historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

92 BILHAH NITZAN
predestined decree (mentioned above), by changing the model of the
covenant from a promissory covenant to a mutual one, and by promoting
and emphasizing the idea of the continuity of the mutual
covenant through all generations.
The transformation or adaptation of the promissory covenant into
a mutual covenant is expressed in the Book of Jubilees by the undertaking
of an oath to perform God's commandments. Thus, "Noah
and his sons swore that they would not eat any blood which was in
any flesh; and he made a covenant before the Lord God forever in
all of the generations" (6:10). 19 Similarly, the Angel of the Presence
instructs Moses that he "also might make a covenant with the children
of Israel with an oath" on Mount Sinai (6:11). Isaac makes his
sons, Jacob and Esau, swear a great oath in the name of the Lord
who created heaven and earth that they would fear Him and worship
Him (36:7). 20
The theme of the continuation of the covenant as a mutual act
is expressed in Jubilees by tying the generations, one to another,
through the observance of God's commandments. Hence, the commandment
to avoid the eating of blood was observed after Noah
only by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (6:19), until it was commanded
on Mount Sinai (6:12—14). Another law that Noah was commanded
to follow was the date of the renewal of the covenant with God on
the third month (Jub. 6:1, 4, 10-11), during the festival of Pentecost
(6:17) that, according to its calendar, was to be celebrated on the
fifteenth day of the third month (15:1, 16:13). This law, which according
to Jubilees entailed a 364-day calendar, was observed by Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob (6:19; 14:10, 20; 15:1-10), 21 and was to be commanded
for all generations (6:20—22). The strategy of imposing the
covenant of laws upon Israel was accomplished in the Book of Jubilees
by its being inherited from generation to generation. 22 Thus the
19 The translation of the text into English follows the edition of J. H. Charlesworth,
ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2 (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 67.
20 This oath was undertaken in order to prevent any hatred between Jacob and
Esau (Jub. 36:4, 8-9), but also regarding the matter of the idols, which they were
commanded to scorn and whose worship to prevent by breaking all constructions
used in their worship (Jub. 36:5).
21 According to Jubilees 22, Abraham's testament to Jacob, in which he passed
on to him the commandments of God, was on the festival of Pentecost, at which
the renewal of the covenant was celebrated (see v. 15). According to Jub. 44:1—8
Jacob observed the festival of Pentecost on the fifteenth of the third month, and
delayed his journey to Egypt to the sixteenth of this month.
22 The strategy of the inheritance of the covenant of laws and its blessings to