The Development of Jubilees 1 in the Late Second Temple Period

Abstract

This article argues that there are matenal and literary reasons to view Jub. 1.15b-25 as a redactional addition to the text of Jubilees 1. The matenal arguments build upon a new matenal reconstruction of the 4Q216, which suggests that there was not space in the manuscript for this section of text. With this in mind, literary arguments for viewing this section as an addition are explored, and the late Second Temple period context of the addition of this text is made clear through connections with literature only known through the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are important implications of this analysis for the understanding of the composition and literary growth of Jubilees—which must have been subjugated to some degree of redaction.