Book of Jubilees

[visionary]

Came across the Book of Jubilees on the internet and got to reading.
http://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/jubilee/1.htm

1: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.

and got to thinking that this statement says the the Jubilee time table highlights several events...

- the day of new creation
- sanctuary of the Lord made in Jerusalem on Mount Zion
- from the time of creation

2:9 And God appointed the sun to be a great sign on the earth for days and 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.

Here we find that it says to count using the days of sun rotation.

3:17 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, saying, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'

If this quote solves the mystery of how long were Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, then may be we do have a indication of what is the starting point of the counting of the Jubilee.

3:32 And on the new moon of the fourth month, Adam and his wife went forth from the Garden of Eden, and they dwelt in the land of Elda in the land of their creation.

Since their world was going at a slower pace, Adam and Eve took their time about having children. Even a little girll is mentioned here by name.

4:1 And in the third week in the second jubilee [64-70 A.M.] she gave birth to Cain, and in the fourth [71-77 A.M.] she gave birth to Abel, and in the fifth [78-84 A.M.] she gave birth to her daughter Âwân.

Even Enoch's start in liffe is mentioned.

4:9 And Cain took Âwân 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 his son Enoch.

If this book has any accuracy as to the statements given within, it sure does paint a picture I have never seen before.

4:16 And in the eleventh jubilee [512-18 A.M.] Jared took to himself a wife, and her name was Baraka, the daughter of Râsûjâl, 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 he called his name Enoch.

4:17 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 their separate months.

Just thought I would share some tidbits found in the Book of Jubilees.

 

[visionary]

It also estabishes the feasts and their keeping of them before Sinai.

6:15And He gave to Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again be a flood on the earth.
6:16 He set His bow in the cloud for a sign of the eternal covenant that there should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy it all the days of the earth.
6:17 For this reason it is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this month once a year, to renew the covenant every year.

 

[visionary]

If the Book of Jubilees was considered divine scriptures, look how we would be studying how this feast is twofold and has a double meaning.

6:21 For it is the feast of weeks and the feast of first fruits: this feast is twofold and of a double nature: according to what is written and engraven concerning it, celebrate it.

 

[visionary]

Now isn't that a true statement.

6:33 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 will be dislodged] and they will neglect their ordinances.

6:34And 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 and they will go wrong as to all the order of the years.

Have we not looked at all we can get our hands on to see if we can figure out which is right? Is there not a movement a foot in Israel to stop following the rabbidical timetable and to go back to the barley watch.

 

[visionary]

Prophetic confirmation

6:35 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 and walk according to the feasts of the Gentiles after their error and after their ignorance.

I am fascinated by the statements I find within this book.

 

[Hadassah]

I've gained much in reading Jubilees. I can see I need to go back through it again. LOL

There's so much to be gained.. and so much lost when we don't know it's there

 

[visionary]

The Book of Jubilees (ספר היובלי&#1501, sometimes called the Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work. It was well known to Early Christian writers in the East and the West. Later it was so thoroughly suppressed that no complete Greek or Latin version has survived. It was once part of the Jewish midrash, and is still considered canonical for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, where it is known as the "Book of Division" (Ge'ez:Mets'hafe Kufale)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jubilees

European scholars believe based on internal evidence that the Book of Jubilees was written in Hebrew between the year that Hyrcanus became high priest (135 BC) and his breach with the Pharisees some years before his death in (105 BC), and that the author was a Pharisee.

Jewish Sanhedrin declared it and several other books to be no longer included in the Hebrew Bible at the Council of Jamnia, ca. 85 AD.

 

[visionary]

You take the days of the year.. Is it 360 or 364?

6:32 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 their testimony, and they will not leave out any day nor disturb any feasts.

 

[visionary]

How many princes are there who rule the Islamic worlds?

15:20 And as for Ishmael also have I heard thee, and behold I will bless him, and make him great, and multiply him exceedingly, and he shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

 

[visionary]

I wonder ..how many patriarchs were really born during the feasts?

16:12 And in the middle of the sixth month the Lord visited Sarah and did unto her as He had spoken and she conceived.

16:13 And she bare a son in the third month, and in the middle of the month, at the time of which the Lord had spoken to Abraham, on the festival of the first fruits of the harvest, Isaac was born.

 

[Hadassah]

Ah yes, the note about Sarah, I noticed that before I read Jubilees.

This is so cool.

 

[visionary]

Did you know that the Garden of Eden is the Holy of Holies?

8:19 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 were created as holy places facing each other.

 

[Sephania]

It also estabishes the feasts and their keeping of them before Sinai.

Renew which covenant? That of destruction by water?

 

[Sephania]

European scholars believe based on internal evidence that the Book of Jubilees was written in Hebrew between the year that Hyrcanus became high priest (135 BC) and his breach with the Pharisees some years before his death in (105 BC), and that the author was a Pharisee.

But who? And why was it written, and where did this knowledge come from. I don't see it written in true prophetic style, nor of the style of the Torah really.
Sounds more like an Essene document, is there any connection?

Jewish Sanhedrin declared it and several other books to be no longer included in the Hebrew Bible at the Council of Jamnia, ca. 85 AD.

Some strange things were suppressed at this coucil, because of some of these things I am wondering what this book may have to do with Messiah Yeshua.

 

[JoelParks]

Did you know that the Garden of Eden is the Holy of Holies?

yup. The Garden is laid out according to the Temple pattern.
I've done extensive studies into this before, it's a fascinating topic.

IMHO, Adam and Eve were expelled on Tishri 10 (Yom Kippor).

 

[visionary]

yup. The Garden is laid out according to the Temple pattern.
I've done extensive studies into this before, it's a fascinating topic.

IMHO, Adam and Eve were expelled on Tishri 10 (Yom Kippor).

Ohhhhhh would I love to see what you have found. Maybe you could present a thread on this extensive study so that we can all see the relationship.

 

[SummaScriptura]

Why'd you guys quit?

 

[Steve Petersen]

If the Book of Jubilees was written in the time frame you suggest, it corresponds to the period when the various sects of Judaism were beginning to emerge: Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes for sure. As you know, they all disagreed on calendar questions; the Essenes used a 364 day calendar.

With regard to the actual celebration of Jubilees, there is this from the Jewish Encyclopedia:

There is a difference of opinion in the Talmud as to whether the jubilee year was included in or excluded from the forty-nine years of the seven cycles. The majority of rabbis hold that the jubilee year was an intercalation, and followed the seventh Sabbatical year, making two fallow years in succession.After both had passed, the next cycle began. They adduce this theory from the plain words of the Law to "hallow the fiftieth year," and also from the assurance of God's promise of a yield in the sixth year sufficient for maintenance during the following three years, "until the ninth year, until her fruits come in" (Lev. xxv. 22), which, they say, refers to the jubilee year. Judah ha-Nasi, however, contends that the jubilee year was identical with the seventh Sabbatical year (R. H. 9a; Giṭ. 36a; comp. Rashi ad loc.). The opinion of the Geonim and of later authorities generally prevails, that the jubilee, when in force during the period of the First Temple, was intercalated, but that in the time of the Second Temple, when the jubilee was observed only "nominally," it coincided with the seventh Sabbatical year. In post-exilic bṭimes the jubilee was entirely ignored, though the strict observance of the shemiṭṭah was steadily insisted upon. This, however, is only according to a rabbinical enactment (Tos. to Giṭ. 36a, s.v. "Bizeman"), as by the Mosaic law, according to R. Judah, shemiṭṭah is dependent on the jubilee and ceases to exist when there is no jubilee (Giṭ. l.c. and Rashi ad loc.).

 

[visionary]

Does anyone have an actual historical date of the last Jubilee kept?

 

[SummaScriptura]

Was Paul familiar with the Book of Jubilees?

Jubilees 7:16-17 (Schodde)
...and should preserve their souls from all fornication and from all uncleanness and unrighteousness. For on account of these three things the deluge came over the earth, namely on account of fornication, in which the Watchmen Indulged against the commandments of their law, with the daughters of men, and took to themselves wives from all whom they chose and made the beginning of uncleanness.*

Ephesians 5:5-6 (ESV)
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Colossians 3:5-6 (ESV)
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.


* Note: versification between Charles and Schodde differs