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Jubilees retells Genesis 3 by changing the order of events, showing Eve drawn by the fruit before seeing it as food. It also has her cover herself before speaking to the man to make the story flow more naturally and avoid any dishonorable behavior.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 3:6
Hebrew Bible
5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 3:20
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
19 And the serpent said to the woman, 'You shall not surely die: for God does know that on the day you shall eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, and you will know good and evil. 20 And the woman saw the tree that it was agreeable and pleasant to the eye, and that its fruit was good for food, and she took of it and ate. 21 And when she had first covered her shame with figleaves, she gave of it to Adam and he ate, and his eyes were opened, and he saw that he was naked.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In Genesis 3:6 Eve saw that the tree 'was good for eating and a delight to the eyes.' The order seemed illogical to the author of Jubilees - first the fruit ought to have appealed to her eye, and only after that should she have guessed that it tasted good as well. So the author of Jubilees changed the order. He also had Eve cover herself with a fig-leaf before approaching Adam (contra Genesis 3:6-7), apparently to avoid any implication of immodesty ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 40–41.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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