ספר היובלים ועדת קומראן: לשאלת היחס בין השניים

The first part of this paper, which treats the question of the relationship between Jubilees and the Qumran community, is a consideration of the date of Jubilees' composition. The view taken here is that the book was composed at a time when the Qumran community was already established, arguing for the late second century BCE as a more likely date of composition than the early or mid-second century BCE. A close examination of a central chapter in Jubilees, chapter 23, which constitutes the main part of the paper, demonstrates that it indeed includes a Qumranic layer. At the core of chapter 23 stands an early, independent composition describing four periods in the deterioration of humanity, due to the sins of fornication and impurity. Several verses in the chapter, however, seem to be an interpolation. Verses 16 and 19–20 describe a clash between young men and elders on calendrical and other halakhic issues disputed by the Qumranites and the Pharisees. Verses 21–23 focus on the sins of the people "who escaped" and their punishment, using terms and accusations known from Qumranic anti-Hasmonean polemical writings. Both the presence of matters of Qumran-Pharisee controversy and of close parallels to Qumranic anti-Hasmonean writings led to the conclusion that this chapter underwent redaction at Qumran.