The Perspective from Mt. Sinai
The Book of Jubilees and Exodus
by Betsy Halpern-Amaru
Although termed “the little Genesis”, the Book of Jubilees is significantly engaged with Exodus. It reworks key Exodus narratives, develops modules of Exodus law, and highlights Exodus motifs. The most fundamental connection to Exodus is the grounding of the two narrational structures of Jubilees in the scenario of Moses receiving a revelation on Mt. Sinai. In the frame an anonymous narrator develops the Mt. Sinai setting of the work. In the body an angel employs that setting as the present-time pivot for a retrospect that moves backward and forward in time. Focusing on the intersection of structure and content, the study explores the relationship between the retrospective design of the angel narration and the exegesis. The approach is a literary one that treats Jubilees as a unitary text that may reflect the work of a single author or of a final editor. The analysis draws particular attention to manipulations of temporal and textual perspective that transform Exodus narratives, facilitate the hermeneutical elaborations of Exodus law, and effect cohesion in the revelation that is the Book of Jubilees.Halpern-Amaru’s study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of biblical interpretation in Second Temple Judaism. For example, the reading of the Jubilees narrative of the exodus as a revelation of how God uses His heavenly forces, i.e., Mastema and his demons as well as the angels of the presence, on behalf of Israel, has implications for the understanding of strategies that temper dualism in Second Temple Judaism.
Betsy Halpern-Amaru, Ph.D, is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY.
- By (author) Betsy Halpern-Amaru
Other Titles in this Series
Evil Within and Without
The Source of Sin and Its Nature as Portrayed in Second Temple Literature
Volume 9
At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds
Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity Among the Jews of Roman Galilee
Volume 16
Between Text and Text
International Symposium on Intertextuality in Ancient Near Eastern, Ancient Mediterranean, and Early Medieval Literatures
Volume 6
Between Symbolism and Realism
The Use of Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Language in Ancient Jewish Apocalypses 333-63 B.C.E.
Volume 8
The Faces of Torah
Studies in the Texts and Contexts of Ancient Judaism in Honor of Steven Fraade
Volume 22
The Land to the Elect and Justice for All
Reading Psalms in the Dead Sea Scrolls in Light of 4Q381
Volume 14
‘See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me’ (Ps 40-8)
Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud. Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Hanan Eshel
Volume 12
At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds
Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity Among the Jews of Roman Galilee
Volume 16
In Search of the Promised Land?
The Hasmonean Dynasty Between Biblical Models and Hellenistic Diplomacy
Volume 24
Light Against Darkness
Dualism in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and the Contemporary World
Volume 2
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