{ "apiVersion": "v1", "kind": "Translation", "metadata": { "generated": "2026-08-22T14:14:13Z", "language": "en", "schemaUrl": "/v1/schema/translation/" }, "data": { "schemaVersion": 2, "chapterCount": 12, "chapterFiles": [ { "file": "chapter-1.json", "n": 1, "paragraphs": 29, "title": "Jubilees 1" }, { "file": "chapter-2.json", "n": 2, "paragraphs": 33, "title": "Jubilees 2" }, { "file": "chapter-3.json", "n": 3, "paragraphs": 35, "title": "Jubilees 3" }, { "file": "chapter-4.json", "n": 4, "paragraphs": 33, "title": "Jubilees 4" }, { "file": "chapter-5.json", "n": 5, "paragraphs": 32, "title": "Jubilees 5" }, { "file": "chapter-6.json", "n": 6, "paragraphs": 38, "title": "Jubilees 6" }, { "file": "chapter-7.json", "n": 7, "paragraphs": 39, "title": "Jubilees 7" }, { "file": "chapter-8.json", "n": 8, "paragraphs": 30, "title": "Jubilees 8" }, { "file": "chapter-9.json", "n": 9, "paragraphs": 15, "title": "Jubilees 9" }, { "file": "chapter-10.json", "n": 10, "paragraphs": 34, "title": "Jubilees 10" }, { "file": "chapter-11.json", "n": 11, "paragraphs": 24, "title": "Jubilees 11" }, { "file": "chapter-12.json", "n": 12, "paragraphs": 31, "title": "Jubilees 12" } ], "paragraphCount": 373, "publicationYear": 2026, "revision": 3, "versionLicense": "CC0-1.0", "priority": 5, "wohCurated": true, "verificationStatus": "human-signed-off-2026-06-06", "updated": "2026-06-06T00:00:00+00:00", "versionSource": "Best-effort reconstruction with per-verse layered witness attribution: Hebrew DSS fragments (4Q216/4Q218/4Q219/4Q220/4Q221/4Q222/4Q223-224/4Q225-227 + Masada Jubilees + 1Q17/1Q18/2Q19/2Q20/3Q5/11Q12; 4Q216 dated late 2nd c. BCE per Milik-VanderKam DJD XIII 1994 — among the oldest Jubilees witnesses) as PRIMARY where preserved; Greek fragments (Epiphanius, Syncellus, Cedrenus) SECONDARY where they exist (limited coverage); Ge'ez (Charles 1902 PD + VanderKam 1989 modern critical) TERTIARY and fallback. Ge'ez is the only complete witness; Hebrew is the original composition language; Greek translation existed but survives only in patristic citations.", "code": "JUB-WOH", "slug": "jubilees-woh", "refId": "JUB-WOH", "primaryLang": "he", "originalLang": "he", "fallbackLangs": [ "grc", "gez" ], "schema": [ "book", "chapters", "verses" ], "schemaLabels": { "en": [ "Book", "Chapter", "Verse" ] }, "titles": { "en": "Jubilees", "de": "Jubiläenbuch", "es": "Libro de los Jubileos", "fr": "Livre des Jubilés", "ja": "ヨベル書", "ko": "희년서", "ru": "Книга Юбилеев", "zh": "禧年书", "zh-Hant": "禧年書", "gez": "መጽሐፈ ኩፋሌ", "he": "ספר היובלים", "grc": "ΛΕΠΤΗ ΓΕΝΕΣΙΣ" }, "versionTitles": { "en": "Wheel of Heaven Translation" }, "shortVersionTitles": { "en": "WoH, 2026" }, "version": { "schemaVersion": 1, "title": "Wheel of Heaven Translation", "shortTitle": "WoH, 2026", "type": "curated-translation", "language": "en", "sourceLanguage": "he", "refSystem": "chapter-verse", "scope": "Jubilees 1-12", "license": { "status": "project-cc0", "spdx": "CC0-1.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/" }, "provenance": { "sourceRecordId": "book-of-jubilees", "baseText": "Layered Hebrew, Greek, and Ge'ez witness reconstruction", "method": "Best-effort reconstruction with per-verse layered witness attribution.", "citation": "See sourceCitation for bibliography.", "witnesses": [ { "role": "primary", "language": "he", "label": "Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls fragments" }, { "role": "secondary", "language": "grc", "label": "Greek fragments where extant" }, { "role": "fallback", "language": "gez", "label": "Ge'ez Ethiopic witness" } ] }, "responsibility": { "translator": "Wheel of Heaven", "reviewer": "zarazinsfuss" } }, "sourceCitation": "Milik, J. T., and VanderKam, J. C., 'Jubilees' in Qumran Cave 4: VIII, Parabiblical Texts, Part 1 (DJD XIII, Oxford 1994) — THE foundational publication of the DSS Hebrew Jubilees fragments. VanderKam, J. C., The Book of Jubilees: A Critical Text and Translation (CSCO 510-511; Scriptores Aethiopici 87-88; Leuven 1989) — THE standard modern critical Ge'ez edition + English translation. Charles, R. H., The Book of Jubilees, or the Little Genesis (London 1902; Public Domain) — the classic Ge'ez critical edition + English. VanderKam, J. C., Jubilees: A Commentary in Two Volumes (Hermeneia, Minneapolis 2018) — THE standard modern critical commentary. Segal, M., The Book of Jubilees: Rewritten Bible, Redaction, Ideology and Theology (JSJSup 117, Leiden 2007). Kugel, J. L., A Walk through Jubilees (JSJSup 156, Leiden 2012). Werman, C., Sefer ha-Yovelim: Introduction, Hebrew Text, Commentary (Jerusalem 2015) — Hebrew critical edition. Tigchelaar, E. J. C., 'Jubilees' in Outside the Bible (eds. Feldman et al., Philadelphia 2013).", "subtitles": { "en": "Ship A: Primeval + Patriarchal Frame (Jubilees 1-12) — 12 chapters. Moses on Sinai + Creation + Eden + Watchers + Flood + 364-day-calendar polemic + Tower of Babel + Abraham." }, "descriptions": { "en": "An English translation of Jubilees chapters 1-12 — the primeval + patriarchal frame, from Moses on Sinai through Abraham's departure from Ur. Produced from a per-verse layered witness reconstruction: Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls fragments (4Q216 dated late 2nd c. BCE per Milik-VanderKam DJD XIII 1994, with additional witnesses 4Q218-4Q227 + Masada Jubilees + 1Q17/1Q18/2Q19/2Q20/3Q5/11Q12) as the primary witness where preserved; Greek patristic fragments (Epiphanius De mensuris et ponderibus, Syncellus Chronographia, Cedrenus) as secondary where they exist; Ge'ez (Ethiopic) as tertiary and fallback.\n\nThe Ge'ez is the only complete witness, but Hebrew is the original composition language. The Greek translation existed but survives only in patristic citations. This places Jubilees in the same layered-witness pattern as 1 Enoch, with the additional complication that Hebrew (not Aramaic) is the source language.\n\nJubilees is the principal companion text to 1 Enoch in Second Temple Jewish thought. It is canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (where it appears as Kufale 'division'). It systematically rewrites Genesis 1 through Exodus 14 within a 49-year jubilee chronology, embedding the 364-day solar calendar (Jub 6:32-38) that is the calendrical identity-marker of the Qumran community.\n\nShip A scope: chapters 1-12 — the primeval frame (creation through the dispersal at Babel) plus the introduction of Abraham. Includes: Moses on Sinai with the angel-of-presence (ch 1); the seven days of creation (ch 2); Eden + the fall (ch 3); Enoch the scribe (Jub 4:17-26 — the foundational Enoch-as-scribe text); the Watchers narrative (ch 5, parallel to 1 En 6-11); the Noachic covenant + the 364-day-calendar polemic (ch 6); the curse of Canaan + table of nations (chs 7-9); Mastema + the giants-become-evil-spirits demonological etiology (ch 10:1-14, parallel to 1 En 15:8) + Tower of Babel (ch 10:18-26); Abraham's birth and Mastema's bird-driving (ch 11); Abraham's iconoclasm and departure from Ur (ch 12).\n\nCross-corpus density: extremely high. Jubilees is the principal native-Hebrew witness to: the Watchers tradition (parallel to 1 En 6-11); Enoch-as-scribe (Jub 4:17-26 — the source text for the Enoch-Metatron tradition); the heavenly tablets motif (Jub 5:13, 23:32, 30:9 — already wired bidirectionally with 1 En 81 in production v2.67.0); the giants-become-evil-spirits demonology (Jub 10:1-14 — parallel to 1 En 15:8 already in production v2.66.0); and the 364-day solar calendar polemic (Jub 6:32-38 — parallel to 1 En 72/75/82 already in production v2.67.0).\n\nJubilees was widely read at Qumran (the 15+ DSS witnesses make it one of the most-attested non-canonical texts in the Scrolls) and explicitly cited in CD 16:2-3 (the Damascus Document) as authoritative on calendrical questions. It survived in Ethiopian Orthodox + Beta Israel canon transmission but was lost to the wider Christian and Jewish traditions until the modern recovery." }, "lastUpdated": "2026-06-06", "reviewer": "zarazinsfuss" }, "links": { "self": "/v1/translations/jubilees-woh/", "library": "/v1/library/books/jubilees-woh/", "canonical_html": "https://www.wheelofheaven.world/library/jubilees-woh/", "index": "/v1/translations/", "schema": "/v1/schema/translation/", "glossary": "/v1/glossary/" } }