Book of Jubilees

About this text

Retells Genesis and Exodus with additional detail, organizing history into "jubilee" periods of 49 years. Emphasizes the solar calendar and strict observance of the Law.

Significance

Found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition.

How to Read This Historical Text

Book of Jubilees is included here as a historical and educational resource, not as Scripture and not as a replacement for the biblical canon. Readers may find it useful for understanding the ideas, debates, devotional language, and literary settings that surrounded Jewish and Christian communities in different periods.

Read this text with context in mind. Notice its era, category, and relationship to canonical passages, then compare its themes with the Bible itself. Some library works preserve valuable historical background, while others represent viewpoints that many Christian traditions rejected. Inclusion in this library does not mean endorsement of every claim or doctrine in the text.

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Key excerpts

"And He said to the angel of the presence: Write for Moses from the beginning of creation till my sanctuary has been built among them."

"For I have written in the book of the first law that I recorded for thee, that in the feast of the harvest thou shalt celebrate this festival."

Scripture cross-references

• Genesis 1-2 — Jubilees retells creation with additional detail
• Exodus 24:12 — Moses receiving the law — Jubilees claims to be this revelation

Continue exploring

This text is one of 17 in the Early Jewish / Second Temple Texts category, and one of 62 across the entire library.