ספר היובלים ומקורותיו הארמיים

This paper evaluates the relationship between the book of Jubilees and two Aramaic sources known from Qumran, the Genesis Apocryphon and the Vision of Amram. The first part of the paper compares the descriptions, found in Jubilees and the Apocryphon, of the division of the world among Noah's sons and grandsons. Close consideration reveals that both the Apocryphon and Jubilees used the Ionian map, placing Jerusalem at its omphalos instead of Delphi. The article also points out Jubilees' use of the Apocryphon in its description. In translating the Apocryphon into Hebrew, Jubilees' author makes editiorial changes in order to emphasize Shem's priority over his brother, also adding data which he converts into propaganda against the Hellenistic world. The second part of the paper evaluates the description of the Exodus found in the Vision of Amram and in Jubilees. It concludes that Jubilees'author uses motifs from the Vision, expanding them for his own purposes: adjusting the Exodus story so that it reflects the structure of the anti-Jewish version current in the second-century-B.C.E. Hellenistic world.