Jubilees

The Book

English · 1902 · 5h 38m · Religion, Antiquity

The Book of Jubilees retells the story of Genesis and the opening of Exodus as a sequence of periods measured in jubilees—cycles of years that give the work its name. Presented as revelations to Moses, it revisits the origins of the world and the history of the early generations.

Rather than simply repeating the biblical narrative, the book arranges events within a precise sacred chronology and gives particular attention to laws, observances, and the division of time. Its account offers a window into ancient Jewish interpretation of scripture and religious tradition.

Known also as Lesser Genesis, this work holds different places in different religious communities: it is canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition and among Beta Israel, while other major Jewish and Christian traditions do not include it in their biblical canon.