2.14 Grappling with the Greeks V: Jubilees Reconstructs Judaism

History in the Bible

Garry Stevens

History, Christianity, Judaism, Bible, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 693 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2018

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

The Book of Jubilees was preserved by the Ethiopian Orthodox. Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was held to be a parody of Jewish thought. Now we know the book was immensely popular with Jews and Christians until the early Middle Ages. The book re-writes Genesis and Exodus. Jubilees claims a higher authority than those books. It creates a new sacred calendar, and invents the figure we call Satan. I also have something to say about that odious book written at the same time, the Wisdom of Ben Sira.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Gide. I'm Gary Stevens.
0:08.0	And welcome to the second series of the History in the Bible podcast.
0:13.1	More of the history in more of the books in all the Bibles.
0:19.9	Episode 2.14. Grapling with the Greeks Part 5. Jubilees reconstructs Judaism.
0:28.6	In the last episode of the history in the Bible, I discussed the books of Daniel, and that part of First Enoch called the Book of Parables, books critical
0:39.8	to the intellectual development of Christianity, and ignored in Judaism. Before I conclude the
0:48.1	history of the Maccabeans, I really have to discuss two books written during the revolt. The first is the mighty and
0:56.8	influential book of Jubilees. The second is the mediocre and bothersome book of Cyrac.
1:04.3	After first Enoch, the second great jewel of the paribys is the Book of Jubilees.
1:11.6	Formally, the book of the division of times of the Torah and predestant history according
1:17.6	to the weeks of their Jubilees.
1:20.6	It's a whopper at 50 chapters and 53,000 words in English translation.
1:29.6	Place the size of the book of Exodus.
1:34.7	Had the work made it into the Catholic or Orthodox Bibles,
1:37.6	it would have been by far the longest book.
1:40.9	It is lengthier than the current record holder,
1:43.1	the combined books of kings,
1:46.8	which come in at some 40,000 English words.
1:55.3	Jubilees did make it into one Bible, that of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, that repository of antiquities lost to the rest of Christianity. There it is known as the Book of Divisions.
2:02.6	The Beta Israel, Ethiopian Jews, also consider it holy.
2:08.6	Dating the book has its usual pitfalls.
2:11.6	Dating the origins of any book in any Bible is a fraud process.
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