The Book of Jubilees

[Rella]

I suspect I am once again bringing up the rears as I had never heard of this book.



An email from the Israel Bible Center came with this. They , of course want me to take a course.



Noah's Unknown Prayer

By Prof. Pinchas Shir
Through the Book of Jubilees, we learn of Noah's prayer as he intercedes on behalf of his children, seeking God's protection against the dark forces seeking to harm them. This extraordinary passage provides vital insight into ancient Jewish beliefs about the world beyond our earthly realm.

Discover the captivating relationship between demons, evil spirits, the watchers, and Satan, as ancient Jewish beliefs come to life. And, what is more important, learn how did Noah's prayer impact the spiritual realm?




Noah's Prayer Against Demons
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By Pinchas Shir
September 21, 2021
30.1K 145

This excerpt is from the Book of Jubilees, a second-century BCE Jewish work. Though this book was never considered canonical, some have called it "Little Genesis" because it retells many of the stories from Genesis, including interpretive commentary and additional details. The value of Jubilees is the insight into the ancient traditions the book preserves, giving us a window into certain Jewish beliefs before the New Testament was written. The following passage, which describes Noah interceding for his children, is remarkable because it contains several terms related to the unseen spiritual realm. In this single text, the author mentions demons, evil spirits, the watchers, the chief of spirits called Mastema, and Satan. How they are all related is unclear at times, but this extraordinary passage shows how ancient Jews perceived the world beyond our own earthly realm.



1 In the third week of that jubilee the polluted demons began to lead astray the children of Noah's sons and to lead them to folly and to destroy them. 2 And the sons of Noah came to Noah, their father, and they told him about the demons who were leading astray and blinding and killing his grandchildren. 3 And he prayed before the LORD his God and he said, "God of the spirits which are in all flesh, who has acted mercifully with me and saved me and my sons from the water of the Flood and did not let me perish as you did the children of perdition, because Great was your grace upon me, and great was your mercy upon my soul. Let your grace be lifted up upon my sons, and do not let the evil spirits rule over them, lest they destroy them from the earth. But bless me and my sons. And let us grow and increase and fill the earth. 5 And you know that which your Watchers (עִירִין; irin / Greek: ἐγρήγοροι; egregoroi), the fathers of these spirits, did in my days and also these spirits who are alive. Shut them up and take them to the place of judgment. And do not let them cause corruption among the sons of your servant, O my God, because they are cruel and were created to destroy. 6 And let them not rule over the spirits of the living because you alone know their judgment, and do not let them have power over the children of the righteous henceforth and forever."



7 And the LORD our God spoke to us so that we might bind all of them. 8 And the chief of the spirits, Mastema (מַשְׂטֵמָה, mastemah, Hebrew for "hostility" or "persecution"), came and he said, "O Lord, Creator, leave some of them before me, and let them obey my voice. And let them do everything which I tell them, because if some of them are not left for me, I will not be able to exercise the authority of my will among the children of men because they are (intended) to corrupt and lead astray before my judgment because the evil of the sons of men is great." 9 And he said, "Let a tenth of them remain before him, but let nine parts go down into the place of judgment."



10 And he told one of us to teach Noah all of their healing because he knew that they would not walk uprightly and would not strive righteously. 11 And we acted in accord with all of his words. All of the evil ones, who were cruel, we bound in the place of judgment, but a tenth of them we let remain so that they might be subject to Satan (שָּׂטָן, satan: Hebrew for "accuser" or "adversary" / Greek: διάβολος; diabolos) upon the earth. 12 And the healing of all their illnesses together with their seductions we told Noah so that he might heal by means of herbs of the earth. 13 And Noah wrote everything in a book just as we taught him according to every kind of healing. And the evil spirits were restrained from following the sons of Noah. 14 And he gave everything which he wrote to Shem, his oldest son, because he loved him much more than all of his sons. (Jubilees 10:1-14, c. 2nd century BCE, Charlesworth translation)



They do have an all rights reserved notification at the end...



I have posted this to see if y'all are familiar with this book?

[Rella]

Well, well, well....

2nd time today I may have egg on my face.

Book of Jubilees

The Angels of Creation - Jubilees
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By Pinchas Shir
February 13, 2022
9.2K 24
This is a short excerpt from the book from the extra-biblical book called "Jubilees". The book is a fine example of Jewish spiritual literature from the 2nd or 1st century BCE. The composition retells the book of Genesis but in a very Midrashic way, adding a lot of legends and comments between the familiar biblical stories. This particular section speaks of different varieties of angels and their activities and sounds a lot like John's Revelation. This text was well-known to Jews of the 1st century CE when the NT was written.

2 1 And the angel of the presence spoke to Moses by the word of the LORD, saying, "Write the whole account of creation, that in six days the LORD God completed all his work and all that he created. And he observed a sabbath the seventh day, and he sanctified it for all ages. And he set it (as) a sign for all his works." 2 For on the first day he created the heavens, which are above, and the earth, and the waters and all of the spirits which minister before him:

the angels of the presence,
and the angels of sanctification,
and the angels of the spirit of fire,
and the angels of the spirit of the winds,
and the angels of the spirit of the clouds and darkness and snow and hail and frost,
and the angels of resoundings and thunder and lightning,
and the angels of the spirits of cold and heat and winter and springtime and harvest and summer, and all of the spirits of his creatures which are in heaven and on earth.

And (he created) the abysses and darkness—both evening and night—and light—both dawn and daylight—which he prepared in the knowledge of his heart. 3 Then we saw his works and we blessed him and offered praise before him on account of all his works because he made seven great works on the first day. (Jubilees 2:1-4)

[Wycliffes_Shillelagh]

Jubilees is an embellishment of Genesis.  The Rabbis took the stories of Genesis and made them very... kid-friendly.  The patriarchs are basically superheroes in Jubilees.

The one thing I found interesting about Jubilees was how they track the generations in "weeks" and "jubilees," which is also where the book gets its name.  Something similar occurs in Jesus' mismatched genealogies in the books of Matthew and Luke.  It seems that those genealogies may have been for the purpose of counting generations.