The Book of Jubilees

The Secrets of the Dead Sea Scroll

The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis, is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters, considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is known as the Book of Division. Jubilees is considered one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches. It is also not considered canonical within Judaism outside of Beta Israel.

The text was also utilized by the community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. No complete Greek or Latin version is known to have survived, but the Ge'ez version has been shown to be an accurate translation of the versions found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Book of Jubilees claims to present "the history of the division of the days of the Law, of the events of the years, the year-weeks, and the jubilees of the world" as revealed to Moses (in addition to the Torah or "Instruction") by angels while he was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. The chronology given in Jubilees is based on multiples of seven; the jubilees are periods of 49 years (seven "year-weeks"), into which all of time has been divided.

Almost lost over the centuries, the Book of Jubilees was retrieved from the Ethiopic language, translated into English by R. H. Charles, and was recently found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Book of Jubilees repeats the events of Genesis and Exodus from Creation to the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt. It recounts the events in sets of jubilees (sets of 49 years) and gives additional details such as the fall of the angels, and the creation and destruction of the Nephilim. It also mentions the three classes of pre-flood Nephilim. It details the fact that one-tenth of their disembodied spirits would remain on earth as demons to tempt people and nine-tenths would be chained until the Tribulation Period. Learn what secrets this Dead Sea Scroll holds

Each chapter covers a range of history spanning 49 years, with Moses life story and other principal events told over a course of 2,410 years.

Perhaps most importantly from a theological perspective, the book discusses the angels and how these entities formed a vital component of the Earth's creation. Enoch was taught by fallen angels; through them, he discovered writing and history. We also hear that early man was formed from a mating of Earthly humans and fallen angels, but that these hybrids were killed during the Great Flood.

The status of the Book of Jubilees was not properly ascertained until the 20th century, with the famous discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Prior to this, the only manuscripts of Jubilees that were available date to the 15th/16th centuries in what is today Ethiopia, which left scholars unsure of its true origins. Modern scholars agree that the text dates to approximately 150 BC.