Editing Book of Jubilees (section)

== Manuscripts ==
Until the discovery of extensive fragments among the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], the earliest surviving manuscripts of Jubilees were four complete Geʽez texts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries and several quotations by the [[early Church Fathers]] such as [[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]], [[Justin Martyr]], [[Origen]], [[Diodorus of Tarsus]], [[Isidore of Alexandria]], [[Isidore of Seville]], [[Eutychius of Alexandria]], [[John Malalas]], [[George Syncellus]], and [[George Kedrenos]]. There is also a preserved fragment of a Latin translation of the Greek that contains about a quarter of the whole work.<ref name="Charles">{{cite book|year=1913|chapter-url=http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/ot/pseudo/jubilee.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090224002549/http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/ot/pseudo/jubilee.htm |archive-date=February 24, 2009|title=The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament|author=R. H. Charles |author-link=R. H. Charles |chapter=The Book of Jubilees |location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|via=Wesley Center Online}}</ref>

The [[Bible translations into Geʽez|Geʽez Biblical texts]], now numbering twenty-seven, are the primary basis for translations into English. Passages in the texts of Jubilees that are directly parallel to verses in Genesis do not directly reproduce either of the two surviving manuscript traditions.{{refn|1="A minute study of the text shows that it attests an independent form of the Hebrew text of Genesis and the early chapters of Exodus. Thus it agrees with individual authorities such as the Samaritan or the LXX, or the Syriac, or the Vulgate, or the Targum of Onkelos against all the rest. Or again it agrees with two or more of these authorities in opposition to the rest, as for instance with the Massoretic and Samaritan against the LXX, Syriac and Vulgate, or with the Massoretic and Onkelos against the Samaritan, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate, or with the Massoretic, Samaritan and Syriac against the LXX or Vulgate." R.H. Charles, "7. Textual Affinities"<ref name="Charles"/>}} Consequently, even before the [[Qumran]] discoveries, [[R. H. Charles]] had deduced that the Hebrew original had used an otherwise unrecorded text for Genesis and for the early chapters of Exodus, one independent either of the [[Masoretic Text]] (𝕸) or of the Hebrew text that was the basis for the [[Septuagint]]. According to one historian, the variation among parallel manuscript traditions that are exhibited by the Septuagint compared with the 𝕸, and which are embodied in the further variants among the Dead Sea Scrolls, demonstrates that even canonical Hebrew texts did not possess any single "authorized" manuscript tradition before the [[Common Era]].<ref>Robin Lane Fox, a classicist and historian, discusses these multifarious sources of Old and New Testaments in layman's terms in ''Unauthorized Version'' (1992).</ref> Others{{who|date=November 2019}} write about the existence of three main textual manuscript traditions (namely the Babylonian, Palestinian and pre-𝕸 "proto" textual traditions). Although the pre-𝕸 text may have indeed been authoritative back then, arguments can be made for and against this concept.<ref>Hershel Shanks, an historian and archaeological scholar, provides various articles  that explore this issue in great depth, from various experts in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls research, in his book ''Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review'', June 29, 1993"</ref>

Between 1947 and 1956, approximately fifteen scrolls of Jubilees were found in [[Qumran Caves|five caves at Qumran]], all written in [[Biblical Hebrew]]. The large number of manuscripts (more than for any Biblical books except for Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis, in descending order) indicates that Jubilees was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of the Qumran texts with the Geʽez version, performed by James VanderKam, found that the Geʽez was in most respects an accurate and literalistic translation.{{sfnp|VanderKam|2000|p=435}}