamic: 'May the Most High God . . . strengthen thee to do His will' (xxi. 25, xxii. 10).
The Fall. The effects of the Fall were limited to Adam and the animal creation. Adam was driven from the garden (iii. 17 seqq.) and the animal creation was robbed of the power of speech (iii. 28). But the subsequent depravity of the human race is not traced to the Fall but to the seduction of the daughters of men by the angels, who had been sent down to instruct men (v.1-4), and to the solicitations of demonic spirits (vii. 27). The evil engendered by the former was brought to an end by the destruction of all the descendants of the angels and of their victims by the Deluge, but the incitement to sin on the part of the demons was to last to the final judgement (vii. 27, x. 1-15, xi. 4 seq., xii. 20). This last view appears in I Enoch and the N.T.
The Law. The law was of eternal validity. It was not the expression of the religious consciousness of one or of several ages, but the revelation in time of what was valid from the beginning and unto all eternity. The various enactments of the law moral and ritual, were written on the heavenly tablets (iii. 31, vi. 17, &c.) and revealed to man through the mediation of angels (i. 27). This conception of the law, as I have already pointed out, made prophecy impossible unless under the guise of pseudonymity. Since the law was the ultimate and complete expression of absolute truth, there was no room for any further revelation: much less could any such revelation, were it conceivable, supersede a single jot or tittle of the law as already revealed. The ideal of the faithful Jew was to be realized in the fulfilment of the moral and ritual precepts of this law: the latter were of no less importance than the former. Though this view of morality tends to be mainly external, our author strikes a deeper note when he declares that, when Israel turned to God with their whole heart, He would circumcise the foreskin of their heart and create a right spirit within them and cleanse them, so that they would not turn away from Him for ever (i. 23). Our author specially emphasizes certain elements of the law such as circumcision (xvi. 14, xv. 26, 29), the Sabbath (ii. 18 seq., 31 seq.), eating of blood (vi. 14), tithing of the tithe (xxxii. 10), Feast of Tabernacles (xvi. 29), Feast of Weeks (vi. 17), the absolute prohibition of mixed marriages (xx. 4, xxii. 20, xxv. 1-10). In connexion with many of these he enunciates halacha which belong to an earlier date than those in the Mishnah, but which were either modified or abrogated by later authorities.
The Messiah. Although our author is an upholder of the Maccabean dynasty he still clings like the writer of I Enoch lxxxiii-xc to the hope of a Messiah sprung from Judah. He makes, however, only one reference to this Messiah, and no role of any importance is assigned to him (see Charles's edition, xxxi. 18 n.). The Messianic expectation showed no vigorous life throughout this century till it was identified with the Maccabean family. If we are right in regarding the Messianic kingdom as of temporary duration, this is the first instance in which the Messiah is associated with a temporary Messianic kingdom.
The Messianic kingdom. According to our author (i. 29, xxiii. 30) this kingdom was to be brought about gradually by the progressive spiritual development of man and a corresponding transformation of nature. Its members were to attain to the full limit of 1,000 years in happiness and peace. During its continuance the powers of evil were to be restrained (xxiii. 29). The last judgement was apparently to take place at its close (xxiii. 30). This view was possibly derived from Mazdeism.
The writer of Jubilees, we can hardly doubt, thought that the era of the Messianic kingdom had already set in. Such an expectation was often cherished in the prosperous days of the Maccabees. Thus it was entertained by the writer of I Enoch lxxxiii-xc in the days of Judas before 161 B.C. Whether Jonathan was looked upon as the divine agent for introducing the kingdom we cannot say, but as to Simon being regarded in this light there is no doubt. Indeed, his contemporaries came to regard him as the Messiah himself, as we see from Psalm cx, or Hyrcanus in the noble Messianic hymn in Test. Levi 18. The tame effus1on in 1 Macc. xiv. 8-15 is a relic of such literature, which was emasculated by its Sadducean editor. Simon was succeeded by John Hyrcanus in 135 B.C. and this great prince seemed to his countrymen to realize the expectations of the past; for according to a contemporary writer (Test. Levi 8) he embraced in his own person the triple office of prophet, priest, and civil ruler (xxxi. i5), while according to the Test. Reuben 6 he was to 'die on behalf of Israel in wars seen and unseen'. In both these passages he seems to be accorded the Messianic office, but not so in our author, as we have seen above. Hyrcanus is only to introduce the Messianic kingdom, over which the Messiah sprung from Judah is to rule.
Priesthood of Melchizedek. That there was originally an account of Melchizedek in our text we have shown in the note on xiii. 2,5, and, that the Maccabean high-priests deliberately adopted the title applied to him in Gen. xiv, we have pointed out in the note on xxxii. I. It would be interesting to inquire how far the writer of Hebrews was indebted to the history of the great Maccabean king-priests for the idea of the Melchizedekian priesthood of which he has made so fruitful a use in chap. vii as applied to our Lord.
The Future Life. In our text all hope of a resurrection of the body is abandoned. The souls of the righteous will enjoy a blessed immortality after death (xxiii. 31). This is the earliest attested instance of this expectation in the last two centuries B.C. It is next found in Enoch xci-civ.
The Jewish Calendar. For our author's peculiar views see Charles's edition 18 and the notes on vi. 29-30, 32, xv. I.
Angelology. We shall confine our attention here to notable parallels between our author and the New Testament. Besides the angels of the presence and the angels of sanctification there are the angels who are set over natural phenomena (ii. 2). These angels are inferior to the former. They do not observe the Sabbath as the higher orders; for they are necessarily always engaged in their duties (ii. 18). It is the higher orders that are generally referred to in the New Testament but the angels over natural phenomena are referred to in Revelation: angels of the winds in vii. 1, 2, the angel of fire in xiv. 18, the angel of the waters in xvi. 5 (cf. Jub. ii. 2). Again, the guardian angels of individuals, which the New Testament refers to in Matt. xviii. 10 (Acts xii. 15), are mentioned, for the first time in Jubilees xxxv. 17. On the angelology of our author see Charles's edition.
Demonology. The demonology of our author reappears for the most part in the New Testament:
(a) The angels which kept not their first estate, Jude 6 ; 2 Peter ii. 4, are the angelic watchers who, though sent down to instruct mankind (Jub. iv. 15), fell from lusting after the daughters of men. Their fall and punishment are recorded in Jub. iv. 22, v.1-9.
(b) The demons are the spirits which went forth from the souls of the giants who were the children of the fallen angels, Jub. v. 7, 9. These demons attacked men and ruled over them (x. 3, 6). Their purpose is to corrupt and lead astray and destroy the wicked (x. 8). They are subject to the prince Mastema (x. 9), or Satan. Men sacrifice to them as gods (xxii. 17). They are to pursue their work of moral ruin till the judgement of Mastema (x. 8) or the setting up of the Messianic kingdom, when Satan will be no longer able to injure mankind (xxiii. 29).
So in the New Testament, the demons are disembodied spirits (Matt. xii. 43-5; Luke xi. 24-6). Their chief is Satan (Mark iii. 22). They are treated as divinities of the heathen (I Cor. x. 20). They are not to be punished till the final judgement (Matt. viii. 29). On the advent of the Millennium Satan will be bound (Rev. xx. 2-3).
Judgement. The doctrine of retribution is strongly enforced by our author. It is to be individual and national in this world and in the next. As regards the individual the law of exact retribution is according to our author not merely an enactment of human justice -the ancient lox talionis, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; it is observed by God in His government of the world. The penalty follows in the line of the sin. This view is enforced in 2 Macc. v. 10, where it is said of Jason, that, as he robbed multitudes of the rites of sepulture, so he himself was deprived of them in turn, and in xv. 32 seq. it is recounted of Nicanor that he was punished in those members with which he had sinned. So also in our text in reference to Cain iv. 31 seq. and the Egyptians xlviii. 14. Taken crassly and mechanically the above law is without foundation, but spiritually conceived it represented the profound truth of the kinship of the penalty to the sin enunciated repeatedly in the New Testament: 'Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap' (Gal. vi.;); 'he that doeth wrong shall receive again the wrong that he hath done' (Col. iii. 25, &c.). Again in certain cases the punishment was to follow instantaneously on the transgression (xxxvii. 17).
The final judgement was to take place at the close of the Messianic kingdom (xxiii. 30). This judgement embraces the human and superhuman worlds (v. 10 seq., 14). At this judgement there will be no respect of persons, but all will be judged according to their opportunities and abilities (v. 15 seq.). From the standpoint of our author there could be no hope for the Gentiles.
16. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
(a) Greek Version: see above, 4 (a). Ethiopic Version: this text was first edited by Dillmann from two MSS. cd in 1859, and by R. H. Charles from four MSS. abcd. The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees with the Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, and Latin Fragments, Oxford, 1895. Latin Version: see above, 4 (a).
(b) Translations. Dillrnann, Das Buch der Jubilaen . . . aus dem Aethiopischen ubersetzt (Ewald's Jahrbucher d. bibl. Wissensch., 1850-1, ii. 230-56; iii. 1-96). This translation is based on only one MS. Schodde, The Book of Jubilees, translated from the Ethiopic ('Bibliotheca Sacra,' 1885-7): Charles, The Book of Jubilees, translated from a text based on two hitherto uncollated Ethiopic MSS. (Jewish Quarterly Review, 1893, v. 703-8; 1894, vi. 184-217, 710-45; 1895, vii. 297-328): Littmann, Das Buch der Jubilaen (Kantzsch's Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des A. T., 1900, ii. 31-119). This translation is based on Charles's text.
(c) Commentaries. Charles, The Book ofjubilees, 1902. Ronsch published a Commentary on the Latin Version. See above, 4.
(d) Critical Inquiries. Dillmann, 'Pseudepigraphen des A. T.,' Herzog's R. E.2, xii. 364-5; 'Beitrage aus dem Buche der Jubilaen zur Kritik des Pentateuch-Textes' (Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preussischen Akad., 1883); Beer, Das Buch der Jubilaen, 1856; Singer, Das Buck der Jubilaen, 1898; Bohn, 'Die Pedeutung des Buches der Jubilaen' (Theol. Stud. u. Kritiken, 1900, 167-84). For a full bibliography see Charles's Commentary or Schurer.
THE BOOK OF JUBILEES
[Notes and dates added by Mr. Charles will not be given due to length and difficulty in scanning and editing. If this information is desired, please see his book.]
THIS is the 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 spake to Moses on Mount Sinai
when he went up to receive the tables of the law and of the commandment,
according to the voice of God as he said unto him, 'Go up to the top of the
Mount.'
[Chapter 1]
1 And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of
Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month,
[2450 Anno Mundi] that God spake to Moses, saying: 'Come up to Me on the Mount,
and I will give thee two tables of stone of the law and of the commandment,
which
2 I have written, that thou mayst teach them.' And Moses went up into
the mount of God, and the
3 glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and a
cloud overshadowed it six days. And He called to Moses on the seventh day out of
the midst of the cloud, and the appearance of the glory of the
4 Lord was
like a flaming fire on the top of the mount. 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
5 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
6 which I establish between Me and thee for their generations this
day on Mount Sinai. And thus it will come to pass when all these things come
upon them, that they will recognise that I am more righteous than they in all
their judgments and in all their actions, and they will recognise that
7 I
have been truly with them. 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
8 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
10 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
11
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
12 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
13 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.
14 And they will forget all My law and all My commandments and all
My judgments, and will go
15 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
16 that I shall be found of them, when they seek me
with all their heart and with all their soul. And I will disclose to them
abounding peace with righteousness, and I will remove them the plant of
uprightness, with all My heart and with all My soul, and they shall be for a
blessing and not for
17 a curse, and they shall be the head and not the
tail. And I will build My sanctuary in their midst, and I will dwell with them,
and I will be their God and they shall be My people in truth and
18, 19
righteousness. And I will not forsake them nor fail them; for I am the Lord
their God.' And Moses fell on his face and prayed and said, 'O Lord my God, do
not forsake Thy people and Thy inheritance, so that they should wander in the
error of their hearts, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies,
the Gentiles, lest they should rule over them and cause them to sin against
20 Thee. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be lifted up upon Thy people, and create in
them an upright spirit, and let not the spirit of Beliar rule over them to
accuse them before Thee, and to ensnare them
21 from all the paths of
righteousness, so that they may perish from before Thy face. But they are Thy
people and Thy inheritance, which thou hast delivered with thy great power from
the hands of the Egyptians: create in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, and
let them not be ensnared in
22 their sins from henceforth until eternity.'
And the Lord said unto Moses: 'I know their contrariness and their thoughts and
their stiffneckedness, and they will not be obedient till they confess
23
their own sin and the sin of their fathers. And after this they will turn to Me
in all uprightness and with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and I
will circumcise the foreskin of their heart and the foreskin of the heart of
their seed, and I will create in them a holy spirit, and I will cleanse them so
that they shall not turn away from Me from that day unto eternity.
24 And
their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil
My
25 commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My
children. And they all shall be called children of the living God, and every
angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they shall know that these are My
children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that
26 I love them. And do thou write down for thyself all these words which I
declare unto thee on this mountain, the first and the last, which shall come to
pass in all the divisions of the days in the law and in the testimony and in the
weeks and the jubilees unto eternity, until I descend and dwell
27 with them
throughout eternity.' And He said to the angel of the presence: Write for Moses
from
28 the beginning of creation till My sanctuary has been built among
them for all eternity. And the Lord will appear to the eyes of all, and all
shall know that I am the God of Israel and the Father of all the children of
Jacob, and King on Mount Zion for all eternity. And Zion and Jerusalem shall
29 be holy.' And the angel of the presence who went before the camp of
Israel took the tables of the divisions of the years -from the time of the
creation- of the law and of the testimony of the weeks of the jubilees,
according to the individual years, according to all the number of the jubilees
[according, to the individual years], from the day of the [new] creation when
the heavens and the earth shall be renewed and all their creation according to
the powers of the heaven, and according to all the creation of the earth, until
the sanctuary of the Lord shall be made in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and all the
luminaries be renewed for healing and for peace and for blessing for all the
elect of Israel, and that thus it may be from that day and unto all the days of
the earth.
[Chapter 2]
1 And the angel of the presence spake to Moses according to the word of
the Lord, saying: Write the complete history of the creation, how in six days
the Lord God finished all His works and all that He created, and kept Sabbath on
the seventh day and hallowed it for all ages, and
2 appointed it as a sign
for all His works. For on the first day He created the heavens which are above
and the earth and the waters and all the spirits which serve before him -the
angels of the presence, and the angels of sanctification, and the angels [of the
spirit of fire and the angels] of the spirit of the winds, and the angels of the
spirit of the clouds, and of darkness, and of snow and of hail and of hoar
frost, and the angels of the voices and of the thunder and of the lightning, and
the angels of the spirits of cold and of heat, and of winter and of spring and
of autumn and of summer and of all the spirits of his creatures which are in the
heavens and on the earth, (He created) the abysses and the darkness, eventide
(and night), and the light, dawn and day, which He hath
3 prepared in the
knowledge of his heart. And thereupon we saw His works, and praised Him, and
lauded before Him on account of all His works; for seven great works did He
create on the first day.
4 And on the second day He created the firmament in
the midst of the waters, and the waters were divided on that day -half of them
went up above and half of them went down below the firmament (that was) in the
midst over the face of the whole earth. And this was the only work (God)
created
5 on the second day. And on the third day He commanded the waters to
pass from off the face of
6 the whole earth into one place, and the dry land
to appear. And the waters did so as He commanded them, and they retired from off
the face of the earth into one place outside of this firmament,
7 and the dry
land appeared. And on that day He created for them all the seas according to
their separate gathering-places, and all the rivers, and the gatherings of the
waters in the mountains and on all the earth, and all the lakes, and all the dew
of the earth, and the seed which is sown, and all sprouting things, and
fruit-bearing trees, and trees of the wood, and the garden of Eden, in Eden
8
and all
9 light from the
darkness. And God appointed the sun to be a great sign on the earth for days
and
10 for sabbaths and for months and for feasts and for years and for
sabbaths of years and for jubilees and for all seasons of the years. And it
divideth the light from the darkness [and] for prosperity, that all things may
prosper which shoot and grow on the earth. These three kinds He made on the
fourth day. And on the fifth day He created great sea monsters in the depths of
the waters, for these were the first things of flesh that were created by his
hands, the fish and everything that moves in the
12 waters, and everything
that flies, the birds and all their kind. And the sun rose above them to prosper
(them), and above everything that was on the earth, everything that shoots out
of the earth, and all
13 fruit-bearing trees, and all flesh. These three
kinds He created on the fifth day. And on the sixth day
14 He created all the
animals of the earth, and all cattle, and everything that moves on the earth.
And after all this He created man, a man and a woman created He them, and gave
him dominion over all that is upon the earth, and in the seas, and over
everything that flies, and over beasts and over cattle, and over everything that
moves on the earth, and over the whole earth, and over all this He gave
15
him dominion. And these four kinds He created on the sixth day. And there were
altogether
16 two and twenty kinds. And He finished all his work on the sixth
day -all that is in the heavens and on the earth, and in the seas and in the
abysses, and in the light and in the darkness, and in
17 everything. And He
gave us a great sign, the Sabbath day, that we should work six days, but
18
keep Sabbath on the seventh day from all work. And all the angels of the
presence, and all the angels of sanctification, these two great classes -He hath
bidden us to keep the Sabbath with Him
19 in heaven and on earth. And He
said unto us: 'Behold, I will separate unto Myself a people from among all the
peoples, and these shall keep the Sabbath day, and I will sanctify them unto
Myself as My people, and will bless them; as I have sanctified the Sabbath day
and do sanctify (it) unto
20 Myself, even so will I bless them, and they
shall be My people and I will be their God. And I have chosen the seed of Jacob
from amongst all that I have seen, and have written him down as My first-born
son,and have sanctified him unto Myself for ever and ever; and I will teach them
the
21 Sabbath day, that they may keep Sabbath thereon from all work.' And
thus He created therein a sign in accordance with which they should keep Sabbath
with us on the seventh day, to eat and to drink, and to bless Him who has
created all things as He has blessed and sanctified unto Himself
22 a
peculiar people above all peoples, and that they should keep Sabbath together
with us. And He caused His commands to ascend as a sweet savour acceptable
before Him all the days . . .
23 There (were) two and twenty heads of mankind
from Adam to Jacob, and two and twenty kinds of work were made until the seventh
day; this is blessed and holy; and the former also is blessed and
24 holy;
and this one serves with that one for sanctification and blessing. And to this
(Jacob and his seed) it was granted that they should always be the blessed and
holy ones of the first testimony
25 and law, even as He had sanctified and
blessed the Sabbath day on the seventh day. He created heaven and earth and
everything that He created in six days, and God made the seventh day holy, for
all His works; therefore He commanded on its behalf that, whoever does any work
thereon
26 shall die, and that he who defiles it shall surely die. Wherefore
do thou command the children of Israel to observe this day that they may keep it
holy and not do thereon any work, and not to
27 defile it, as it is holier
than all other days. And whoever profanes it shall surely die, and whoever does
thereon any work shall surely die eternally, that the children of Israel may
observe this day throughout their generations, and not be rooted out of the
land; for it is a holy day and a blessed
28 day. And every one who observes
it and keeps Sabbath thereon from all his work, will be holy and
29 blessed
throughout all days like unto us. Declare and say to the children of Israel the
law of this day both that they should keep Sabbath thereon, and that they should
not forsake it in the error of their hearts; (and) that it is not lawful to do
any work thereon which is unseemly, to do thereon their own pleasure, and that
they should not prepare thereon anything to be eaten or drunk, and (that it is
not lawful) to draw water, or bring in or take out thereon through their gates
any burden,
30 which they had not prepared for themselves on the sixth day in
their dwellings. And they shall not bring in nor take out from house to house on
that day; for that day is more holy and blessed than any jubilee day of the
jubilees; on this we kept Sabbath in the heavens before it was made
31 known
to any flesh to keep Sabbath thereon on the earth. And the Creator of all things
blessed it, but he did not sanctify all peoples and nations to keep Sabbath
thereon, but Israel alone: them
32 alone he permitted to eat and drink and to
keep Sabbath thereon on the earth. And the Creator of all things blessed this
day which He had created for blessing and holiness and glory above all
33
days. This law and testimony was given to the children of Israel as a law for
ever unto their generations.
[Chapter 3]
1 And on the six days of the second week we brought, according to the
word of God, unto Adam all the beasts, and all the cattle, and all the birds,
and everything that moves on the earth, and everything that moves in the water,
according to their kinds, and according to their types: the beasts on the first
day; the cattle on the second day; the birds on the third day; and all that
which moves on the earth on the fourth day; and that which moves in the water on
the fifth day.
2 And Adam named them all by their respective names, and as he
called them, so was their name.
3 And on these five days Adam saw all these,
male and female, according to every kind that was on
4 the earth, but he was
alone and found no helpmeet for him. And the Lord said unto us: 'It is not
5
good that the man should be alone: let us make a helpmeet for him.' And the Lord
our God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and he slept, and He took for the
woman one rib from amongst
6 his ribs, and this rib was the origin of the
woman from amongst his ribs, and He built up the flesh in its stead, and built
the woman. And He awaked Adam out of his sleep and on awaking he rose on the
sixth day, and He brought her to him, and he knew her, and said unto her: 'This
is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called
7 [my]
wife; because she was taken from her husband.' Therefore shall man and wife be
one and therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto
his wife, and they shall be
8 one flesh. In the first week was Adam created,
and the rib -his wife: in the second week He showed her unto him: and for this
reason the commandment was given to keep in their defilement,
9 for a male
seven days, and for a female twice seven days. And after Adam had completed
forty days in the land where he had been created, we brought him into the garden
of Eden to till and keep it, but his wife they brought in on the eightieth day,
and after this she entered into the garden
10 of Eden. And for this reason
the commandment is written on the heavenly tablets in regard to her that gives
birth: 'if she bears a male, she shall remain in her uncleanness seven days
according to the first week of days, and thirty and three days shall she remain
in the blood of her purifying, and she shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor
enter into the sanctuary, until she accomplishes these
11 days which (are
enjoined) in the case of a male child. But in the case of a female child she
shall remain in her uncleanness two weeks of days, according to the first two
weeks, and sixty-six days
12 in the blood of her purification, and they will
be in all eighty days.' And when she had completed these eighty days we brought
her into the garden of Eden, for it is holier than all the earth besides and
13 every tree that is planted in it is holy. Therefore, there was ordained
regarding her who bears a male or a female child the statute of those days that
she should touch no hallowed thing, nor
14 enter into the sanctuary until
these days for the male or female child are accomplished. This is the law and
testimony which was written down for Israel, in order that they should observe
(it) all the
15 days. And in the first week of the first jubilee, [1-7 A.M.]
Adam and his wife were in the garden of Eden for seven years tilling and keeping
it, and we gave him work and we instructed him to do everything
16 that is
suitable for tillage. And he tilled (the garden), and was naked and knew it not,
and was not ashamed, and he protected the garden from the birds and beasts and
cattle, and gathered its fruit, and eat, and put aside the residue for himself
and for his wife [and put aside that which was
17 being kept]. And after the
completion of the seven years, which he had completed there, seven years
exactly, [8 A.M.] and in the second month, on the seventeenth day (of the
month), the serpent came and approached the woman, and the serpent said to the
woman, 'Hath God commanded you,
18 saying, Ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden?' And she said to it, 'Of all the fruit of the trees of the garden
God hath said unto us, Eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden God hath said unto us, Ye shall not eat thereof, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die.' And the serpent said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not
surely die: for God doth know that on the day ye shall eat thereof, your eyes
will be opened, and ye will be as gods, and ye will know good and
20 evil.
And the woman saw the tree that it was agreeable and pleasant to the eye, and
that its fruit
21 was good for food, and she took thereof and eat. And when
she had first covered her shame with figleaves, she gave thereof to Adam and he
eat, and his eyes were opened, and he saw that he was
22 naked. And he took
figleaves and sewed (them) together, and made an apron for himself, and
23,
24 covered his shame. And God cursed the serpent, and was wroth with it for ever
. . . And He was wroth with the woman, because she harkened to the voice of the
serpent, and did eat; and He said unto her: 'I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy pains: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
25 children, and thy return
shall be unto thy husband, and he will rule over thee.' And to Adam also he
said, ' Because thou hast harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree of which I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat thereof, cursed be
the ground for thy sake: thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and
thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy face, till thou returnest to the
earth from whence thou wast taken; for earth thou art, and unto earth
shalt
26 thou return.' And He made for them coats of skin, and clothed them,
and sent them forth from
27 the Garden of Eden. And on that day on which Adam
went forth from the Garden, he offered as a sweet savour an offering,
frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the
28
rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame. And on that day was
closed the mouth of all beasts, and of cattle, and of birds, and of whatever
walks, and of whatever moves, so that they could no longer speak: for they had
all spoken one with another with one lip and with one tongue.
29 And He sent
out of the Garden of Eden all flesh that was in the Garden of Eden, and all
flesh was scattered according to its kinds, and according to its types unto the
places which had been created
30 for them. And to Adam alone did He give (the
wherewithal) to cover his shame, of all the beasts and
31 cattle. On this
account, it is prescribed on the heavenly tablets as touching all those who know
the judgment of the law, that they should cover their shame, and should not
uncover themselves as the
32 Gentiles uncover themselves. And on the new moon
of the fourth month, Adam and his wife went
33 forth from the Garden of Eden,
and they dwelt in the land of Elda in the land of their creation. And
34 Adam
called the name of his wife Eve. And they had no son till the first jubilee, [8
A.M.] and after this he
35 knew her. Now he tilled the land as he had been
instructed in the Garden of Eden.
[Chapter 4]
1 And in the third week in the second jubilee she gave birth to Cain, and
in the fourth she gave birth to Abel, and in the fifth she gave birth to her
daughter Awan. And in the first (year) of the third jubilee, Cain slew Abel
because (God) accepted the sacrifice of Abel, and did not accept
3 the
offering of Cain. And he slew him in the field: and his blood cried from the
ground to heaven,
4 complaining because he had slain him. And the Lord
reproved Cain because of Abel, because he had slain him, and he made him a
fugitive on the earth because of the blood of his brother, and he
5 cursed
him upon the earth. And on this account it is written on the heavenly tables,
'Cursed is ,he who smites his neighbour treacherously, and let all who have seen
and heard say, So be it; and
6 the man who has seen and not declared (it),
let him be accursed as the other.' And for this reason we announce when we come
before the Lord our God all the sin which is committed in heaven and
7 on
earth, and in light and in darkness, and everywhere. And Adam and his wife
mourned for Abel four weeks of years, [99-127 A.M] and in the fourth year of the
fifth week [130 A.M.] they became joyful, and Adam knew his wife again, and she
bare him a son, and he called his name Seth; for he said 'GOD has
8 raised up
a second seed unto us on the earth instead of Abel; for Cain slew him.' And in
the sixth
9 week [134-40 A.M.] he begat his daughter Azura. And Cain took
Awan his sister to be his wife and she bare him Enoch at the close of the fourth
jubilee. [190-196 A.M.] And in the first year of the first week of the fifth
jubilee, [197 A.M.] houses were built on the earth, and Cain built a city, and
called its name after the name of
10, 11 his son Enoch. And Adam knew Eve
his wife and she bare yet nine sons. And in the fifth week of the fifth jubilee
[225-31 A.M.] Seth took Azura his sister to be his wife, and in the fourth (year
of the sixth
12,13 week) [235 A.M.] she bare him Enos. He began to call on
the name of the Lord on the earth. And in the seventh jubilee in the third week
[309-15 A.M.] Enos took Noam his sister to be his wife, and she bare him a son
14 in the third year of the fifth week, and he called his name Kenan. And at
the close of the eighth jubilee [325, 386-3992 A.M.] Kenan took Mualeleth his
sister to be his wife, and she bare him a son in the ninth jubilee,
15 in
the first week in the third year of this week, [395 A.M] and he called his name
Mahalalel. And in the second week of the tenth jubilee [449-55 A.M.] Mahalalel
took unto him to wife DinaH, the daughter of Barakiel the daughter of his
father's brother, and she bare him a son in the third week in the sixth year,
[461 A.M.] and he called his name Jared, for in his days the angels of the Lord
descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should
instruct the children of men, and that they should do
16 judgment and
uprightness on the earth. And in the eleventh jubilee [512-18 A.M.] Jared took
to himself a wife, and her name was Baraka, the daughter of Rasujal, a daughter
of his father's brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, [522 A.M.] and she
bare him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee, and
17
he called his name Enoch. And he was the first among men that are born on earth
who learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote down the signs of
heaven according to the order of their months in a book, that men might know the
seasons of the years according to the order of
18 their separate months. And
he was the first to write a testimony and he testified to the sons of men among
the generations of the earth, and recounted the weeks of the jubilees, and made
known to them the days of the years, and set in order the months and recounted
the Sabbaths of the years
19 as we made (them), known to him. And what was
and what will be he saw in a vision of his sleep, as it will happen to the
children of men throughout their generations until the day of judgment; he saw
and understood everything, and wrote his testimony, and placed the testimony on
earth for all
20 the children of men and for their generations. And in the
twelfth jubilee, [582-88] in the seventh week thereof, he took to himself a
wife, and her name was Edna, the daughter of Danel, the daughter of his father's
brother, and in the sixth year in this week [587 A.M.] she bare him a son and he
called his name
21 Methuselah. And he was moreover with the angels of God
these six jubilees of years, and they showed him everything which is on earth
and in the heavens, the rule of the sun, and he wrote down
22 everything. And
he testified to the Watchers, who had sinned with the daughters of men; for
these had begun to unite themselves, so as to be defiled, with the daughters of
men, and Enoch
23 testified against (them) all. And he was taken from amongst
the children of men, and we conducted him into the Garden of Eden in majesty and
honour, and behold there he writes down the con-
24 demnation and judgment of
the world, and all the wickedness of the children of men. And on account of it
(God) brought the waters of the flood upon all the land of Eden; for there he
was set as a sign and that he should testify against all the children of men,
that he should recount all the
25 deeds of the generations until the day of
condemnation. And he burnt the incense of the sanctuary,
26 (even) sweet
spices acceptable before the Lord on the Mount. For the Lord has four places on
the earth, the Garden of Eden, and the Mount of the East, and this mountain on
which thou art this day, Mount Sinai, and Mount Zion (which) will be sanctified
in the new creation for a sanctification of the earth; through it will the earth
be sanctified from all (its) guilt and its uncleanness through-
27 out the
generations of the world. And in the fourteenth jubilee [652 A.M.] Methuselah
took unto himself a wife, Edna the daughter of Azrial, the daughter of his
father's brother, in the third week, in the
28 first year of this week,
[701-7 A.M.] and he begat a son and called his name Lamech. And in the fifteenth
jubilee in the third week Lamech took to himself a wife, and her name was
Betenos the daughter of Baraki'il, the daughter of his father's brother, and in
this week she bare him a son and he called his name Noah, saying, 'This one will
comfort me for my trouble and all my work, and for the ground
29 which the
Lord hath cursed.' And at the close of the nineteenth jubilee, in the seventh
week in the sixth year [930 A.M.] thereof, Adam died, and all his sons buried
him in the land of his creation, and he
30 was the first to be buried in the
earth. And he lacked seventy years of one thousand years; for one thousand years
are as one day in the testimony of the heavens and therefore was it written
concerning the tree of knowledge: 'On the day that ye eat thereof ye shall die.'
For this reason he
31 did not complete the years of this day; for he died
during it. At the close of this jubilee Cain was killed after him in the same
year; for his house fell upon him and he died in the midst of his house, and he
was killed by its stones; for with a stone he had killed Abel, and by a stone
was he killed in
32 righteous judgment. For this reason it was ordained on
the heavenly tablets: With the instrument with which a man kills his neighbour
with the same shall he be killed; after the manner that
33 he wounded him, in
like manner shall they deal with him.' And in the twenty-fifth [1205 A.M.]
jubilee Noah took to himself a wife, and her name was Emzara, the daughter of
Rake'el, the daughter of his father's brother, in the first year in the fifth
week [1207 A.M.]: and in the third year thereof she bare him Shem, in the fifth
year thereof [1209 A.M.] she bare him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth
week [1212 A.M.] she bare him Japheth.
[Chapter 5]
1 And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the
face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw
them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon;
and they took themselves wives of all whom they
2 chose, and they bare unto
them sons and they were giants. And lawlessness increased on the earth and all
flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and
everything that walks on the earth -all of them corrupted their ways and their
orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the
earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all men
3 (was) thus evil
continually. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, and all
flesh had corrupted its orders, and all that were upon the earth had wrought all
manner of evil
4 before His eyes. And He said that He would destroy man and
all flesh upon the face of the earth
5,6 which He had created. But Noah
found grace before the eyes of the Lord. And against the angels whom He had sent
upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandment to root them
out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the
earth, and
7 behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are (kept)
separate. And against their sons went forth a command from before His face that
they should be smitten with the sword, and be removed
8 from under heaven.
And He said 'My spirit shall not always abide on man; for they also are flesh
9 and their days shall be one hundred and twenty years'. And He sent His
sword into their midst that each should slay his neighbour, and they began to
slay each other till they all fell by the sword
10 and were destroyed from
the earth. And their fathers were witnesses (of their destruction), and after
this they were bound in the depths of the earth for ever, until the day of the
great condemnation, when judgment is executed on all those who have corrupted
their ways and their works before
11 the Lord. And He destroyed all from
their places, and there was not left one of them whom
12 He judged not
according to all their wickedness. And he made for all his works a new and
righteous nature, so that they should not sin in their whole nature for ever,
but should be all
13 righteous each in his kind alway. And the judgment of
all is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets in righteousness -even (the
judgment of) all who depart from the path which is ordained for them to walk in;
and if they walk not therein, judgment is written down for every creature and
14 for every kind. And there is nothing in heaven or on earth, or in light
or in darkness, or in Sheol or in the depth, or in the place of darkness (which
is not judged); and all their judgments are
15 ordained and written and
engraved. In regard to all He will judge,the great according to his
16
greatness, and the small according to his smallness, and each according to his
way. And He is not one who will regard the person (of any), nor is He one who
will receive gifts, if He says that He will execute judgment on each: if one
gave everything that is on the earth, He will not regard the
17 gifts or the
person (of any), nor accept anything at his hands, for He is a righteous judge.
[And of the children of Israel it has been written and ordained: If they turn to
him in righteousness He will forgive all their transgressions and pardon all
their sins. It is written and ordained that
19 He will show mercy to all who
turn from all their guilt once each year.] And as for all those who corrupted
their ways and their thoughts before the flood, no man's person was accepted
save that of Noah alone; for his person was accepted in behalf of his sons, whom
(God) saved from the waters of the flood on his account; for his heart was
righteous in all his ways, according as it was com-
20 manded regarding him,
and he had not departed from aught that was ordained for him. And the Lord said
that he would destroy everything which was upon the earth, both men and cattle,
and
21 beasts, and fowls of the air, and that which moveth on the earth. And
He commanded Noah to
22 make him an ark, that he might save himself from the
waters of the flood. And Noah made the ark in all respects as He commanded him,
in the twenty-seventh jubilee of years, in the fifth week
23 in the fifth
year (on the new moon of the first month). [1307 A.M.] And he entered in the
sixth (year) thereof, [1308 A.M.] in the second month, on the new moon of the
second month, till the sixteenth; and he entered, and all that we brought to
him, into the ark, and the Lord closed it from without on the seventeenth
evening.
24 And the Lord opened seven flood-gates of heaven,
And the
mouths of the fountains of the great deep, seven mouths in number.
25 And the
flood-gates began to pour down water from the heaven forty days and forty
nights,
And the fountains of the deep also sent up waters, until the whole
world was full of water.
26 And the waters increased upon the earth: Fifteen
cubits did the waters rise above all the high mountains, And the ark was lift up
above the earth,
And it moved upon the face of the waters.
27 And the
water prevailed on the face of the earth five months -one hundred and fifty
days.
28, 29 And the ark went and rested on the top of Lubar, one of the
mountains of Ararat. And (on the new moon) in the fourth month the fountains of
the great deep were closed and the flood-gates of heaven were restrained; and on
the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths of the abysses
30 of the
earth were opened, and the water began to descend into the deep below. And on
the new moon of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen, and on the
new moon of the first 31 month the earth became visible. And the waters
disappeared from above the earth in the fifth week in the seventh year [1309
A.M.] thereof, and on the seventeenth day in the second month the earth was
dry.
32 And on the twenty-seventh thereof he opened the ark, and sent forth
from it beasts, and cattle, and birds, and every moving thing.
[Chapter 6]
1 And on the new moon of the third month he went forth from the ark, and
built an altar on
2 that mountain. And he made atonement for the earth, and
took a kid and made atonement by its blood for all the guilt of the earth; for
everything that had been on it had been destroyed, save
3 those that were in
the ark with Noah. And he placed the fat thereof on the altar, and he took an
ox, and a goat, and a sheep and kids, and salt, and a turtle-dove, and the young
of a dove, and placed a burnt sacrifice on the altar, and poured thereon an
offering mingled with oil, and sprinkled wine and strewed frankincense over
everything, and caused a goodly savour to arise, acceptable before
4 the
Lord. And the Lord smelt the goodly savour, and He made a covenant with him that
there should not be any more a flood to destroy the earth; that all the days of
the earth seed-time and harvest should never cease; cold and heat, and summer
and winter, and day and night should not
5 change their order, nor cease for
ever. 'And you, increase ye and multiply upon the earth, and become many upon
it, and be a blessing upon it. The fear of you and the dread of you I will
6
inspire in everything that is on earth and in the sea. And behold I have given
unto you all beasts, and all winged things, and everything that moves on the
earth, and the fish in the waters, and all
7 things for food; as the green
herbs, I have given you all things to eat. But flesh, with the life thereof,
with the blood, ye shall not eat; for the life of all flesh is in the blood,
lest your blood of your lives be required. At the hand of every man, at the hand
of every (beast) will I require the
8 blood of man. Whoso sheddeth man's
blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of
9,10 God made He
man. And you, increase ye, and multiply on the earth.' And Noah and his sons
swore that they would not eat any blood that was in any flesh, and he made a
covenant before the
11 Lord God for ever throughout all the generations of
the earth in this month. On this account He spake to thee that thou shouldst
make a covenant with the children of Israel in this month upon the mountain with
an oath, and that thou shouldst sprinkle blood upon them because of all the
words
12 of the covenant, which the Lord made with them for ever. And this
testimony is written concerning you that you should observe it continually, so
that you should not eat on any day any blood of beasts or birds or cattle during
all the days of the earth, and the man who eats the blood of beast or of cattle
or of birds during all the days of the earth, he and his seed shall be rooted
out of the land.
13 And do thou command the children of Israel to eat no
blood, so that their names and their seed
14 may be before the Lord our God
continually. And for this law there is no limit of days, for it is for ever.
They shall observe it throughout their generations, so that they may continue
supplicating on your behalf with blood before the altar; every day and at the
time of morning and evening they shall seek forgiveness on your behalf
perpetually before the Lord that they may keep
15 it and not be rooted out.
And He gave to Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again
16 be a
flood on the earth. He set His bow in the cloud for a sign of the eternal
covenant that there
17 should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy
it all the days of the earth. For this reason it is ordained and written on the
heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this
18
month once a year, to renew the covenant every year. And this whole festival was
celebrated in heaven from the day of creation till the days of Noah -twenty-six
jubilees and five weeks of years [1309-1659 A.M.]: and Noah and his sons
observed it for seven jubilees and one week of years, till the day of Noah's
death, and from the day of Noah's death his sons did away with (it) until the
days of Abraham, and
19 they eat blood. But Abraham observed it, and Isaac
and Jacob and his children observed it up to thy days, and in thy days the
children of Israel forgot it until ye celebrated it anew on this mountain.
20
And do thou command the children of Israel to observe this festival in all their
generations for a
21 commandment unto them: one day in the year in this month
they shall celebrate the festival. For it is the feast of weeks and the feast of
first fruits: this feast is twofold and of a double nature:
22 according to
what is written and engraven concerning it, celebrate it. For I have written in
the book of the first law, in that which I have written for thee, that thou
shouldst celebrate it in its season, one day in the year, and I explained to
thee its sacrifices that the children of Israel should remember and should
celebrate it throughout their generations in this month, one day in every
year.
23 And on the new moon of the first month, and on the new moon of the
fourth month, and on the new moon of the seventh month, and on the new moon of
the tenth month are the days of remembrance, and the days of the seasons in the
four divisions of the year. These are written and ordained
24 as a testimony
for ever. And Noah ordained them for himself as feasts for the generations for
ever,
25 so that they have become thereby a memorial unto him. And on the new
moon of the first month he was bidden to make for himself an ark, and on that
(day) the earth became dry and he opened
26 (the ark) and saw the earth. And
on the new moon of the fourth month the mouths of the depths of the abyss
beneath were closed. And on the new moon of the seventh month all the mouths
of
27 the abysses of the earth were opened, and the waters began to descend
into them. And on the new
28 moon of the tenth month the tops of the
mountains were seen, and Noah was glad. And on this account he ordained them for
himself as feasts for a memorial for ever, and thus are they ordained.
29 And
they placed them on the heavenly tablets, each had thirteen weeks; from one to
another (passed) their memorial, from the first to the second, and from the
second to the third, and from the
30 third to the fourth. And all the days of
the commandment will be two and fifty weeks of days, and (these will make) the
entire year complete. Thus it is engraven and ordained on the heavenly
31
tablets. And there is no neglecting (this commandment) for a single year or from
year to year.
32 And 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, and they will not disturb its time from
its days and from its feasts; for everything will fall out in them according
to
33 their testimony, and they will not leave out any day nor disturb any
feasts. But if they do neglect and do not observe them according to His
commandment, then they will disturb all their seasons and the years will be
dislodged from this (order), [and they will disturb the seasons and the
years
34 will be dislodged] and they will neglect their ordinances. And all
the children of Israel will forget and will not find the path of the years, and
will forget the new moons, and seasons, and sabbaths
35 and they will go
wrong as to all the order of the years. For I know and from henceforth will I
declare it unto thee, and it is not of my own devising; for the book (lies)
written before me, and on the heavenly tablets the division of days is ordained,
lest they forget the feasts of the covenant
36 and walk according to the
feasts of the Gentiles after their error and after their ignorance. For there
will be those who will assuredly make observations of the moon -how (it)
disturbs the
37 seasons and comes in from year to year ten days too soon. For
this reason the years will come upon them when they will disturb (the order),
and make an abominable (day) the day of testimony, and an unclean day a feast
day, and they will confound all the days, the holy with the unclean, and the
unclean day with the holy; for they will go wrong as to the months and sabbaths
and feasts and
38 jubilees. For this reason I command and testify to thee
that thou mayst testify to them; for after thy death thy children will disturb
(them), so that they will not make the year three hundred and sixty-four days
only, and for this reason they will go wrong as to the new moons and seasons and
sabbaths and festivals, and they will eat all kinds of blood with all kinds of
flesh.
[Chapter 7]
1 And in the seventh week in the first year [1317 A.M.] thereof, in this
jubilee, Noah planted vines on the mountain on which the ark had rested, named
Lubar, one of the Ararat Mountains, and they produced fruit in the fourth year,
[1320 A.M.] and he guarded their fruit, and gathered it in this year in the
2 seventh month. And he made wine therefrom and put it into a vessel, and
kept it until the fifth
3 year, [1321 A.M.] until the first day, on the new
moon of the first month. And he celebrated with joy the day of this feast, and
he made a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord, one young ox and one ram, and seven
sheep, each a year old, and a kid of the goats, that he might make atonement
thereby for himself
4 and his sons. And he prepared the kid first, and placed
some of its blood on the flesh that was on the altar which he had made, and all
the fat he laid on the altar where he made the burnt sacrifice,
5 and the ox
and the ram and the sheep, and he laid all their flesh upon the altar. And he
placed all their offerings mingled with oil upon it, and afterwards he sprinkled
wine on the fire which he had previously made on the altar, and he placed
incense on the altar and caused a sweet savour to
6 ascend acceptable before
the Lord his God. And he rejoiced and drank of this wine, he and his
7
children with joy. And it was evening, and he went into his tent, and being
drunken he lay down
8 and slept, and was uncovered in his tent as he slept.
And Ham saw Noah his father naked, and
9 went forth and told his two
brethren without. And Shem took his garment and arose, he and Japheth, and they
placed the garment on their shoulders and went backward and covered the shame
10 of their father, and their faces were backward. And Noah awoke from his
sleep and knew all that his younger son had done unto him, and he cursed his son
and said: 'Cursed be Canaan; an
11 enslaved servant shall he be unto his
brethren.' And he blessed Shem, and said: 'Blessed be the
12 Lord God of
Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and God shall
13 dwell in the dwelling of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.' And Ham
knew that his father had cursed his younger son, and he was displeased that he
had cursed his son. and he parted from
14 his father, he and his sons with
him, Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan. And he built for
15 himself a city
and called its name after the name of his wife Ne'elatama'uk. And Japheth saw
it, and became envious of his brother, and he too built for himself a city, and
he called its name after
16 the name of his wife 'Adataneses. And Shem dwelt
with his father Noah, and he built a city close to his father on the mountain,
and he too called its name after the name of his wife Sedeqetelebab.
17 And
behold these three cities are near Mount Lubar; Sedeqetelebab fronting the
mountain on its
18 east; and Na'eltama'uk on the south; 'Adatan'eses towards
the west. And these are the sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad -this
(son) was born two years after the flood- and
19 Lud, and Aram. The sons of
Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan, Tubal and
20 Meshech and Tiras:
these are the sons of Noah. And in the twenty-eighth jubilee [1324-1372 A.M.]
Noah began to enjoin upon his sons' sons the ordinances and commandments, and
all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to observe
righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to bless their
Creator, and honour father and mother, and love their neighbour, and guard their
souls
21 from fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity. For owing to
these three things came the flood upon the earth, namely, owing to the
fornication wherein the Watchers against the law of their ordinances went a
whoring after the daughters of men, and took themselves wives of all which
they
22 chose: and they made the beginning of uncleanness. And they begat
sons the Naphidim, and they were all unlike, and they devoured one another: and
the Giants slew the Naphil, and the
23 Naphil slew the Eljo, and the Eljo
mankind, and one man another. And every one sold himself
24 to work iniquity
and to shed much blood, and the earth was filled with iniquity. And after this
they sinned against the beasts and birds, and all that moves and walks on the
earth: and much blood was shed on the earth, and every imagination and desire of
men imagined vanity and evil
25 continually. And the Lord destroyed
everything from off the face of the earth; because of the wickedness of their
deeds, and because of the blood which they had shed in the midst of the
earth
26 He destroyed everything. 'And we were left, I and you, my sons, and
everything that entered with us into the ark, and behold I see your works before
me that ye do not walk in righteousness: for in the path of destruction ye have
begun to walk, and ye are parting one from another, and are envious one of
another, and (so it comes) that ye are not in harmony, my sons, each with his
brother.
27 For I see, and behold the demons have begun (their) seductions
against you and against your children and now I fear on your behalf, that after
my death ye will shed the blood of men upon the earth,
28 and that ye, too,
will be destroyed from the face of the earth. For whoso sheddeth man's blood,
and whoso eateth the blood of any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the
earth.
29 And there shall not be left any man that eateth blood,
or that
sheddeth the blood of man on the earth,
Nor shall there be left to him any
seed or descendants living under heaven;
For into Sheol shall they go, And
into the place of condemnation shall they descend,
And into the darkness of
the deep shall they all be removed by a violent death.
30 There shall be no
blood seen upon you of all the blood there shall be all the days in which ye
have killed any beasts or cattle or whatever flies upon the earth, and work ye a
good work to your
31 souls by covering that which has been shed on the face
of the earth. And ye shall not be like him who eats with blood, but guard
yourselves that none may eat blood before you: cover the blood,
32 for thus
have I been commanded to testify to you and your children, together with all
flesh. And suffer not the soul to be eaten with the flesh, that your blood,
which is your life, may not be required
33 at the hand of any flesh that
sheds (it) on the earth. For the earth will not be clean from the blood which
has been shed upon it; for (only) through the blood of him that shed it will the
earth be
34 purified throughout all its generations. And now, my children,
harken: work judgment and righteousness that ye maybe planted in righteousness
over the face of the whole earth, and your
35 glory lifted up before my God,
who saved me from the waters of the flood. And behold, ye will go and build for
yourselves cities, and plant in them all the plants that are upon the earth, and
moreover
36 all fruit-bearing trees. For three years the fruit of everything
that is eaten will not be gathered: and in the fourth year its fruit will be
accounted holy [and they will offer the first-fruits], acceptable before the
Most High God, who created heaven and earth and all things. Let them offer in
abundance the first of the wine and oil (as) first-fruits on the altar of the
Lord, who receives it, and
37 what is left let the servants of the house of
the Lord eat before the altar which receives (it). And in the fifth
year
make ye the release so that ye release it in righteousness and
uprightness, and ye shall bc righteous,
38 and all that you plant shall
prosper. For thus did Enoch, the father of your father command Methuselah, his
son, and Methuselah his son Lamech, and Lamech commanded me all the things
39
which his fathers commanded him. And I also will give you commandment, my sons,
as Enoch commanded his son in the first jubilees: whilst still living, the
seventh in his generation, he commanded and testified to his son and to his
son's sons until the day of his death.'
[Chapter 8]
1 In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, [1373 A.M.] in the
beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Rasu'eja,
the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam, and she
2 bare him a son in the
third year in this week, [1375 A.M.] and he called his name Kainam. And the son
grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place
where he might seize for
3 himself a city. And he found a writing which
former (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon, and
he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the
Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and
moon and
4 stars in all the signs of heaven. And he wrote it down and said
nothing regarding it; for he was
5 afraid to speak to Noah about it lest he
should be angry with him on account of it. And in the thirtieth jubilee, [1429
A.M.] in the second week, in the first year thereof, he took to himself a wife,
and her name was Melka, the daughter of Madai, the son of Japheth, and in the
fourth year [1432 A.M.] he begat a son, and
6 called his name Shelah; for he
said: 'Truly I have been sent.' [And in the fourth year he was born], and Shelah
grew up and took to himself a wife, and her name was Mu'ak, the daughter of
Kesed, his father's brother, in the one and thirtieth jubilee, in the fifth
week, in the first year [1499 A.M.]
7 thereof. And she bare him a son in the fifth year [1503 A.M.] thereof, and
he called his name Eber: and he took unto himself a wife, and her name was
'Azurad, the daughter of Nebrod, in the thirty-second
8 jubilee, in the
seventh week, in the third year thereof. [1564 A.M.] And in the sixth year [1567
A.M.] thereof, she bare him son, and he called his name Peleg; for in the days
when he was born the children of Noah began
9 to divide the earth amongst
themselves: for this reason he called his name Peleg. And they
10 divided
(it) secretly amongst themselves, and told it to Noah. And it came to pass in
the beginning of the thirty-third jubilee [1569 A.M.] that they divided the
earth into three parts, for Shem and Ham and Japheth, according to the
inheritance of each, in the first year in the first week, when one of us
11
who had been sent, was with them. And he called his sons, and they drew nigh to
him, they and their children, and he divided the earth into the lots, which his
three sons were to take in possession, and they reached forth their hands, and
took the writing out of the bosom of Noah, their father.
12 And there came
forth on the writing as Shem's lot the middle of the earth which he should take
as an inheritance for himself and for his sons for the generations of eternity,
from the middle of the mountain range of Rafa, from the mouth of the water from
the river Tina, and his portion goes towards the west through the midst of this
river, and it extends till it reaches the water of the abysses, out of which
this river goes forth and pours its waters into the sea Me'at, and this river
flows into the great sea. And all that is towards the north is Japheth's, and
all that is towards the
13 south belongs to Shem. And it extends till it
reaches Karaso: this is in the bosom of the tongue
14 which looks towards the
south. And his portion extends along the great sea, and it extends in a straight
line till it reaches the west of the tongue which looks towards the south: for
this sea is
15 named the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. And it turns from here
towards the south towards the mouth of the great sea on the shore of (its)
waters, and it extends to the west to 'Afra, and it extends till it reaches the
waters of the river Gihon, and to the south of the waters of Gihon, to the
16
banks of this river. And it extends towards the east, till it reaches the Garden
of Eden, to the south thereof, [to the south] and from the east of the whole
land of Eden and of the whole east, it turns to the east and proceeds till it
reaches the east of the mountain named Rafa, and it descends
17 to the bank
of the mouth of the river Tina. This portion came forth by lot for Shem and his
sons,
18 that they should possess it for ever unto his generations for
evermore. And Noah rejoiced that this portion came forth for Shem and for his
sons, and he remembered all that he had spoken with his mouth in prophecy; for
he had said:
'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem
And may the Lord dwell in
the dwelling of Shem.'
19 And he knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of
holies, and the dwelling of the Lord, and Mount Sinai the centre of the desert,
and Mount Zion -the centre of the navel of the earth: these three
20 were
created as holy places facing each other. And he blessed the God of gods, who
had put the
21 word of the Lord into his mouth, and the Lord for evermore.
And he knew that a blessed portion and a blessing had come to Shem and his sons
unto the generations for ever -the whole land of Eden and the whole land of the
Red Sea, and the whole land of the east and India, and on the Red Sea and the
mountains thereof, and all the land of Bashan, and all the land of Lebanon and
the islands of Kaftur, and all the mountains of Sanir and 'Amana, and the
mountains of Asshur in the north, and all the land of Elam, Asshur, and Babel,
and Susan and Ma'edai, and all the mountains of Ararat, and all the region
beyond the sea, which is beyond the mountains of Asshur towards the
22 north,
a blessed and spacious land, and all that is in it is very good. And for Ham
came forth the second portion, beyond the Gihon towards the south to the right
of the Garden, and it extends towards the south and it extends to all the
mountains of fire, and it extends towards the west to the sea of 'Atel and it
extends towards the west till it reaches the sea of Ma'uk -that (sea) into
which
23 everything which is not destroyed descends. And it goes forth
towards the north to the limits of Gadir, and it goes forth to the coast of the
waters of the sea to the waters of the great sea till it draws near to the river
Gihon, and goes along the river Gihon till it reaches the right of the
Garden
24 of Eden. And this is the land which came forth for Ham as the
portion which he was to occupy
25 for ever for himself and his sons unto
their generations for ever. And for Japheth came forth the third portion beyond
the river Tina to the north of the outflow of its waters, and it extends
north-
26 easterly to the whole region of Gog, and to all the country east
thereof. And it extends northerly to the north, and it extends to the mountains
of Qelt towards the north, and towards the sea of
27 Ma'uk, and it goes forth
to the east of Gadir as far as the region of the waters of the sea. And it
extends until it approaches the west of Fara and it returns towards 'Aferag, and
it extends easterly
28 to the waters of the sea of Me'at. And it extends to
the region of the river Tina in a north-easterly direction until it approaches
the boundary of its waters towards the mountain Rafa, and it turns
29 round
towards the north. This is the land which came forth for Japheth and his sons as
the portion of his inheritance which he should possess for himself and his sons,
for their generations for ever;
30 five great islands, and a great land in
the north. But it is cold, and the land of Ham is hot, and the land of Shem is
neither hot nor cold, but it is of blended cold and heat.
[Chapter 9]
1 And Ham divided amongst his sons, and the first portion came forth for
Cush towards the east, and to the west of him for Mizraim, and to the west of
him for Put, and to the west of him
2 [and to the west thereof] on the sea
for Canaan. And Shem also divided amongst his sons, and the first portion came
forth for Ham and his sons, to the east of the river Tigris till it approachcs
the east, the whole land of India, and on the Red Sea on its coast, and the
waters of Dedan, and all the mountains of Mebri and Ela, and all the land of
Susan and all that is on the side of Pharnak
3 to the Red Sea and the river
Tina. And for Asshur came forth the second Portion, all the land of
4 Asshur
and Nineveh and Shinar and to the border of India, and it ascends and skirts the
river. And for Arpachshad came forth the third portion, all the land of the
region of the Chaldees to the east of the Euphrates, bordering on the Red Sea,
and all the waters of the desert close to the tongue of the sea which looks
towards Egypt, all the land of Lebanon and Sanir and 'Amana to the border of
the
5 Euphrates. And for Aram there came forth the fourth portion, all the
land of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates to the north of the
Chaldees to the border of the mountains
6 of Asshur and the land of 'Arara.
And there came forth for Lud the fifth portion, the mountains of Asshur and all
appertaining to them till it reaches the Great Sea, and till it reaches the east
of
7, 8 Asshur his brother. And Japheth also divided the land of his
inheritance amongst his sons. And the first portion came forth for Gomer to the
east from the north side to the river Tina; and in the north there came forth
for Magog all the inner portions of the north until it reaches to the sea
of
9 Me'at. And for Madai came forth as his portion that he should posses
from the west of his two
10 brothers to the islands, and to the coasts of
the islands. And for Javan came forth the fourth
11 portion every island and
the islands which are towards the border of Lud. And for Tubal there came forth
the fifth portion in the midst of the tongue which approaches towards the border
of the portion of Lud to the second tongue, to the region beyond the second
tongue unto the third tongue.
12 And for Meshech came forth the sixth
portion, all the region beyond the third tongue till it
13 approaches the
east of Gadir. And for Tiras there came forth the seventh portion, four great
islands in the midst of the sea, which reach to the portion of Ham [and the
islands of Kamaturi
14 came out by lot for the sons of Arpachshad as his
inheritance]. And thus the sons of Noah divided unto their sons in the presence
of Noah their father, and he bound them all by an oath, imprecating
15 a
curse on every one that sought to seize the portion which had not fallen (to
him) by his lot. And they all said, 'So be it; so be it ' for themselves and
their sons for ever throughout their generations till the day of judgment, on
which the Lord God shall judge them with a sword and with fire for all the
unclean wickedness of their errors, wherewith they have filled the earth with
transgression and uncleanness and fornication and sin.
[Chapter 10]
1 And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons began to lead
astray the children of
2 the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy
them. And the sons of Noah came to Noah their father, and they told him
concerning the demons which were leading astray and blinding and
3 slaying
his sons' sons. 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 has been great towards
me,
And great has 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
6 created in order to destroy. 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
7,8
from henceforth and for evermore.' And the Lord our God bade us to bind all. And
the chief of the spirits, Mastema, 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
10 place of condemnation.' And one of us He
commanded that we should teach Noah all their
11 medicines; for He knew that
they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness. And we did
according to all His words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of
condemna-
12 tion and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject
before Satan on the earth. And we explained to Noah all the medicines of their
diseases, together with their seductions, how he
13 might heal them with
herbs of the earth. 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
14 (hurting) the sons of Noah. And he gave all that he had written to
Shem, his eldest son; for he
15 loved him exceedingly above all his sons. And
Noah slept with his fathers, and was buried on
16 Mount Lubar in the land of
Ararat. Nine hundred and fifty years he completed in his life, nineteen
17
jubilees and two weeks and five years. [1659 A.M.] 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
18 unto
generation, till the day of judgment. And in the three and thirtieth jubilee, in
the first year in the second week, Peleg took to himself a wife, whose name was
Lomna the daughter of Sina'ar, and she bare him a son in the fourth year of this
week, and he called his name Reu; for he said: 'Behold the children of men have
become evil through the wicked purpose of building for themselves
19 a city
and a tower in the land of Shinar.' For they departed from the land of Ararat
eastward to Shinar; for in his days they built the city and the tower, saying,
'Go to, let us ascend thereby into
20 heaven.' And they began to build, and
in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for
stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt
which
21 comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land
of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years [1645-1688 A.M.] were they
building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height (of a brick) was the
third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and (the extent of
one wall
22 was) thirteen stades (and of the other thirty stades). And the
Lord our God said unto us: Behold, they are one people, and (this) they begin to
do, and now nothing will be withholden from them. Go to, let us go down and
confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech, and
they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one purpose will no longer
abide with
23 them till the day of judgment.' And the Lord descended, and we
descended with him to see the
24 city and the tower which the children of
men had built. And he confounded their language, and they no longer understood
one another's speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the
25
tower. For this reason the whole land of Shinar is called Babel, because the
Lord did there confound all the language of the children of men, and from thence
they were dispersed into their
26 cities, each according to his language and
his nation. And the Lord sent a mighty wind against the tower and overthrew it
upon the earth, and behold it was between Asshur and Babylon in the
27 land
of Shinar, and they called its name 'Overthrow'. In the fourth week in the first
year [1688 A.M.] in the beginning thereof in the four and thirtieth jubilee,
were they dispersed from the land of Shinar.
28 And Ham and his sons went
into the land which he was to occupy, which he acquired as his portion
29 in
the land of the south. And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt,
that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the
west (that is to) the sea, and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and
westward from the border of Jordan and from the border
30 of the sea. And
Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim his brothers said unto him: 'Thou hast
settled in a land which is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do
not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and
(be) accursed through sedition; for by sedition
31 ye have settled, and by
sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever.
Dwell
32 not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come
by their lot. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of
Noah, by the curse by which we bound our-
33 selves by an oath in the
presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father.' But he did
not harken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the
entering of
34,35 Egypt, he and his sons until this day. And for this reason
that land is named Canaan. And Japheth and his sons went towards the sea and
dwelt in the land of their portion, and Madai saw the land of the sea and it did
not please him, and he begged a (portion) from Ham and Asshur and Arpachshad,
his wife's brother, and he dwelt in the land of Media, near to his wife's
brother until
36 this day. And he called his dwelling-place, and the
dwelling-place of his sons, Media, after the name of their father
Madai.
[Chapter 11]
1 And in the thirty-fifth jubilee, in the third week, in the first year
[1681 A.M.] thereof, Reu took to himself a wife, and her name was 'Ora, the
daughter of 'Ur, the son of Kesed, and she bare him a son, and
2 he called
his name Seroh, in the seventh year of this week in this jubilee. [1687 A.M.]
And the sons of Noah began to war on each other, to take captive and to slay
each other, and to shed the blood of men on the earth, and to eat blood, and to
build strong cities, and walls, and towers, and individuals (began) to exalt
themselves above the nation, and to found the beginnings of kingdoms, and to go
to war people against people, and nation against nation, and city against city,
and all (began) to do evil, and to acquire arms, and to teach their sons war,
and they began to capture cities, and to sell
3 male and female slaves. And
'Ur, the son of Kesed, built the city of 'Ara of the Chaldees, and called its
name after his own name and the name of his father. And they made for themselves
molten images, and they worshipped each the idol, the molten image which they
had made for themselves, and they began to make graven images and unclean
simulacra, and malignant spirits
5 assisted and seduced (them) into
committing transgression and uncleanness. And the prince Mastema exerted himself
to do all this, and he sent forth other spirits, those which were put under his
hand, to do all manner of wrong and sin, and all manner of transgression, to
corrupt and destroy,
6 and to shed blood upon the earth. For this reason he
called the name of Seroh, Serug, for every one
7 turned to do all manner of
sin and transgression. And he grew up, and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, near to
the father of his wife's mother, and he worshipped idols, and he took to himself
a wife in the thirty-sixth jubilee, in the fifth week, in the first year
thereof, [1744 A.M.] and her name was Melka, the daughter
8 of Kaber, the
daughter of his father's brother. And she bare him Nahor, in the first year of
this week, and he grew and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, and his father taught
him the researches of the
9 Chaldees to divine and augur, according to the
signs of heaven. And in the thirty-seventh jubilee in the sixth week, in the
first year thereof, [1800 A.M.] he took to himself a wife, and her name was
'Ijaska, the
10 daughter of Nestag of the Chaldees. And she bare him Terah in
the seventh year of this week. [1806 A.M.]
11 And the prince Mastema sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was
sown in the land, in order to destroy the land, and rob the children of men of
their labours. Before they could plough
12 in the seed, the ravens picked
(it) from the surface of the ground. And for this reason he called his name
Terah because the ravens and the birds reduced them to destitution and devoured
their
13 seed. And the years began to be barren, owing to the birds, and they
devoured all the fruit of the trees from the trees: it was only with great
effort that they could save a little of all the fruit of the
14 earth in
their days. And in this thirty-ninth jubilee, in the second week in the first
year, [1870 A.M.] Terah took to himself a wife, and her name was 'Edna, the
daughter of 'Abram, the daughter of his father's sister. And in the seventh year
of this week [1876 A.M.] she bare him a son, and he called his name Abram,
15 by the name of the father of his mother; for he had died before his
daughter had conceived a son.
16 And the child began to understand the errors
of the earth that all went astray after graven images and after uncleanness, and
his father taught him writing, and he was two weeks of years old, [1890 A.M.]
and he
17 separated himself from his father, that he might not worship idols
with him. And he began to pray to the Creator of all things that He might save
him from the errors of the children of men, and that
18 his portion should
not fall into error after uncleanness and vileness. And the seed time came for
the sowing of seed upon the land, and they all went forth together to protect
their seed against the
19 ravens, and Abram went forth with those that went,
and the child was a lad of fourteen years. And a cloud of ravens came to devour
the seed, and Abram ran to meet them before they settled on the ground, and
cried to them before they settled on the ground to devour the seed, and said, '
Descend
20 not: return to the place whence ye came,' and they proceeded to
turn back. And he caused the clouds of ravens to turn back that day seventy
times, and of all the ravens throughout all the land
21 where Abram was there
settled there not so much as one. And all who were with him throughout all the
land saw him cry out, and all the ravens turn back, and his name became great in
all the
22 land of the Chaldees. And there came to him this year all those
that wished to sow, and he went with them until the time of sowing ceased: and
they sowed their land, and that year they brought
23 enough grain home and
eat and were satisfied. And in the first year of the fifth week [1891 A.M.]
Abram taught those who made implements for oxen, the artificers in wood, and
they made a vessel above the ground, facing the frame of the plough, in order to
put the seed thereon, and the seed fell down therefrom upon the share of the
plough, and was hidden in the earth, and they no longer feared the
24
ravens. And after this manner they made (vessels) above the ground on all the
frames of the ploughs, and they sowed and tilled all the land, according as
Abram commanded them, and they no longer feared the birds.
[Chapter 12]
1 And it came to pass in the sixth week, in the seventh year thereof,
[1904 A.M.] that Abram said to Terah his
2 father, saying, 'Father!' And he
said, 'Behold, here am I, my son.' And he said,
'What help and profit
have we from those idols which thou dost worship,
And before which thou dost
bow thyself?
3 For there is no spirit in them,
For they are dumb
forms, and a misleading of the heart.
Worship them not:
4 Worship
the God of heaven,
Who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth
And does everything upon the earth,
And has created everything by His
word,
And all life is from before His face.
5 Why do ye worship
things that have no spirit in them?
For they are the work of (men's)
h