Abstract
Based on her actions as depicted in Genesis 27, events often characterized as the “theft of the blessing,” the enduring memory most readers have of biblical Rebekah is that of a manipulative, scheming woman who undermines her husband's wishes. The Early Extra-biblical Book of Jubilees presents a very different figure, one that rights, and rewrites Rebekah's reputation. In Jubilees, Rebekah has a much more prominent and positive role. This article addresses the presentation of Rebekah in Jubilees and compares and contrasts her portrayal there with the way that she is featured in Genesis.
Biblical Rebekah, the wife of Isaac is a pivotal figure in the second generation of the Ancestors. Similar to Sarah, Rebekah is born in Mesopotamia, and then relocates to the Land of Promise. Like her daughters-in-law, Leah and Rachel, Rebekah has multiple children (Esau and Jacob). All of the matriarchs interact with their husbands, and all are careful about the honor due their sons, but Rebekah is particularly mindful of those roles. As a biblical woman, Rebekah works behind the scenes. The descriptions of her life in Genesis stand in stark contrast to the depiction of Rebekah in the Early Extra-biblical book of Jubilees. In Jubilees Rebekah has a much more prominent role. This article addresses the presentation of Rebekah in Jubilees and in a chapter-by-chapter analysis, it compares and contrasts her portrayal there with the way she is featured in Genesis. I precede that investigation with some contemporary scholarly analysis of Rebekah, and then by some comments on how she is viewed in traditional rabbinic writings.
Rebekah is the most verbal of all the matriarchs in Genesis. She is shown to be a strong and independent woman, one who speaks her own mind (Gen 24:58) (Zucker & Reiss). Five times in Genesis, however, when referring to Rebekah, the text uses the term for a young man, not a young woman: na'ar, not na'arah (Gen 24: 14, 16, 28, 55, 57). This repeated “error” suggests that, at the very least in the mind of the final redactor, Rebekah has some strong masculine assertive traits in her character (Reiss: 152). That was probably not meant as a compliment to her. In her favor, she is a comfort to Isaac (Gen 24:67); yet she also appears to usurp his intentions in the matter of awarding the primogeniture blessing. Rebekah sees that it goes to their son Jacob instead of their son Esau (Gen 27). Bearing in mind the verse from Leviticus, You shall not … place a stumbling block before the blind (Lev 19:14), Rebekah could be accused of elder abuse, although this is a modern concept (Zucker 2016: 174; see also Bledstein). Modern scholars are somewhat ambivalent about Rebekah. Sarna writes of the “strong-willed, artful Rebekah,” at best a left-handed compliment (Sarna: 189). Vawter calls her the “Lady Macbeth” of the book of Genesis, and compares her to the late 16th-century Roman figure, Beatrice Cenci (Vawter: 299). Wenham is hardly kinder when he describes her as “the Machiavellian matriarch manipulating Jacob to defeat the purpose of her blind and dying husband” (Wenham: 208). While the 2nd-century CE Patristic, Origen of Alexandria objects to the phrase used by the Greek anti-Christian philosopher Celsus (“the treacheries of the mothers”), he nonetheless chooses a pejorative term for Rebekah's action. Origen uses the word “contrived.” Celsus means Rebekah referring to “when she contrived that the blessings of Isaac should not come to Esau but to Jacob” (Origen: 218). In their commentary on Rebekah, Eskenazi and Person note that some call her a “laudable trickster … [while] Others see her as a manipulating schemer.” (Eskenazi & Person: 142). Adelman uses words like “manipulation” and “devious” when describing Rebekah (Adelman: chapter one). On the other hand, a case is made for the biblical text actually suggesting that it is Isaac and Rebekah consciously colluding together regarding the “deception in the dark” (Zucker 2004).
Rabbinic writings are generally supportive of Rebekah, but it is approval with a negative edge. She is praised with having the gift of prophecy (Genesis Rabbah 67.9; Midrash Tan
That midrash section then suggests that she was personally responsible for Esau's behavior, coming from a wicked family herself. Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 64a explains that God responded to Isaac's call for a child and not Rebekah's, because he was a righteous person, the child of a righteous person, and she was the child of wicked people. In terms of Medieval exegetes, Rashi (11th- c. France) notes that while Rebekah went to inquire, she learned God's word via Shem. God did not speak to her directly (comment on Gen 25:23). Ramban [Na
The portrait of Rebekah in the Early Extra-biblical book of Jubilees stands in bright contrast to many of these rabbinic, medieval, and modern evaluations. In Jubilees Rebekah is celebrated, she is a heroine. VanderKam terms Rebekah as “the most remarkable woman in Jubilees” and as the “leading parent” of her immediate family. (VanderKam: 116, 61). Kugel terms her “the powerful woman of Jubilees” (Kugel 2012: 382; 2013: 415, emphasis in original; see also Simkovich 2018). Women play an important role in Jubilees, and that distinction adds to both the interest in and importance of this book. Halpern-Amaru posits that “the moral quality of each generation is ultimately determined by the females who bear and wive its leaders … each of the matriarchal co-partners is aware of the promises and uses that knowledge to guide and nurture not only the men in her life, but the covenantal future as well” (Halpern-Amaru: 147).
The book of Jubilees is a form of reworked or Rewritten Scripture. Two major concerns for Jubilees are endogamy/rejection of exogamy, and to stress the marital harmony of the ancestors. Both of these matters play themselves out in the Rebekah passages. As Bohak (381) explains,
The Book of Jubilees recasts Genesis and the first [twelve] chapters of Exodus in the form of an angelic revelation to Moses [while he is on Mount Sinai] and amends the biblical stories. Many biblical passages are entirely omitted, while others are expanded either by the addition of narratives concerning the biblical characters or by the incorporation of numerous halakhic injunctions.
Regarding the time of its composition, VanderKam notes that “Jubilees was an older, authoritative work inherited and cherished by the community associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls,” although there is no indication that the author(s) of Jubilees separated from the Jewish community of that day. Over a dozen manuscripts of Jubilees were found in the caves at Qumran. VanderKam suggests that Jubilees was composed in the Maccabean period, between “160–150 BCE … [or possibly at] a slightly earlier date” (VanderKam: 21).
Jubilees was one of a number of competing texts which were regarded as Scripture in the ancient world. What today is regarded as the Masoretic Text (MT) is only two thousand years old. “Before that period, only the proto-rabbinic (Pharisaic) movement made use of MT, while other streams in Judaism used other Hebrew textual traditions” explains Tov. “In other words, before the first century of the Common Era, we witness a textual plurality among Jews, with multiple text forms conceived of as ‘the Bible,’ or Scripture, including the Hebrew source upon which the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX), was built.” (Tov).
Rebekah appears in twelve chapters of Jubilees (19, 22–23, 25–27, 29, 31–33, 35–36. “Maternal concern is the primary theme in the characterization of Rebekah in the Jubilees family saga” (Halpern-Amaru, 63). The Jubilees Rebekah is a much more developed character than her Genesis counterpart. In some chapters she is a prominent figure; elsewhere she rates but a brief mention. As is true of Jubilees as a whole, there are both omissions and additions when compared to the text in Genesis. She is a confidante of Abraham, and has several discussions with Jacob. She speaks and acts as a full player in the unfolding drama, not someone who, as in Genesis, works largely behind the scenes. As shall be noted, in chapter 35 she leaves a “testament” similar to those of “The Testament of Abraham” and the “Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs,” which form part of the Early Extra-biblical Pseudepigraphic writings. [Note: the translations from Jubilees that appear in this article are taken from the Jubilees section of the JPS publication,Out of the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, Vol. 1, edited by L. H. Feldman, J. L. Kugel, and L. H. Schiffman, 2013. They are with minor alterations taken from O. S. Wintermute's rendition of Jubilees in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 2, edited by J. H. Charlesworth, 1983–1985].
Rebekah's voice and her roles are both greatly expanded in Jubilees when compared to her place in Genesis. She is the heroine of Jubilees. As Simkovich (2017) points out, although
Rebecca's behavior in Genesis seemed problematic to some interpreters who found her to be too domineering, Jubilees maintains—and even expands—Rebecca's position as the dominant wife and mother whose feelings about her sons are in line with God's plan, making her a confidant of Abraham and a prophetess who directly blesses her favored son, Jacob, even before Isaac does.
Simkovich also points out that contrary to Jubilees, Josephus downplays the figure of Rebekah. Josephus rewrites the Genesis text and has Isaac (and not Rebekah) seeking the reason for Rebekah's travail while pregnant. Further, again contrary to the Genesis text, in Josephus’ Judean Antiquities when Esau marries local women, this is an affront to Isaac, without any mention of Rebekah, as in the Genesis text (Antiquities 1, chapter 18. See Genesis 25:22–23; 26:34–35).
Rebekah's starring role in Jubilees is doubly noteworthy. It is striking for all of the reasons mentioned, but even more so because as a text Jubilees is often critical of women, not to the extent of some other Pseudepigraphic works like the Testament of Reuben in the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, but still disparaging of females.
Although the author of Jubilees can be very harsh in his treatment of women, especially foreign women (Jub. 25:1–2), he does devote an unusual amount of attention to Rebekah, developing for her a role that goes far beyond the biblical text (she counsels Jacob about his marriage 25:1–3, gives a lengthy maternal blessing 25:11–23, and speaks a final testament 35:1–27); although the revised picture of Rebekah is shaped by certain theological and exegetical concerns, the result is that “A woman has taken her place in the company of men; a matriarch has joined the patriarchs” [Schuller, 183; The quote is from Endres 1987: 25–26].
These portrayals of Rebekah show a powerful woman, one who works alongside and in direct concert with her father-in-law Abraham. She continues to seek his goals, and acts to further the direction that he intends for his descendants. As Endres notes, “Rebekah's role in the ancestral history” is prominent, for she “supplements the obvious inadequacies of her husband. She functions as the real link between God and Jacob.”(Endres 1987: 73). The presentation of Rebekah in Jubilees is enhanced by the occasional reworking into its text of small details found in the Genesis account. For example, in Genesis Rebekah comforts Isaac, while in Jubilees Isaac comforts Rebekah, although under different circumstances (Gen 24:67; Jub 27.18). When Rebekah blesses Jacob, she does so with words similar to God's blessing earlier for Abraham, as well as Isaac's blessing to Jacob in Genesis, “The one who blesses you will be blessed, and all flesh which curses you falsely will be cursed” (Jub 25.22, cf. Gen 12:3; 27:29). As noted below, in Jubilees 26 Isaac blesses Jacob with comparable language.
Rebekah not only has a strong voice in Jubilees, but she echoes, enhances and complements the anti-exogamy statements of Abraham. In Genesis 24 Abraham had instructed the senior servant of his household to go back to the ancestral homeland to find a wife for Isaac. He was not to “take a wife for [Isaac] from the daughters of the Canaanites” (v 3). A generation later, Esau, to his parents’ disappointment, married Hittite women, Judith and Basemat, and these women, presumably because of their ethnic heritage, “were a source of bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah” (Gen 26:35). Sometime later, Rebekah complained to Isaac that she was “disgusted with [her] life because of [her daughters-in-law] the Hittite women” (Gen 27:46). Describing herself as “disgusted” or claiming feelings of “bitterness” certainly conveys Rebekah's sense of strong disapproval. Yet these words pale into insignificance when compared to the words that are placed in Rebekah's mouth in Jubilees 25. In that chapter, as shall be explained below, she describes her daughters-in-law as guilty of blatantly immoral sexual behavior.
Rebekah in Jubilees: A Chapter by Chapter Analysis
Jubilees 19
Genesis 23 begins with the death and burial of Sarah. Genesis 24, the longest chapter in that book, is devoted to the delegated courtship of a wife for Isaac. It is at the close of Genesis 22, however, that one finds the first mention of Rebekah. Abraham was told, “Milcah too has borne [eight] children to your brother Nahor: Uz … and Buz … and Bethuel”—Bethuel being the father of Rebekah (Gen 22:20–23). Jubilees 19 begins in a similar fashion to Genesis 23, noting the death of Sarah and the need for Abraham to negotiate a burial site for his wife, wherein he purchases the cave of Machpelah. This takes up the first nine verses. The next verse then succinctly explains that Abraham “took a wife for his son, Isaac, and her name was Rebekah” (Jub 19.10). This curt announcement contrasts with the lengthy account of her courtship in Genesis 24. There over some sixty-seven verses one finds Abraham's detailed instructions to his senior servant regarding a wife for Isaac, the servant's travels to Aram-Naharaim, the city of Nahor, the servant's meeting and dialogue with Rebekah, the long-winded negotiations with Rebekah's family, her consent to leave her home, and then her uniting with Isaac, offering him comfort following the death of Sarah.
Jubilees 19:10 goes on to present Rebekah's lineage, for she is the “daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, the sister of Laban and daughter of Bethuel. And Bethuel was the son of Melca, who was the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother.” A few verses on we learn that “Rebekah bore two children for Isaac, Jacob and Esau. And Jacob was smooth and upright, but Esau was a fierce man and rustic and hairy. And Jacob used to dwell in the tents” (Jub 19.13). The Genesis account's multi-verse description of Isaac and Rebekah's inability to produce progeny, Isaac's (or according to a different reading, Isaac and Rebekah's) plea to God for children, Rebekah's going to seek guidance from God, and God's reply to her, the birth of Esau preceding that of Jacob, as well as Jacob holding on to Esau's heel (Gen 25:21–26) all are excluded from or reworded in the Jubilees text.
Genesis explains that “Isaac favored Esau … but Rebekah favored Jacob” (NJPS; “Isaac loved Esau … Rebekah loved Jacob”—NRSV, Gen 25:28). By contrast, Jubilees states that it was his grandfather, “Abraham [who] loved Jacob, but Isaac loved Esau” (Jub 19.15). The text continues, “And Abraham saw the deeds of Esau and he knew that in Jacob a name and a seed would be named for him.” That Jacob has his grandfather's endorsement greatly strengthens the claim for his receiving the primogeniture blessing. The very next verse in Jubilees brings Rebekah into alignment with her father-in-law. Abraham “called Rebekah and he commanded concerning Jacob because he knew that she loved Jacob more than Esau” (Jub 19.16). The Jubilees text is explicit: Rebekah loves both of her sons, but she favors (loves) Jacob over Esau (see vv 30–31 below). Abraham goes on at some length to praise Rebekah because she loves Jacob, while Isaac loves Esau more. Abraham is very direct; he tells Rebekah that she is “one who loves Jacob rightly” (v 19). Abraham tells Rebekah to let her “eyes be lovingly upon him [Jacob] … Let your hands be strong and let your heart rejoice in your son Jacob” (vv 20–21). Abraham then calls “to Jacob in the sight of Rebekah” and kisses and blesses his grandson (v 26). Abraham says that God should bless Jacob, and he tells Jacob that he should be “a firstborn son” (v 29), which, stated in front of Rebekah is just short of telling her to do what she needs to do to see that Jacob has the primogeniture blessing. The next lines explain that then Rebekah and Jacob “went out together” and that Rebekah “loved Jacob with all of her heart and all of her soul much more than Esau, but Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob” (Jub 19.30–31). All of these descriptions, such as Abraham calling Rebekah and giving her instructions, and Abraham's kissing and blessing Jacob in front of Rebekah, as well as Abraham's charge to Jacob, are departures from the Masoretic Text. In Jubilees 19 Abraham regards Rebekah as someone who will do what is necessary to see that Jacob, not Esau, will be the true inheritor of God's blessings. Abraham bypasses his own son Isaac and entrusts his daughter-in-law—pointedly with a woman, and this particular woman, Rebekah—with this crucial task.
Jubilees 22
Rebekah appears briefly in Jubilees 22 when she makes round cakes of new grain for the late spring festival of Shavuot. She gives them to Jacob to take to his grandfather Abraham. Isaac also sends a gift to Abraham via Jacob (vv 4–5). This links Rebekah-Jacob-Abraham, but as Isaac also sends gifts to Abraham via Jacob, it also lays the groundwork for the eventual gift of the blessing going to Jacob. In chapter 22 Abraham gives an additional and extensive blessing to Jacob. He admonishes him not to “take a wife from any of the seed of the daughters of Canaan” (Jub 22.20). This is an important point because Jacob himself will refer to this matter in chapter 25.
Jubilees 23
As Jubilees 23 opens Abraham and Jacob are sleeping on one bed, and it is there that Abraham's life ends. When Jacob awakes in the night he realizes Abraham has died. He runs and tells Rebekah, who then gets Isaac. All three then take a lamp and confirm that Abraham has died (vv 3–4).
Jubilees 24
Jubilees 24 deals with Jacob, who acquires the primogeniture blessing from Esau for the bowl of lentil soup (cf. Gen 25:29–34). It also features Isaac in Gerar, but unlike the version in Genesis 26, there is no mention of Rebekah, much less the wife/sister motif and that she was taken by the ruler of that place.
Jubilees 25
Chapter 25 opens with Rebekah approaching Jacob and telling him not to take a wife from the Canaanites, as his brother Esau has done. She says specifically that these wives have embittered her soul (cf. Gen 26:34–35) (Jub 25.1). She then professes her love for Jacob. She tells him that her heart and affection bless him at all hours. She says specifically “heed my voice” (v 3), the same phrase used in Genesis 27:8, 13, and 43: sh'ma b'qoli. In contrast to those commentators who speak ill of Rebekah, Endres points out that in “Jubilees … she cannot be considered a trickster because the author characterizes her predisposition toward Jacob as inspired by Abraham (Jub 19:15–20)” (Endres 2012: 769). In verses 4–5 Jacob begins his response to Rebekah telling her that Abraham had told him the same thing (Jub 22.20), and he adds some wording as well, that he (Jacob) should marry his own kin (v 5), something not actually in the Jubilees 22 chapter. Jacob then goes on to say that he heard that daughters have been born to Rebekah's brother Laban. He intends to take a wife from among them (v 6). He continues, explaining that Esau has reached out to him and has invited Jacob to marry one of the sisters of his two wives (v 8). As Kugel notes, Rebekah “was thus afraid that, despite Jacob's innate goodness, he might surrender to this fraternal pressure.” (Kugel 2012: 136).
In her response, Rebekah acts in a way that suggests priest-like, or certainly prayerful, ritual-like behavior. She literally blesses Jacob. She “lifted her face toward heaven and spread out the fingers of her hands and opened her mouth and blessed the Most High God who created heaven and earth” (v 11). In that sense, she follows in the line of Sarah as understood by Savina J. Teubal in her work, Sarah the Priestess: the First Matriarch of Genesis. Teubal notes that “Rebekah, like Sarah before her, was not a headstrong woman with a tendency to cruelty; she was exercising her authority—the matrilineal prerogative for the transmission of rights to offspring—while struggling to prevent patriarchal customs from encroaching on her life” (Teubal: 46). Rebekah embarks on a long prayer, praising God, and thanking God, the one “who gave to me Jacob, a pure son and a holy seed” (v 12). This phrase, “a holy seed,” is a crucial phrase for the author of Jubilees. As Kugel in his commentary to Jubilees explains,
Abraham's descendants through Isaac and his son Jacob … alone are destined to become a “holy seed” (Heb. zera kodesh, a crucial biblical phrase for Jubilees: see Isa. 6:13 and Ezra 9:2), one “not … counted … among the nations” (Num. 23:9), since they alone will be “the portion of the Most High” (Deut. 32:9) … “a kingdom of priests and a holy people” (Exod. 19:6) [Kugel 2013: 352, n. 16. 16–19].
Rebekah then continues at great length, some eleven very dense verses which go on to express her fervent wishes for the future success of her son (13–23). In v 14 the text reads that “a spirit of truth descended upon her mouth.” In an Ethiopian version of Jubilees, this phrase is “a holy spirit” (Comment on Jub 25.14. Jubilees, A New Translation and Introduction— Wintermute: 105). A spirit of truth/holy spirit echoes the rabbinic phrase rua
In this long passage of praise and blessings of and for Jacob, the Rebekah of Jubilees expresses herself in much starker language than is found in Genesis. She goes on for some considerable time in her descriptions concerning Jacob's future, all these are supplements to what is found in the Masoretic Text. Further, she is vociferous in her disparagement of her Hittite daughters-in-law, Esau's wives. In Genesis 26 and the end of 27 we learned that these wives were a “bitterness” and that she was “disgusted” by their presence. In Jubilees, Rebekah is considerably more voluble about these matters. Regarding the issue of intermarriage, Rebekah's “maternal concern does not derive from the text in Genesis, but it does correspond to similar touches in Jubilees. (Endres 2012: 774). Rebekah's opposition to her daughters-in-law is fully consonant with a major theme in Jubilees, the promotion of endogamy/rejection of exogamy.
In Jubilees 25.1 she told Jacob that her daughters-in-law/his sisters-in-law have embittered her soul “with all their impure deeds, because all of their deeds [are] fornication and lust. And there is not any righteousness with them because [their deeds are] evil.” In his response to Rebekah, Jacob explains that he has guarded his soul and that he has not become corrupted. He indicates that like the words he just heard from his mother, he heard the same advice from his grandfather Abraham who gave him “many commands regarding lust and fornication” (v 7). As Endres notes, the author of Jubilees “developed a new role for Rebekah, which is not found in the Scriptures.” He continues: “This author approaches the matter of exogamy with far less subtlety than did the biblical tradition, which merely hinted at the parental reaction to Esau's marriages before the instruction to Jacob about his marriage” (Endres 1987: 74, 75; see 76, n. 49). The message to the Jewish community of the 2nd century BCE was unmistakable: do not marry outside of the group.
As mentioned above, Rebekah is portrayed as “the leading parent” in this chapter (VanderKam: 61). Here we find language reminiscent of God's early blessing to Abraham, as well as Isaac's blessing to Jacob: “The one who blesses you will be blessed, and all flesh which curses you falsely will be cursed” (Jub 25.22, cf. Gen 12:3; 27:29). Ironically, in Jubilees 26 Isaac will unwittingly mimic those very words when he blesses Jacob as faux Esau. This chapter
establishes Jacob's obedient character and his mother's appropriate usurpation of the paternal role in blessing her son— something she could do because she, like Abraham and unlike Isaac, recognized his true character and superiority over his older brother. … Something simply had to be done to avert his [Isaac's] ill-conceived plan, one that ran contrary to the insights of Abraham and Rebecca into the souls of the two young men [VanderKam: 62].
Jubilees 26
This chapter reflects Genesis 27 (the theft of the blessing). Here again, Rebekah modifies Isaac's words as she does in the Masoretic Text, for she adds the words referring to the deity. As in Genesis, Jacob does not challenge the intent of his mother's words. He is willing to deceive his father in order to receive the primogeniture blessing. Indeed, as in Genesis his reluctance is based not on moral scruples, but that he would be detected because he does not physically resemble his more hirsute brother. Rebekah convinces Jacob in a similar fashion in both accounts. If there is to be a curse, let it be on me, she says. As in Genesis she then prepares the food, dresses Jacob in Esau's clothing which was stored at her house, and sends him on his way, all these latter details parallel the Genesis 27 account. When the narrative comes to the crucial line, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” (Jub 26.18//Gen 27:22) Jubilees and Genesis present different traditions. In Genesis, the next line (v 23) is “He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.” That explanation offers a very human-focused description. It both implicates Rebekah and Jacob for their subterfuge and, at the same time, implicates Isaac for his possible ineptitude in not realizing that Jacob was wearing animal skins—after all he did recognize his voice! In Jubilees, the statement about the voice of Jacob/hands of Esau continues with these words: “And he did not know him because the change was from heaven in order to distract his mind, and Isaac was unaware because his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau so that he blessed him” (v 18). In Jubilees, therefore the deception is aided by divine intervention. As in Genesis, so in Jubilees Esau later will lament this turn of events, and ask Isaac for a secondary blessing which his father gives him. Jubilees 26 then closes on the note that “Esau … said in his heart, ‘Now let the days of mourning for my father draw near. And I will kill Jacob, my brother'” (Jub 26.35).
Jubilees 27
This chapter begins with Esau's threats to kill Jacob, which he had “said in his heart,” being conveyed to “Rebekah in a dream” (v 1). This is an important difference from the Genesis account, for there this information is anonymously reported, or told (vayyuggad) to Rebekah (Gen 27:42). Rebekah then conveys Esau's intent to Jacob, and she urges him to go to his Uncle Laban's home in Haran for an unspecified time, to allow Esau to calm down. This essentially follows the lines at the close of Genesis 27. In the Genesis text as in Jubilees, Rebekah repeats the same phrase she used before, sh'ma b'qoli, “heed my voice.” In Jubilees, however, Jacob is belligerent. He says he is not afraid and he will kill Esau if his brother attacks him. He goes on to say that he will not leave for Haran unless Isaac specifically sends him. Rebekah then placates Jacob by telling him that she personally will go to speak to Isaac and get his father to send him away (vv. 6–7). This part of the dialogue is embroidered on the Genesis text. As in Genesis, Rebekah goes to Isaac and bemoans the fact that Esau has married local women, and that this is odious for her. In Jubilees, in contrast to Genesis, Rebekah adds the idea that their daughters-in-law are “evil” (v 8).
Isaac dutifully sends Jacob on his way. Sometime later Rebekah is grieving his departure, and she weeps. This matter is not found in the Genesis text, nor is Isaac's telling her that God will watch over Jacob, and that Jacob will return. Isaac describes Jacob in glowing terms, “because he [Jacob] is upright in his way and he is a perfect man. And he is faithful” (v 17). Then, Jubilees adds a wonderful touch, echoing a line from earlier in Genesis, but reversing the persons involved. When Rebekah first met Isaac those many years ago, the Masoretic Text explains, “Isaac … took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother's death” (Gen 24:67). Jubilees 27.18 reads, “Isaac comforted Rebekah on account of Jacob, her son.”
This “poignant passage makes it abundantly clear that Isaac holds no bitterness either toward his son or wife … [it serves] to demonstrate that in spite of all that has happened, the emotional bond between the patriarch and matriarch endures” (Halpern-Amaru: 60).
Jubilees 29
Rebekah is mentioned in passing in chapter 29. Upon his return to the land, Jacob sent regular gifts to his parents Isaac and Rebekah (vv 15–16). This has no basis in Genesis, nor do the Rebekah-related matters recorded in Jubilees chapters 31–36.
Jubilees 31
By verse three Jacob is at Bethel; he invites his parents to come to join him at the time of the sacrifice. Isaac instead invites Jacob to his home at the Tower of Abraham, presumably near Hebron. Jacob takes his sons Levi and Judah with him. When they arrive, Rebekah goes out and kisses Jacob twice (vv 6–7). Jacob invites Isaac to come with him to Bethel, but Isaac explains he is too old and infirm. Instead Isaac suggests that Jacob take Rebekah, which he does and they arrive at Bethel (vv 27, 30).
Jubilees 32
After some time at Bethel, following the death and burial of Rebekah's nurse Deborah, Rebekah returns home to Isaac, carrying many gifts from Jacob.
Jubilees 33
Brief mention is made of Jacob and his family visiting Isaac and Rebekah; again, this is embroidery on the Genesis texts.
Jubilees 35
In her book No Longer Silent, First Century Jewish Portraits of Biblical Women, Brown explains that with the exception of Deborah's testimony in Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities (Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum) 33, Rebekah's testimony in Jubilees 35.1–27 is quite unique for a woman in ancient literature (Brown: 89, n. 49). In the opening verses of this chapter Rebekah calls to Jacob and commands that he should honor his father and his brother. Jacob wonders if she has seen any kind of perversity in him (i.e. in Jacob); she responds that she sees only uprightness in him (vv 1–6). In v 6 she also explains that her days are limited, that she will soon die, for she is now 155 years old. Jacob dismisses his mother's comments about her forthcoming death. He notes that she is in good health, her teeth are sound and she is without disease (v 7).
Again, this chapter contains material not found in Genesis. Rebekah then goes to Isaac, and in a very long speech she asks him to speak to Esau and to get him to refrain from hurting Jacob (vv 9–12). Isaac not only agrees to do this, but he tells his wife that he now loves Jacob more than Esau. “I first loved Esau more than Jacob … but I now love Jacob more than Esau” (v 13). Isaac goes on to say that he is vexed with Esau. In vv 18–20 Rebekah calls for Esau, who comes to her. She asks him to bury her when she dies, and further she admonishes him not to hurt Jacob. He agrees to these requests. Rebekah then calls to Jacob in the sight of Esau. She explains to him what she had told Esau. The chapter ends with her death and burial at the cave of Machpelah, an event supervised by her two sons. This detail echoes the fact that in the Masoretic Text a generation earlier Isaac and Ishmael together bury Abraham at Machpelah (Gen 25:9). The promises of mutual non-aggression will come to naught, for in chapters 37 and the beginning of 38 there is open warfare between the brothers and Jacob kills Esau, matters again at variance with the biblical text. Jubilees is clear that it is Esau's sons—not Esau—who initiate the conflict.
Jubilees 36
The final mention of Rebekah is in the context of Leah's death. Leah is buried at the cave of Machpelah, near her mother-in-law Rebekah and north of the tomb of Sarah (v 21). This information is found just after Esau and Jacob bury Isaac (v 19).
Jubilees 37 and 38
Athough Rebekah is not mentioned explicitly in these chapters, one feels her influence. Esau's sons, who instigate the fight with Jacob, presumably are the children of Esau's immoral Canaanite wives. In contrast to Jacob, they represent the “Other,” and by extension, the enemy. They also threaten their father Esau and force him to join them against Jacob. Jubilees is written in the mid-second century BCE. By this time Esau and his descendants were synonymous with Edom and the Edomites, the same nation that had pillaged Judah following the destruction of the First Temple. Many prophets condemn Edom. Ezekiel addresses their longstanding hatred. Mt. Seir is associated with Edom. “Because you cherished an ancient enmity, and gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity .. therefore … says YHWH God … I will make Mount Seir an utter waste” (Ezek 35:5–7; cf. Lam 4:21–22; Isa 63:1–4; the book of Obadiah). Malachi is even more direct. “Esau is Jacob's brother; yet I have accepted Jacob and have rejected Esau” (NJPS; I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau—NRSV, Mal 1:2–3). Consequently Jubilees writing ill of Esau and his children followed biblical precedent.
Conclusion
As Rewritten Scripture Jubilees presents an alternative version to the Masoretic Text. It rejects the lunisolar concept that became the standard for the Jewish Bible and for Judaism and later for Christianity. Instead it bases itself solely on the solar calendar. Two major concerns for Jubilees are endogamy/rejection of exogamy, and stressing the marital harmony of the ancestors. In pursuit of these goals Jubilees both ignored or excised material found in Genesis and early Exodus, or it added material not found in what would become the Masoretic Text. In terms of the subject at hand, the author of Jubilees consciously chose to stress when possible the positive relationship between Rebekah and Isaac. The author completely deleted the Rebekah-courting found in Genesis 24; it was of no interest. Likewise, the Wife/Sister motif involving Isaac/Rebekah/ Abimelech of Gerar in Genesis 26 was excised because it put Isaac/Rebekah in an unfavorable light. The initial differences between Isaac and Rebekah concerning their sons apparently were too well known to ignore. To bolster Rebekah's plan to promote Jacob, the author aligned her with Abraham (chapters 19, 22, 25) so that she is not acting on her own, but is following the heartfelt dictates of her father-in-law, the first Patriarch. Jubilees also resolves the Isaac-Rebekah impasse by invoking a heavenly spirit (Jub 26.18), which is tantamount to saying that God approved the ruse used by Rebekah-Jacob. Lest that not be fully understood, the author has Isaac, in time, coming around in his opinion and telling Rebekah that now he favors Jacob over Esau (Jub 35.13; see also Jub 27.14–18).
Jubilees’ treatment of the character of Rebekah stands out from its general approach to women. More generally Jubilees is critical of women, although it does not cast them in the particularly harsh way that is true of the Testament of Reuben, which is part of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is likely that for some ancients Rebekah's depiction in Genesis went against the grain. She is too independent, she is too domineering. On a surface reading of the text in Genesis chapter 27 she usurps Isaac's wishes concerning the primogeniture blessing. Certainly in later centuries there were rabbinic and patristic critics of her actions, and amongst Jewish medievalist commentators and modern scholars alike she largely has a mixed reception. In contrast to those views, Jubilees not only makes selective choices in its retelling of the Genesis narrative, leaving out possibly pejorative passages, but Rebekah's role is increased enormously. In fact Jubilees creates a totally new version of these events. Jubilees so to say creates out of whole cloth a revised understanding of why and how Rebekah did what she did to ensure that Jacob, not Esau would receive the primogeniture blessing. According to Jubilees, in effect Rebekah was facilitating these matters at the behest of Father Abraham. Jubilees invents proximity and dialogue between Abraham and Rebekah that is not found in the Masoretic Text in Genesis. On a surface reading of Genesis 27, Rebekah with the somewhat reluctant acquiescence of Jacob “deceives” Isaac and thereby succeeds in seeing that the blessing goes to Jacob, not Esau. It has been argued that a different reading of Genesis 27 shows that Isaac knew full well who was before him, and that Isaac and Rebekah had planned out this deception. Nonetheless, the narrative in Jubilees makes it unambiguously clear, and in fact at Abraham's direction, that Rebekah acts as she does (Jub 19.15–25). Jubilees also has Isaac affirming the wisdom of her decisions (Jub 35.13), again something at variance with the MT. Rebekah stands tall as the dominant spouse. In Jubilees, as was noted before, her “feelings about her sons are in line with God's plan … [which makes] her a confidant of Abraham and a prophetess who directly blesses her favored son, Jacob, even before Isaac does” (Simkovich 2017). She is a woman among men, and it is likely that the author of Jubilees would have defined the initial “Patriarchs” as Abraham, Rebekah, and Jacob. Rebekah's stature is a result of two concurrent matters: in Genesis she is portrayed as strong-willed in her own right, and Isaac often appears as more of a follower than a leader when compared to his father Abraham and his son Jacob. The author of Jubilees was familiar with the text where, when asked by her family whether she would go to distant Canaan to marry her cousin Isaac, she does not hesitate in her answer. (“They called to Rebekah and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ And she said, ‘I will'”—Gen 24:58). When she is pregnant she does not hesitate to go to God to seek an explanation (Gen 25:22). When in Gerar (Gen 26) apparently she is confident enough to engage in sexual relations with Isaac, though she reportedly is his sister.
That that episode was excised by Jubilees because it put both Isaac and Rebekah in a bad light is another matter. She displays anger and disappointment when Esau marries locals (Gen 26:34–35). Her role in the primogeniture blessing going to Jacob displays a woman who knows her own mind. Likewise her arranging for Jacob to move to Haran/Paddan-aram, and her getting Isaac to bless that endeavor once again shows the determination and clear-headed thinking of Rebekah (Gen 27:42–28:5). That Rebekah favors Jacob over Esau also speaks to her sense that Esau's descendants in time will become the enemy, the Edomites who pillaged Judah following the Babylonian destruction of the Temple. By contrast, many of Isaac's actions seem to be pale reflections of what his father did: at the time of a famine he relocates to Gerar (Gen 26:1; Gen 20:1ff.) Isaac claims Rebekah is his sister, not his wife, as did Abraham with Sarah, but then apparently he is indiscreet, being overseen having sexual relations with her (Gen 26:8; Gen 20:2–3.) Whereas Abraham digs wells successfully and stands up to the locals (Gen 21:25, 30) time and again Isaac retreats from conflicts with locals over wells dug by Abraham (Gen 26:17–22). That Isaac may not have been a commanding figure like his father may be explained by the trauma of the “Binding” in Genesis 22, but he nonetheless seems more passive than his progenitor. Isaac is not as cunning or quick-witted as his son Jacob. That may be explained by the thought that Jacob inherited those traits more from his mother and his maternal grandfather. For many reasons, Jubilees regards Rebekah as a strong and resourceful woman, someone inventive, imaginative, and capable. She is the most prominent woman in Jubilees, who actively advances that work's major theme of the promotion of endogamy/rejection of exogamy. Biblically, Rebekah is the most voluble of the matriarchs in Genesis, and arguably the most influential of her peers. The Rebekah of Jubilees is an even more commanding, authoritative and visible figure than her biblical counterpart—she is “the powerful woman of Jubilees.”