4Q216 and the state of "Jubilees" at Qumran

This essay presents a preliminary analysis of 4Q216 from the perspective of material philology, and commentss on the implications of reading the Qumran Jubilees fragments from a material perspective. By taking seriously the materiality of the Qumran Jubilees manuscripts, it is argued that there were likely not 14 complete manuscripts of Jubilees at Qumran. In addition, this analysis calls into question the commonly held view that there is a high level of literary and textual stability connecting the Hebrew manuscripts from Qumran to Ethiopic manuscripts dating from the late fourtheenth century C.E. and later. In light of the material composition of 4Q216, it is suggested that the manuscript may show evidence of the literary development of diverging trajectories within the Jubilees tradition post-Qumran.