Jubilees in the hellenistic context

Abstract

This chapter examines the familiarity of Jubilees , written in Hebrew, in the land of Israel, with the Hellenistic world and with Hellenistic Jewish literature. Interest in chronology is a definitive characteristic of the Hellenistic age, which explains the efforts by the author of Jubilees to calculate epochs and years. The chapter addresses two broad areas: Jubilees ' knowledge of Hellenistic science, as evidenced by its map of the world, and of Hellenistic literature, particularly historiographical and philosophical works. It shows how Jubilees utilized its familiarity with Hellenizing trends in order to rebut them. There is a fragmentary description of the division of the world among Noah's sons in the Genesis Apocryphon , with instructive parallels to Jubilees . Hellenistic Jewish literature was concerned with the affirmation of both Hellenism and Judaism, attempting to combine or at least to harmonize them. The chapter focuses on works similar in nature to Jubilees , historiographic works. Keywords: Genesis Apocryphon ; Hellenistic Jewish literature; historiographic works; Israel; Jubilees ; Judaism; Noah