The Book of Jubilees: The Torah Calendar eBook - Book - Page 28
I N T R O D U C T I O N
regardless their aim. The tradition of the scribe is well established in copying
over texts over time. Other than the local writings which are likely originals, it is
perplexing that any scholar would not recognize Jubilees is a copy just as Genesis
is a copy. Peter called that willing ignorance (2 Pt. 3) and oddly, Jubilees represents
all three of his warnings that scoffers in the last days would deny Creation, the
Flood and the deity of Messiah. That was a copy of Jubilees not the original and
no one can say otherwise.
A CONCURRENT HISTORY:
However, we do not need to leave this to speculation. The Qumran community
used the Book of Jubilees as authoritative.
“With 14 or 15 attested copies, the book of Jubilees is undoubtedly one of the bestdocumented texts of the Qumran library. Moreover, it is cited as an authoritative
source in a sectarian work, the Damascus Document (CD 16:2-4), and seems to have
been equally important to the Qumran community.”
– Gabriele Boccaccini, 2005 [20]
Not only was Jubilees equally important to the Qumran community, it is quoted
for law as Torah which makes sense since Moses wrote it.
“The Damascus Document, 4Q266, fr. 8 i, 6-9, 50 B.C.–100 A.D.:
(For God made) a Covenant with you and all Israel; therefore a man shall bind
himself by oath to return to the Law of Moses, for in it all things are strictly defined.
As for the exact determination of their times to which Israel
turns a blind eye, behold it is strictly defined in the Book of the
Divisions of the Times into their Jubilees and Weeks. And on the
day that a man swears to return to the Law of Moses, the Angel of Persecution shall
cease to follow him provided he fulfills his word: for this reason Abraham circumcised
himself on the day that he knew.” [21]
They continue as they quote right out of the Book of Jubilees chapter 23 verse
2. Where does the Qumran community derive the exact determination of the
times and their definitions of how to keep Torah or the law? These are strictly
defined in Jubilees which conveys alternative titles in history such as the Book
of Division as it records Noah’s division of the earth in territories between his
three sons which we fully map at the end of Chapter 8. They believed the Law
of Moses included the Book of Jubilees thus, Torah. It was written by Moses
26