Chapter One. The Entry Into The Garden Of Eden ( Jubilees 3)

Abstract

Jubilees 3:12 links the Garden of Eden to the temple, and thus creates the connection between the Eden story and the law of the parturient woman: “After she had completed these 80 days, we brought her into the Garden of Eden because it is the holiest in the entire earth, and every tree which is planted in it is holy”. The legal passage is appropriately placed within the narrative context of Jub. 3. As noted, the legal passage assumes a certain chronological sequence: Adam was created at the end of the first week of creation, and forty days later he entered the Garden of Eden. The description of the time in the Garden as “seven years exactly” emphasizes that the entrance to the Garden and the exile due to their sin, both occurred on the same date, the 17th of the second month.Keywords: Adam; chronological sequence; Garden of Eden; Jubilees