Adjusting the Narrative Emotions and the Prayer of Moses (Jub 1:19–21)
3 God’s emotions and the consequences of Moses’s prayer
influence of the spirit of Belial;17 and subsequently he says: “let them not be ensnared from all the paths of righteousness”. These two appeals specify the initial request expressed at the beginning of the prayer: “do no forsake your people ... to go along the error of their minds.”18
By performing this prayer, Moses tries to change God’s mind, but this super-fluous effort only shows his incapacity to recognize God’s real nature.
However, a prayer directly addressed to God – whether it is necessary or not – demands a divine answer. Obviously, this answer is not part of the prayer, but connected to it, since it presents an immediate response. While God’s reply occurs immediately, it does not change the destiny of the people, but only that of it Moses. Until this moment we have no indication of emotions in the text, but now this aspect changes.
3 God’s emotions and the consequences of Moses’s prayer
After Moses’s plea, God’s answer summarizes and stresses the same situation that he has already described in his first monologue: God knows the wicked thoughts of the people – its “stiffneckedness”, Jub 1:22 – and he is perfectly aware that they “will not be obedient”. Nevertheless, and at the same time, he repeats and underlines his belief that the people “would turn to me in all up-rightness, with all their heart and their soul”. This conviction not only echoes the proclamation of the first divine monologue, but now it is specified by way of four unmistakable expressions that clarify the divine position. These four ele-ments refer to, and fulfil, not only Moses’s plea, but they also offer much more than he has requested.
A prayer like Moses’s one does not remain without consequences. These are: 1.) God will circumcise the foreskin of their heart; 2.) he will create in them
||
17 For an explanation of this expression and of its implications in the DSS, see Segal, Book, 251–256. In Jubilees, Belial (the second occurrence of this name is in Jub 15:33) – the name of a demonic figure who belongs to the heavenly court of God – represents the power, which is able to lead mankind in a particular – mostly negative – direction. This identification is commonly attested in other writings from the Dead Sea (CD 12:2–3).
18 The context of Jubilees, however, is quite different from that of Deuteronomy 9. Deut 9:26–
29 is based on Exod 32:11–14. In Jubilees, Moses tries to change God’s mind, because the people should not be allowed to sin, but in Deuteronomy he tries to prevent Israel’s annihilation (Deut 9:26).
a holy spirit; 3.) he will cleanse them so that the people will not turn away from him, and 4.) the people will keep and fulfil his commandments.
At this point, the divine answer includes additional elements that were not the topic of Moses’s intercessory prayer.
God’s positive intention, which has been shown before, becomes apparent at the very end of his second speech. The conclusion of God’s answer is full of emotions: twice he states that he is the father of the people and he emphasizes this expression with its logical implication: “they will be my children”. This significant aspect is fundamental and also definitive since – as Jub 1:25 under-lines – every angel and every spirit will know it. The climax of God’s second speech is a short, but touching love declaration to his people. God can no longer control his emotions.
He needs to be sure that this time his message will be unequivocal and de-finitively clear. His final proclamation – “I love them” – does not leave any room for doubts. All fears and problems that Moses raised in connection with the future situation of the people, with their sins, with the possibility of pun-ishment, and with the possibility of salvation are wiped away. It is true that this is at first established through God’s concrete assurances not to destroy his peo-ple, but the absolute sense of security – the guarantee – that the future will be a positive one is finally based only on God’s emotional declaration of love for his people, his inheritance.
At first sight, Moses’s role is not different from the one he had at the begin-ning of God’s first monologue (Jub 1:5, 7): he receives the mission to write.19 Therefore, Moses’s position appears to be the same as in the Tanakh according to Exodus 19: he is appointed to be the mediator between God and Israel. In Jubilees his authorisation is even more significant. While in Exodus 20, after receiving the first two tablets with the commandments, Moses agrees to be the intermediary between God and the people only after the people ask him (Exod 20:19), in Jubilees God himself assigns this role to Moses (Jub 1:5, 7, 26).20
Nevertheless, the consequence of God’s emotional declaration is different here from that in the Exodus narrative. For the reader, the Book of Jubilees
||
19 The role of Moses as writer, as opposed to his role as an author, is prevalent in the literature of Second Temple Judaism. For a detailed description of this point, see Paganini, Legitima-tionsprozess, 266–280.
20 Due to the limited scope of this paper, a complete comparison between Moses’s role in the Hebrew Bible and in Jubilees is not here possible. It is, however, clear that the two contexts are very different. For more details, see Kvanvig, Jubilees (2005), 75–83.
introduces another, totally unexpected speech. This time, it is not God who addresses Moses, but an angel, the Angel of the Presence.21
The fact that Moses did not understand the profound meaning of God’s first long monologue, and the subsequent, divine emotions caused by Moses’s pray-er, represent the only possible explanation – obviously assuming a synchronic point of view – for this surprising insertion of a new character. Ultimately, the Angel of the Presence has to perform the same function as Moses: he has to write. Only the addressees of this act of writing are different. While Moses has to write directly for the people – “write them (the words which I shall speak to you) in a book in order that their generations (of the people) may see” – the angel will write for Moses (Jub 1:25). This constitutes a decisive change in the dynamic that represents the communication of God’s will. All at once, there is a second intermediary between God and the people, and this new mediator – if we understand the message of Jubilees – is more important than Moses. Only the Angel of the Presence receives communications directly from God, since Moses is no longer in direct contact with him.
The situation described at the beginning of Jubilees 2, is consequently dif-ferent from that noted in the Hebrew Bible: “And the Angel of the Presence – not God (!) – spoke to Moses according to the word of the Lord, saying: ‘Write’
...”. The action that Moses has to perform is the same but the call to do so no longer derives from God.
Emotions have contributed to a correction of the biblical narrative.
4 Conclusion
The whole Book of Jubilees uses the base text of Genesis and Exodus in order to produce a new work.22 Many themes and much content that were not present in the Torah are now part of the new narrative.23 This methodology may also be
||
21 Nitzan, Prayer, 39, points out that this figure has some similarities with the angel of God, who, according to Exod 32:34, is sent before Israel to fight against its enemies. Since Jubilees changes the angel’s duty from a military to a halakhic task, connecting the two angelic figures becomes quite a problematic exercise.
22 See also Kvanvig, Jubilees (2004), 243–261.
23 Crawford, Scripture, 80.
detected in the first chapter of the book, in particular in Moses’s short prayer and in the emotions which this generates in God.24
The setting of Jubilees is ambiguous. Moses is introduced at the very begin-ning of the book with the same features as in the biblical text. Jubilees also con-curs that the revelation took place at Mount Sinai25 and that Moses is the man God is addressing, but, at the same time, Moses’s role changes. In Jubilees 1, he hears the revelation of Israel’s future sins and the consequent punishment, but he also recognizes that God is ready to accord his people the possibility of re-pentance, and that he wants to build his sanctuary in their midst. The first long monologue of God is introduced with the words: “God spoke to Moses saying”.
No one else has the same familiarity and intimacy with God. Moses alone knows God’s thoughts and also his project of salvation. Nonetheless, he unnecessarily pleads to God in an intercessory prayer for the people in order to preserve them from God’s rebuke. This uncalled-for prayer does not remain without conse-quences. It causes another reaction by God, which, in comparison with his first speech, is not only descriptive, but emotional.
At this point, the narrative of Jubilees evolves in a different direction from the biblical description.26 Moses is no longer the unique mediator between God and the people. He is only the writer of words that do not originate directly from God, but originate in the mouth of an angel.27 This angel, and not Moses, now enjoys a special intimacy with God; he is the Angel of the Presence.28 In God’s plans, his angel receives the mission of “writing for Moses”. The leader of Israel acquires a secondary function in the dynamic of the revelation. In the whole book of Jubilees he will no longer converse with God directly.
Prayers evoke emotions. Neither prayers nor emotions remain without con-sequences, even if these consequences are quite difficult to understand. At the
||
24 The aim of the author of Jubilees is an exegetical one. This is also argued by VanderKam, Moses, 28–29, when he states that the author “worked out his method and came to his conclu-sion on the basis of his reading of scriptural texts.”
25 This is an important detail, which strengthens the authority of Jubilees. See Najman, Sinai, 53–56.
26 The Temple Scroll shows a more direct rejection of the figure of Moses. In Jubilees Moses still has the task of writing, while in 11Q19 he becomes obsolete, since God speaks to the people directly without the use of a mediator. See Paganini, Wörtern, 279–296.
27 The angel, however, no longer has the function of mediating the revelation in order to authorize it, as is assumed by Najman, Sinai, 60–61. It is not only an expression of respect for the divine. In Jubilees 1, the moment of Moses’s delegitimation is more distinct. Moses is no more the author – and, as in Deuteronomy, also the interpreter of the law – but only its writer.
28 See VanderKam, Angel, 378–393.
beginning of Jubilees, a prayer and the emotions that arise from it, have the power to adjust the biblical narrative.
Abstract
The book of Jubilees uses the base text of Genesis and Exodus, but it also incor-porates new themes and contents otherwise unknown from the Torah. Thereby, it presents an adjusted narrative in addition to the well-known biblical narrative from the Torah. This raises obvious methodological questions pertaining to the way this change occurs, and how it is legitimized. One example of this rewritten narrative may already be observed in Moses’s short prayer and God’s subse-quent emotions at the beginning of the book (Jub 1:19–21). Initially, Moses is introduced in a manner similar to that used in the biblical narrative, but, after the dialogue with God, he ceases to be the unique mediator between God and his people. This change is a consequence of God’s emotions, which are inspired by Moses’s prayer. These emotions have the (literary) power to change the bibli-cal narrative.
Bibliography
Brooke, G.J., Moving Mountains: From Sinai to Jerusalem, in: Brooke, G.J./Najman, H./
Stuckenbruck, L.T. (eds.), The Significance of Sinai. Traditions about Divine Revelation in Judaism and Christianity (TBN 12), Leiden: Brill, 2008, 73–89.
Crawford, S.W., Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times (Studies in the Dead Sea Scroll and Related Literature), Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.
Kvanvig, H.S., Jubilees – Between Enoch and Moses. A Narrative Reading: JSJ 35 (2004) 243–
261.
Kvanvig, H.S., Jubilees – Read as a Narrative, in: Boccaccini, G. (ed.), Enoch and Qumran Origins. New Light on a Forgotten Connection, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005, 75–83.
Najman, H., Seconding Sinai. The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism (JSJSup 77), Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Nitzan, B., Moses’ Penitential-Like Prayer in Jubilees 1 and Its Relation to the Penitential Tradi-tion of Post-Exilic Judaism: Henoch 31 (2009) 35–41.
Paganini, S., Deuteronomio, nuova versione, introduzione e commento (I libri biblici: Primo Testamento 5), Milano: Paoline, 2011.
Paganini, S., Gesprochen, gehört, verschriftet. Zum Legitimationsprozess pentateuchischer Gesetztestexte in der Zeit des zweiten Tempels, in: Achenbach, R./Arneth, M. (eds.), „Ge-rechtigkeit und Recht zu üben“ (Gen 18,19). Studien zur altorientalischen und biblischen Rechtsgeschichte, zur Religionsgeschichte Israels und zur Religionssoziologie, FS E. Otto (ZABR Beihefte 13), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009, 266–280.
Paganini, S., „Nicht darfst du zu diesen Wörtern etwas hinzufügen“. Die Rezeption des Deute-ronomiums in der Tempelrolle: Sprache, Autoren und Hermeneutik (ZARB Beihefte 11), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009.
Segal, M., The Book of Jubilees. Rewritten Bible, Redaction, Ideology and Theology (JSJSup 117), Leiden: Brill, 2007.
VanderKam, J.C., The Angel of the Presence in the Book of Jubilees: DSD (2000) 378–393.
VanderKam, J.C., The Putative Author of the Book of Jubilees, in: VanderKam, J.C., From Revela-tion to Canon. Studies in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Literature (JSJSup 62), Lei-den: Brill, 2000, 438–447.
VanderKam, J.C., The Book of Jubilees (Guides to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha), Sheffield:
Academic Press, 2001.
VanderKam, J.C., Moses Trumping Moses: Making the Book of Jubilees, in: Metso, S./Najman, H./Schuller, E. (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls. Transmission of Traditions and Production of Texts (STDJ 92), Leiden: Brill, 2010, 28–42.
Widmer, M., Moses, God, and the Dynamics of Intercessory Prayer. A Study of Exodus 32–34 and Numbers 13–14 (FAT 8), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004.