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In Jubilees, the adversary Mastema’s role changes. In chapter 48, he is bound for five days to prevent him from stopping Israel’s escape from Egypt. In chapter 49, however, his forces carry out the final plague, acting as agents of divine judgment.
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Jubilees 48:15
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
14 And all the peoples whom he brought to pursue Israel, the Lord our God threw them into the middle of the sea, into the depths of the abyss beneath the children of Israel, even as the people of Egypt had cast their children into the river. He took vengeance on 1,000,000 of them, and one thousand strong and energetic men were destroyed on account of one nursing infant of the children of your people which they had thrown into the river. 15 And on the fourteenth day and on the fifteenth and on the sixteenth and on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth the prince Mastema was bound and imprisoned behind the children of Israel so that he might not accuse them. 16 And on the nineteenth we let them loose so that they might help the Egyptians and pursue the children of Israel.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 49:2
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 Remember the commandment which the Lord commanded you concerning the passover, that you should celebrate it in its season on the fourteenth of the first month, that you should kill it before it is evening, and that they should eat it by night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of the setting of the sun. 2 For on this night — the beginning of the festival and the beginning of the joy — you were eating the passover in Egypt, when all the powers of Mastema had been let loose to kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive female servant in the mill, and to the cattle. 3 And this is the sign which the Lord gave them: Into every house on the lintels of which they saw the blood of a lamb of the first year, into (that) house they should not enter to kill, but should pass by (it), so that all those should be saved that were in the house because the sign of the blood was on its lintels.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... As often in the book, the narrator speaks of the role of “the angel Mastema,” the Satan-like figure who leads the forces of evil. Here, Mastema tries to kill Moses, then, failing that, seeks to aid Pharaoh’s magicians in combating the ten plagues, and still later urges the Egyptians to pursue the departing Israelites - in short, Mastema does everything he can to foil God’s plan to free the Israelites. He actually has to be held in restraints for five days, “bound and locked up” (Jubilees 48:15), to prevent him from succeeding. By contrast, in chapter 49 - largely taken up with detailing the laws of Passover and full of the “terminology of the Heavenly Tablets”—the narrator suddenly reminds Moses of what happened on the fateful night that inaugurated the exodus ... Here, there is a clear about-face: instead of trying to frustrate God’s plans, Mastema’s legions actually become God’s agents, carrying out the tenth plague instead of opposing it ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 229.
* 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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