In spite of some scholars’ inclination to include the book of Jubilees as
another witness to “Enochic Judaism,” the relationship of Jubilees to the
apocalyptic writings and events surrounding the Maccabean revolt has
never been adequately clarified. This book builds on scholarship on genre
to establish a clear pattern among the ways Jubilees resembles and differs
from other apocalypses. Jubilees matches the apocalypses of its day in
overall structure and literary morphology. Jubilees also uses the literary
genre to raise the issues typical of the apocalypses—including revelation,
angels and demons, judgment, and eschatology—but rejects what the
apocalypses typically say about those issues, subverting reader expectations
with a corrected view. In addition to the main argument concerning
Jubilees, this volume’s survey of what is fundamentally apocalyptic about
apocalyptic literature advances the understanding of early Jewish apocalyptic
literature and, in turn, of later apocalypses and comparable
perspectives, including those of Paul and the Qumran sectarians.