Texts in Conversation
In 4Q213a from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a woman’s forbidden union brings shame on her family. Jubilees uses similar language to forbid marriage with foreigners throughout Israel, extending priestly concerns to the whole people.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q213a 3–4 3–8
Aramaic Levi b
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings
12 [to take] from the females [who are foreign, and a profaner.] And now, the plagues of the men will come up 13 [upon those who] incur guilt [by taking her for themselves as] a wife. And she profanes her name and the name of her father. 14 [They judged] her to be burned [for the wrong of her] deed, in [profaning] the fathers. And every 15 [virgin] who ruins her name and the name of her fathers, and brings shame on all her brothers, 16 [the sons of] her father, the name of her disgrace will not be wiped out from all her people forever. 17 [She is cursed] for all the generations of eternity. And whoever [makes guilty] the holy ones of the people, who 18 [put the sons of Israel to shame,] and [let him not be] a holy tithe, an offering to God from
Jubilees 30:7
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
7 If there is a man in Israel who wishes to give his daughter or his sister to any foreigner, he is to die. He is to be stoned because he has done something sinful and shameful within Israel. The woman is to be burned because she has defiled the reputation of her father’s house; she is to be uprooted from Israel. 8 No adulterer or impure person is to be found within Israel throughout all the time of the earth’s history, for Israel is holy to the Lord. Any man who has defiled it is to die; he is to be stoned. 9 For this is the way it has been ordained and written on the heavenly tablets regarding any descendant of Israel who defiles it: ‘He is to die; he is to be stoned’. 10 This law has no temporal limit. There is no remission or any forgiveness; but rather the man who has defiled his daughter within all of Israel is to be eradicated because he has given one of his descendants to Molech and has sinned by defiling them. 11 Now you, Moses, order the Israelites and testify to them that they are not to give any of their daughters to foreigners and that they are not to marry any foreign women because it is despicable before the Lord.
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Notes and References
“... It is interesting, however, that Jubilees, which appears dependent on the
Aramaic Levi Document or its source, does append to its account of Dinah an
excursus which deals generally with intermarriage with foreigners and uses similar
language to what we find in these fragments of the Aramaic Levi Document. Thus
Jub. 30:7 condemns the father or brother, who gives away daughter or sister in
marriage to a foreigner, to stoning, and also condemns the daughter, herself, — to
be burned. The same applies in reverse in 30:11 to sons marrying foreign women. [...] The Dinah episode lent itself to use for reflection on marriage with Gentiles.
What links Aramaic Levi Document and Jubilees is more than that. It includes
particular applications of priestly law from Leviticus and a sanitised account of
Levi’s exploits which makes him a hero and model for his successors on the
pattern of Phinehas. There are also aspects in common which are beyond our
theme,
in particular,
the instructions
about preparing sacrifices
and Isaac’s
blessing.
In Aramaic
Levi Document
roles
attributed
to Judah have been
assimilated to the priesthood of Levi, whereas in Jubilees they remain distinct
though nevertheless subordinate. Yet the disparity in the evaluation of Dinah and
the different foci, primarily on priests in Aramaic Levi Document and on people in
Jubilees, implies either a critical reworking by Jubilees of Aramaic Levi Document
or use of a common source.** ...”
Loader, William R. G.
Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Early Enoch Literature, the Aramaic Levi Document, and the Book of Jubilees
(p. 93, 175) Eerdmans, 2007
* 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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