What Did Jacob Read at Bethel?: Scrolls and Scripture in Jubilees 32:21–26

Abstract

Abstract Jubilees 32:21–26 tells the story of Jacob’s third divine encounter at Bethel, in which heavenly writing is revealed to him. Interpreters have tried to understand this writing as Jubilees’s Heavenly Tablets, but the description of the writing and its revelation do not square well with the other mentions of the Heavenly Tablets in the book. This article explores the many problems with this reading and suggests, instead, on the basis of the Ethiopic and Latin terms used for this writing, that Jacob reads a scroll. It is suggested that the terminology in this passage refers not to tablets, but to papyrus or parchment sheets, or columns of writing – or both. This understanding of the materiality of the writing allows us to fully appreciate the claim put forward in the episode, which has to do not with the Heavenly Tablets, but with the particularities of early Jewish scribal practice.