I guess my question is, how reliable/original is this book and the translation? Its author is Robert Henry Charles (1855 - 1931).
Is it a better source of knowledge than say, the KJV bible?
Also, would appreciate some input from posters such as alTakruri who are well versed in Jewish and Palestinian texts.
alTakruri Member # 10195
posted Jubilees (link) is just another piece of Hebrew literature. The part of the KJV called Old Testament is a Christian based translation of several pieces of Hebrew literature. Those pieces were considered 'canonical' by the Hebrew sages.
The Catholic/Orthodox Christian Bible includes Hebrew literature the KJV excluded. The Catholic/Orthodox Christian collection of non-canonical Hebrew literature is called Apocrypha.
There is another set of non-canonical Hebrew literature called Pseudepigrapha to which Jubilees belongs. Jubilees is very important to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Pseudopigrapha also includes non-Hebrew/non-Aramaic works that touch on 'biblical' themes and/or characters.
R. H. Charles was editor of a book that collected very many apocryphal and pseudeigraphal texts. Though some measured up to Christian needs, none of them measured up to the Hebrew's canon.
Canon describes that selection of Hebrew literature that their sages decided were sacred. There are no lost books of the Bible because the books collected in the Bible were selected from a host of literature. The Bible was never a mass collection of each and every book written about sacred matters or claiming to be authored by some holy man/woman or prophet.
posted