Book of Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is known as the Book of Division (Ge'ez: መጽሐፈ ኩፋሌ, romanized: maṣiḥāfa kufale). Jubilees is considered one of the pseudepigrapha by the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches. It is also not considered canonical within Judaism outside of the Beta Israel.

It was well known to early Christians, as evidenced by the writings of Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also utilized by the community that collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. No complete Greek or Latin version is known to have survived, but the Geʽez version is an accurate translation of the versions in Biblical Hebrew found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Book of Jubilees claims to present "the story of the division of the days of law and testimony, of the events of the years, of his (year) weeks, of his Jubilee throughout all the years of the world, as the Lord told Moses in Mount Sinai when he went up to receive the tables of law and commandment" as revealed to Moses (in addition to the Torah or "Instruction") by angels while he was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. The chronology given in Jubilees is based on multiples of seven; the jubilees are periods of 49 years (seven "year-weeks") into which all of time has been divided.