A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

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The Book of Jubilees, or “the little Genesis” as it is sometimes called, purports to be a revelation given by God to Moses through the medium of an angel, “the Angel of the Presence,” which seems like a generic title and not a name. But he appears later to be the prince or chief of the spirits, “Mastema” in chapters 10:8; 18:9; and was “put to shame” (18:12); and, he, the prince Mastema, stood up against Moses (48:9)!

No complete Hebrew, Aramic, Greek or Latin version is known to have survived, but the Ethiopian Geʽez version has a more complete text of the numerous fragments in thee original Hebrew, numbered around fifteen that were found between 1947 and 1956 among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Apart from the Ethiopian Jewish community, the book is not considered canonical within any of the denominations of Judaism.

Who wrote the Book of Jubliees remains a mystery, but it points with strong evidence that the text was being revered and utilized by the Qumran community, who promoted living in isolated communities around the Dead Sea and the Jordan region. These Qumran communities seem to had been started by a Levitical Jews of a priestly background who grew dissatisfied with those operating in the main center of Jerusalem.

Jubilees was written with a history, divided up into jubilee-periods of forty-nine years, from the creation to the time of Moses. It covers much of the same ground as Genesis, but often with additional detail, and addressing Moses in the second person as the entire history of creation, and of Israel up to that point, is recounted in divisions of 49 years each, or “Jubilees” which contradicts a jubilee of fifty years in Leviticus 25:

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. Leviticus 25:10

Noah’s life of 950 year in chapter 10:16 was described as “nineteen jubilees and two weeks and five years.” In such calculation, a Jubilee is only 49 years; as 19 x 49 + 14 + 5 = 950 year. Of others: Sarah 127 years (17:7); Abraham 175 (23:8); Rebecca 155 (35:27); Jacob 147 years (45:13);

The elapsed time from the creation, up to Moses receiving the scriptures upon Sinai during the Exodus, is calculated as fifty Jubilees, less the 40 years still to be spent wandering in the desert before entering Canaan – or 2,410 years.

Of interest was the land divided after Noah’s flood: to Ham was given land towards the south; first portion for Cush towards the east, the west for Mizraim; the west of him for Put, and to the west of him for Canaan (9:1).

To Shem was given the middle portion; Elam, from the river Tigris till it approaches the east, and whole of India; Asshur came Nineveh and Shinar; for Arpachshad, east of the Euphrates down to the Red Sea; for Aram, the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates; for Lud the fifth portion, of Asshur till it reaches the Great Sea (9:2-6).

To Japheth, for Gomer to the east from the north side; for Magog and others all the inner portions of the north (9:7-13). Japheth’s land is cold, that of Ham is hot, Shem’s is neither cold nor hot.

But Canaan looked from the land at Lebanon all the way to Egypt, and westward from the Jordan (10:29), coverted it and settled there; drawing rebukes from Ham, his father; Cush and Mizraim; hence were accursed (verses 30-33); hence that land was named Canaan; and today, a land with endless hideous conflicts.

Of another great value of the Book of Jubilees is its elaboration of the rivary between Jacob and Esau, which has a significant implication of understanding the enormous impact of the development of world’s nations, both the events of the Old World and even more so, the events of the New World.

“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.

“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.

“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan

Understanding the above complex prophecy is one of the many endeavours of this site.

The feast of the firstfruits, was particularly emphazised to be observed on “in the third month, in the middle of the month” (15:1; 16:13); which appears to promote or gave rise to the Essenes Calendar; and was radically different from that calendar which was used by the Pharisees as Sivan 6, or fifty days from the morrow after the Sabbath, the first high day of Unleavened Bread.

The Calendar promoted in the Book of Jubilees is similar to the Essenes Calendar. It advocates a year of 52 weeks of strictly 364 days, in chapter 6:29-32, 38; and the new moons of the first month, the fourth month, the seventh month, and of the tenth month as days of remembrance, in 6:23.

And the Book of Jubilees was critical of the Jewish Calendar from year to year as “ten days too soon” (v36); and claim of their calendar to be “engraven and ordained on the heavenly tablets” (v30) for authenticity and authorization; but which were not supported by the Masoretic Text.

The Jewish Calendar had been empowered with the following mandates:

Deuteronomy 16:18 “Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes; and they shall judge the people with just judgement.

¹⁹ Thou shalt not distort judgement; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a bribe; for a bribe doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous.

Deuteronomy 17:11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgement which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do. Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand nor to the left.

¹² And the man who will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest who standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die; and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

The Sadducees, however, used the same Calendar as the Pharisees, but they count the feast of firstfruits from the morrow after the weekly Sabbath. Both the Essenes and the Sadducees went the way of Sodom and Gomorrah and couldn’t survive the inferno of Judea and Jerusalem around AD 70.

~ by Joel on January 13, 2025.

Posted in Books of Ancients