Covenant and Eternal Law

Covenant is the binding agreement between God and humanity that structures the entire narrative of these texts - from Noah through Abraham to Sinai, each sealed with visible signs and recorded on the heavenly tablets. In the ancient pseudepigraphal traditions, divine covenants function not merely as historical agreements but as expressions of an eternal order established at creation itself. These texts portray God's dealings with humanity as renewals of a primordial law that governs time, ethics, and cosmic stability, rather than innovations introduced at later moments of crisis. The narrative arc moves from the antediluvian period through the patriarchs to Sinai, presenting each covenant as a reaffirmation of statutes already inscribed in the heavenly tablets and operative since the first week of the world. The Book of Jubilees develops this theme with particular clarity by insisting that the calendar, festivals, and moral commandments predate the Flood. Noah receives the covenant of the rainbow in chapter 6 together with explicit instructions on the solar reckoning of 364 days, while Abraham's covenant in chapter 15 renews the same laws of circumcision and separation that had been observed by Enoch and Noah. Jubilees thereby frames the later revelation at Sinai as a restoration rather than an origin, emphasizing that Israel's fidelity to these written ordinances maintains the created order against the chaos introduced by the Watchers. First Enoch complements this perspective through its depiction of the heavenly tablets and the eternal laws entrusted to the patriarch, who records judgments that will stand until the final renewal of heaven and earth. Although Enoch does not narrate patriarchal covenants in detail, its portrayal of fixed celestial cycles and immutable decrees supplies the cosmological foundation that Jubilees later applies to Israel's legal tradition. The Book of Jasher, in turn, preserves narrative expansions of the patriarchal stories that underscore the continuity of these obligations across generations. Taken together, these writings present covenant and law as twin aspects of a single divine economy, one that begins before history and extends beyond it. Readers encounter a worldview in which Sinai completes what was already latent in creation, binding Israel to an order that angels and patriarchs alike were summoned to keep.

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Details

Category: Covenantal
Key Figures: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Angel of the Presence
Passages: 5 key references

Key Chapters

The Book of Jubilees 6 Noah's Sacrifice, Covenant, and the Division of the Year 9 min read The Book of Jubilees 15 The Birth of Ishmael; Institution of Circumcision 7 min read The Book of Jubilees 2 Creation of the World and Institution of the Sabbath 9 min read The Book of Jubilees 14 The Campaign of Chedorlaomer; God's Covenant with Abram 5 min read The Book of Jubilees 1 God's Revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai 9 min read

Key Passages

Noahic and Abrahamic

The Book of Jubilees 6:1-17

And on the new moon of the third month he went forth from the ark, and built an altar on that mountain....

A¹nd on the new moon of the third month he went forth from the ark, and built an altar on that mountain.

² And he made atonement for the earth, and took a kid and made atonement by its blood for all the guilt of the earth; for everything that had been on it had been destroyed, save those that were in the ark with Noah. ³ And he placed the fat thereof on the altar, and he took an ox, and a goat, and a sheep and kids, and salt, and a turtle-dove, and the young of a dove, and placed a burnt sacrifice on the altar, and poured thereon an offering mingled with oil, and sprinkled wine and strewed frankincense over everything, and caused a goodly savour to arise, acceptable before the Lord. ⁴ And the Lord smelt the goodly savour, and He made a covenant with him that there should not be any more a flood to destroy the earth; that all the days of the earth seed-time and harvest should never cease; cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night should not change their order, nor cease for ever. ⁵ 'And you, increase ye and multiply upon the earth, and become many upon it, and be a blessing upon it. The fear of you and the dread of you I will inspire in everything that is on earth and in the sea. ⁶ And behold I have given unto you all beasts, and all winged things, and everything that moves on the earth, and the fish in the waters, and all things for food; as the green herbs, I have given you all things to eat. ⁷ But flesh, with the life thereof, with the blood, ye shall not eat; for the life of all flesh is in the blood, lest your blood of your lives be required. At the hand of every man, at the hand of every (beast) will I require the blood of man. ⁸ Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man. ⁹ And you, increase ye, and multiply on the earth.' ¹⁰ And Noah and his sons swore that they would not eat any blood that was in any flesh, and he made a covenant before the Lord God for ever throughout all the generations of the earth in this month. ¹¹ On this account He spake to thee that thou shouldst make a covenant with the children of Israel in this month upon the mountain with an oath, and that thou shouldst sprinkle blood upon them because of all the words of the covenant, which the Lord made with them for ever. ¹² And this testimony is written concerning you that you should observe it continually, so that you should not eat on any day any blood of beasts or birds or cattle during all the days of the earth, and the man who eats the blood of beast or of cattle or of birds during all the days of the earth, he and his seed shall be rooted out of the land. ¹³ And do thou command the children of Israel to eat no blood, so that their names and their seed may be before the Lord our God continually. ¹⁴ And for this law there is no limit of days, for it is for ever. They shall observe it throughout their generations, so that they may continue supplicating on your behalf with blood before the altar; every day and at the time of morning and evening they shall seek forgiveness on your behalf perpetually before the Lord that they may keep it and not be rooted out. ¹⁵ And He gave to Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again be a flood on the earth. ¹⁶ He set His bow in the cloud for a sign of the eternal covenant that there should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy it all the days of the earth. ¹⁷ For this reason it is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this month once a year, to renew the covenant every year.

Circumcision covenant

The Book of Jubilees 15:1-14

And in the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee, 1979 A.M. in the third month, in the middle of the month, Abra...

A¹nd in the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee, 1979 A.M. in the third month, in the middle of the month, Abram celebrated the feast of the first-fruits of the grain harvest.

² And he offered new offerings on the altar, the first-fruits of the produce, unto the Lord, an heifer and a goat and a sheep on the altar as a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord; their fruit offerings and their drink offerings he offered upon the altar with frankincense. ³ And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him: 'I am God Almighty; approve thyself before me and be thou perfect. ⁴ And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly.' ⁵ And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, and said: ⁶ 'Behold my ordinance is with thee, And thou shalt be the father of many nations. ⁷ Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, But thy name from henceforth, even for ever, shall be Abraham. For the father of many nations have I made thee. ⁸ And I will make thee very great, And I will make thee into nations, And kings shall come forth from thee. ⁹ And I shall establish My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee, throughout their generations, for an eternal covenant, so that I may be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. ¹⁰ And I will give to thee and to thy seed after thee the land where thou hast been a sojourner, the land of Canaan, that thou mayst possess it for ever, and I will be their God.' ¹¹ And the Lord said unto Abraham: 'And as for thee, do thou keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee: and circumcise ye every male among you, and circumcise your foreskins, and it shall be a token of an eternal covenant between Me and you. ¹² And the child on the eighth day ye shall circumcise, every male throughout your generations, him that is born in the house, or whom ye have bought with money from any stranger, whom ye have acquired who is not of thy seed. ¹³ He that is born in thy house shall surely be circumcised, and those whom thou hast bought with money shall be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an eternal ordinance. ¹⁴ And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from his people, for he has broken My covenant.'

Sabbath covenant

The Book of Jubilees 2:17-33

And He gave us a great sign, the Sabbath day, that we should work six days, but keep Sabbath on the seventh day from all...

A¹⁷nd He gave us a great sign, the Sabbath day, that we should work six days, but keep Sabbath on the seventh day from all work.

¹⁸ And all the angels of the presence, and all the angels of sanctification, these two great classes -He hath bidden us to keep the Sabbath with Him in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ And He said unto us: 'Behold, I will separate unto Myself a people from among all the peoples, and these shall keep the Sabbath day, and I will sanctify them unto Myself as My people, and will bless them; as I have sanctified the Sabbath day and do sanctify (it) unto Myself, even so will I bless them, and they shall be My people and I will be their God. ²⁰ And I have chosen the seed of Jacob from amongst all that I have seen, and have written him down as My first-born son,and have sanctified him unto Myself for ever and ever; and I will teach them the Sabbath day, that they may keep Sabbath thereon from all work.' ²¹ And thus He created therein a sign in accordance with which they should keep Sabbath with us on the seventh day, to eat and to drink, and to bless Him who has created all things as He has blessed and sanctified unto Himself a peculiar people above all peoples, and that they should keep Sabbath together with us. ²² And He caused His commands to ascend as a sweet savour acceptable before Him all the days . . . ²³ There (were) two and twenty heads of mankind from Adam to Jacob, and two and twenty kinds of work were made until the seventh day; this is blessed and holy; and the former also is blessed and holy; and this one serves with that one for sanctification and blessing. ²⁴ And to this (Jacob and his seed) it was granted that they should always be the blessed and holy ones of the first testimony and law, even as He had sanctified and blessed the Sabbath day on the seventh day. ²⁵ He created heaven and earth and everything that He created in six days, and God made the seventh day holy, for all His works; therefore He commanded on its behalf that, whoever does any work thereon shall die, and that he who defiles it shall surely die. ²⁶ Wherefore do thou command the children of Israel to observe this day that they may keep it holy and not do thereon any work, and not to defile it, as it is holier than all other days. ²⁷ And whoever profanes it shall surely die, and whoever does thereon any work shall surely die eternally, that the children of Israel may observe this day throughout their generations, and not be rooted out of the land; for it is a holy day and a blessed day. ²⁸ And every one who observes it and keeps Sabbath thereon from all his work, will be holy and blessed throughout all days like unto us. ²⁹ Declare and say to the children of Israel the law of this day both that they should keep Sabbath thereon, and that they should not forsake it in the error of their hearts; (and) that it is not lawful to do any work thereon which is unseemly, to do thereon their own pleasure, and that they should not prepare thereon anything to be eaten or drunk, and (that it is not lawful) to draw water, or bring in or take out thereon through their gates any burden, which they had not prepared for themselves on the sixth day in their dwellings. ³⁰ And they shall not bring in nor take out from house to house on that day; for that day is more holy and blessed than any jubilee day of the jubilees; on this we kept Sabbath in the heavens before it was made known to any flesh to keep Sabbath thereon on the earth. ³¹ And the Creator of all things blessed it, but he did not sanctify all peoples and nations to keep Sabbath thereon, but Israel alone: them alone he permitted to eat and drink and to keep Sabbath thereon on the earth. ³² And the Creator of all things blessed this day which He had created for blessing and holiness and glory above all days. ³³ This law and testimony was given to the children of Israel as a law for ever unto their generations.

Abraham's covenant

The Book of Jubilees 14:1-20

After these things, in the fourth year of this week, on the new moon of the third month, the word of the Lord came to Ab...

A¹fter these things, in the fourth year of this week, on the new moon of the third month, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a dream, saying: 'Fear not, Abram; I am thy defender, and thy reward will be exceeding great.'

² And he said: 'Lord, Lord, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go hence childless, and the son of Maseq, the son of my handmaid, is the Dammasek Eliezer: he will be my heir, and to me thou hast given no seed.' ³ And he said unto him: 'This (man) will not be thy heir, but one that will come out of thine own bowels; he will be thine heir.' ⁴ And He brought him forth abroad, and said unto him: 'Look toward heaven and number the stars if thou art able to number them.' ⁵ And he looked toward heaven, and beheld the stars. And He said unto him: 'So shall thy seed be.' ⁶ And he believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. ⁷ And He said unto him: 'I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee the land of the Canaanites to possess it for ever; and I will be God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.' ⁸ And he said: 'Lord, Lord, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit (it)?' ⁹ And He said unto him: 'Take Me an heifer of three years, and a goat of three years, and a sheep of three years, and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon.' ¹⁰ And he took all these in the middle of the month and he dwelt at the oak of Mamre, which is near Hebron. ¹¹ And he built there an altar, and sacrificed all these; and he poured their blood upon the altar, and divided them in the midst, and laid them over against each other; but the birds divided he not. ¹² And birds came down upon the pieces, and Abram drove them away, and did not suffer the birds to touch them. ¹³ And it came to pass, when the sun had set, that an ecstasy fell upon Abram, and lo ! an horror of great darkness fell upon him, and it was said unto Abram: 'Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land (that is) not theirs, and they shall bring them into bondage, and afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴ And the nation also to whom they will be in bondage will I judge, and after that they shall come forth thence with much substance. ¹⁵ And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ But in the fourth generation they shall return hither; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' ¹⁷ And he awoke from his sleep, and he arose, and the sun had set; and there was a flame, and behold ! a furnace was smoking, and a flame of fire passed between the pieces. ¹⁸ And on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, the Phakorites, and the Hivites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. ¹⁹ And the day passed, and Abram offered the pieces, and the birds, and their fruit offerings, and their drink offerings, and the fire devoured them. ²⁰ And on that day we made a covenant with Abram, according as we had covenanted with Noah in this month; and Abram renewed the festival and ordinance for himself for ever.

Covenant at Sinai

The Book of Jubilees 1:1-28

And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the s...

A¹nd it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month, 2450 Anno Mundi that God spake to Moses, saying: 'Come up to Me on the Mount, and I will give thee two tables of stone of the law and of the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayst teach them.'

² And Moses went up into the mount of God, and the glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and a cloud overshadowed it six days. ³ And He called to Moses on the seventh day out of the midst of the cloud, and the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a flaming fire on the top of the mount. ⁴ And Moses was on the Mount forty days and forty nights, and God taught him the earlier and the later history of the division of all the days of the law and of the testimony. ⁵ And He said: 'Incline thine heart to every word which I shall speak to thee on this mount, and write them in a book in order that their generations may see how I have not forsaken them for all the evil which they have wrought in transgressing the covenant which I establish between Me and thee for their generations this day on Mount Sinai. ⁶ And thus it will come to pass when all these things come upon them, that they will recognise that I am more righteous than they in all their judgments and in all their actions, and they will recognise that I have been truly with them. ⁷ And do thou write for thyself all these words which I declare unto, thee this day, for I know their rebellion and their stiff neck, before I bring them into the land of which I sware to their fathers, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: ' Unto your seed will I give a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁸ And they will eat and be satisfied, and they will turn to strange gods, to (gods) which cannot deliver them from aught of their tribulation: and this witness shall be heard for a witness against them. For they will forget all My commandments, (even) all that I command them, and they will walk after the Gentiles, and after their uncleanness, and after their shame, and will serve their gods, and these will prove unto them an offence and a tribulation and an affliction and a snare. ⁹ And many will perish and they will be taken captive, and will fall into the hands of the enemy, because they have forsaken My ordinances and My commandments, and the festivals of My covenant, and My sabbaths, and My holy place which I have hallowed for Myself in their midst, and My tabernacle, and My sanctuary, which I have hallowed for Myself in the midst of the land, that I should set my name upon it, and that it should dwell (there). ¹⁰ And they will make to themselves high places and groves and graven images, and they will worship, each his own (graven image), so as to go astray, and they will sacrifice their children to demons, and to all the works of the error of their hearts. ¹¹ And I will send witnesses unto them, that I may witness against them, but they will not hear, and will slay the witnesses also, and they will persecute those who seek the law, and they will abrogate and change everything so as to work evil before My eyes. ¹² And I will hide My face from them, and I will deliver them into the hand of the Gentiles for captivity, and for a prey, and for devouring, and I will remove them from the midst of the land, and I will scatter them amongst the Gentiles. ¹³ And they will forget all My law and all My commandments and all My judgments, and will go astray as to new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances. ¹⁴ And after this they will turn to Me from amongst the Gentiles with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength, and I will gather them from amongst all the Gentiles, and they will seek me, so that I shall be found of them, when they seek me with all their heart and with all their soul. ¹⁵ And I will disclose to them abounding peace with righteousness, and I will remove them the plant of uprightness, with all My heart and with all My soul, and they shall be for a blessing and not for a curse, and they shall be the head and not the tail. ¹⁶ And I will build My sanctuary in their midst, and I will dwell with them, and I will be their God and they shall be My people in truth and righteousness. ¹⁷ And I will not forsake them nor fail them; for I am the Lord their God.' ¹⁸ And Moses fell on his face and prayed and said, 'O Lord my God, do not forsake Thy people and Thy inheritance, so that they should wander in the error of their hearts, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies, the Gentiles, lest they should rule over them and cause them to sin against Thee. ¹⁹ Let thy mercy, O Lord, be lifted up upon Thy people, and create in them an upright spirit, and let not the spirit of Beliar rule over them to accuse them before Thee, and to ensnare them from all the paths of righteousness, so that they may perish from before Thy face. ²⁰ But they are Thy people and Thy inheritance, which thou hast delivered with thy great power from the hands of the Egyptians: create in them a clean heart and a holy spirit, and let them not be ensnared in their sins from henceforth until eternity.' ²¹ And the Lord said unto Moses: 'I know their contrariness and their thoughts and their stiffneckedness, and they will not be obedient till they confess their own sin and the sin of their fathers. ²² And after this they will turn to Me in all uprightness and with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and I will circumcise the foreskin of their heart and the foreskin of the heart of their seed, and I will create in them a holy spirit, and I will cleanse them so that they shall not turn away from Me from that day unto eternity. ²³ And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil My commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My children. ²⁴ And they all shall be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they shall know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them. ²⁵ And do thou write down for thyself all these words which I declare unto thee on this mountain, the first and the last, which shall come to pass in all the divisions of the days in the law and in the testimony and in the weeks and the jubilees unto eternity, until I descend and dwell with them throughout eternity.' ²⁶ And He said to the angel of the presence: Write for Moses from the beginning of creation till My sanctuary has been built among them for all eternity. ²⁷ And the Lord will appear to the eyes of all, and all shall know that I am the God of Israel and the Father of all the children of Jacob, and King on Mount Zion for all eternity. And Zion and Jerusalem shall be holy.' ²⁸ And the angel of the presence who went before the camp of Israel took the tables of the divisions of the years -from the time of the creation- of the law and of the testimony of the weeks of the jubilees, according to the individual years, according to all the number of the jubilees according, to the individual years, from the day of the new creation when the heavens and the earth shall be renewed and all their creation according to the powers of the heaven, and according to all the creation of the earth, until the sanctuary of the Lord shall be made in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and all the luminaries be renewed for healing and for peace and for blessing for all the elect of Israel, and that thus it may be from that day and unto all the days of the earth.

Did You Know?

Jubilees presents covenants as eternal and already known before Sinai.

The calendar and feasts are part of the 'eternal' law.

Every major covenant in the tradition includes both a promise and a visible sign - never just words.

Jubilees presents covenants as pre-recorded on heavenly tablets - their terms exist before they're enacted.

The chain from Noah to Abraham to Sinai shows progressive narrowing: all flesh → one family → one nation.