Jubilees

Written in Hebrew around the 2nd century BC. Fifteen copies were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran — only Psalms and Deuteronomy appear more often there. The complete text, however, survives only in Ge'ez (classical Ethiopic), translated from Greek, which in turn came from Hebrew.

It is canonical Scripture in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church to this day. It was left out elsewhere because it rewrites Genesis around a 364-day solar calendar, incompatible with the lunar reckoning that prevailed in Judaism, and because it attributes to Moses a revelation the Pentateuch itself does not record.

• It names the women Genesis leaves anonymous — the wives of Adam, Noah, Shem and Abraham — and supplies the missing genealogy.
• It explains where demons come from: they are the spirits of the giants who died in the flood, and God allows a tenth of them to remain on earth at Mastema's request.
• Abraham appears rejecting his father's idols and burning their temple as a young man, a scene Genesis does not tell.
• The binding of Isaac is presented as a wager made by Mastema before God, in the same pattern as the wager that opens the book of Job.

Is the Book of Jubilees canonical anywhere?

Yes. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church treats it as Scripture, as it does 1 Enoch. The Catholic, Protestant and Greek Orthodox churches do not.

Why is it called Jubilees?

Because it arranges all history since creation into periods of forty-nine years — seven weeks of years — called jubilees. Every event is dated within that system, which gives the book its other ancient name: Little Genesis.

How is Jubilees different from Genesis?

It follows the same narrative but adds exact dates, names for anonymous characters, laws given before Sinai, and an explanation for the origin of evil. Where Genesis is spare, Jubilees is minute.