If you were raised as a Christian as I was, you likely have already formed a lot of preconceived opinions about consciousness. For example, you likely have already formed opinions about when you were born and what happens to you after you die. If you are like me, you were taught to believe that YOU came into existence when you were born and that when you die you go to sleep awaiting judgement day when God will either resurrect you to eternal life or resurrect you to face judgement and eternal destruction. You likely have preconceived opinions about whether the “living” can communicate with the “dead” or not. You also likely have formed preconceived opinions about who or what “God” is, what angels are, whether or not animals have consciousness, whether the sun, moon and stars have consciousness, etc. But are your preconceived opinions consistent with what the original founders and followers of the religion once believed?
As I briefly touched on yesterday in my introduction to the Book of Jubilees, this book was once widely distributed and read by both Jews and Christians alike. In fact, the earliest followers of “Jesus” (even after his death) were pretty much ALL “Jews” who had come to accept “Jesus” as the Jewish Messiah. Then, somewhere around the 4th century AD, the newly formed “gentile church” waged war on the Book of Jubilees and attempted to suppress the book, nearly wiping it out of existence. Now that the book is once again widely available, it is interesting to re-examine what the book has to say about consciousness through the eyes of the early believers.
Jubilees Known as “The Little Genesis”
One really cool thing I like about the Book of Jubilees is that it dovetails the canonical Book of Genesis in our modern Bibles nicely but adds details in places where Genesis is vague and remains vague in places where the Book of Genesis already covers the topic adequately. In many ways, the two books (Book of Genesis and Book of Jubilees) can be combined to create a more complete picture of what’s going on in the Book of Genesis from a Hebrew perspective. I would argue that because these two books were both commonly read in the early “Christian” community, it would be nearly impossible for someone reading the Book of Genesis to not also consider the additional information in the Book of Jubilees.
So, what does the Book of Jubilees add to our understanding of the Book of Genesis?
YOU existed Prior to Your Body
As I was reading back through the book of Jubilees again yesterday something jumped out at me that I’d never really noticed before. According to the Book of Jubilees, the SPIRIT of all creatures in heaven and on earth were created on the first day of creation but the BODY for those spirits were not created until the sixth day. For example:
“For on the first day He created the heavens which are above and the waters and all the spirits which serve before him …and of all the spirits of His creatures which are in the heavens and on the earth…”
Jubilees 2:2
This is a very interesting statement considering that the Book of Jubilees agrees with the Book of Genesis in that animals (creatures) and humans (creatures) were not created until the sixth day.
“And on the sixth day He created all the animals of the earth…everything that moves on the earth…and after all this he create man…”
Jubilees 2:13
So then, what does this mean? What is this SPIRIT of all creatures that was created on day one and how is this SPIRIT different than the actual creatures that were created on the sixth day? I believe the Book of Genesis sheds light on the answer:
“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
Genesis 2:7
The word in Hebrew often translated into English as “living being” is Nephesh which means something like living spirit and I believe combined with the Book of Jubilees it means that the spirit that was created on day one was breathed into or placed into the body on day six and that when this spirit (that was created on day one) is placed inside of a body (that was created on day six), it became a living body or living spirit.
Now consider this further. Jubilees tells us that on day one “God” created all of the spirits of all of the creatures which ARE in the heavens and the earth. Now I’m not a language expert and I don’t believe we even have any of the original Hebrew versions of Jubilees any longer, but if the translation into English is accurate it is important to pay attention to the tense of the words. It is not saying God created all of the spirits that will ONE DAY be in heaven or on earth. It is not saying God created all of the spirits that MIGHT BE one day in heaven or on earth. It is saying that God created all of the spirits that ARE in the heavens and the earth. To put it more bluntly, all of the spirits of all creatures on heaven and earth were created before bodies were made for them to inhabit. In other words, the spirit exists independently from the body. Logic might dictate then that if the spirit exists apart from the body which contains it that when one dies the spirit departs the body containing it but continues on as the spirit without a body.
But, is the spirit conscious? Based on the context of the Book of Jubilees, I don’t see why not.
Everything has Consciousness!
As I stated in the beginning, most of us who grew up Christian were given a set of preconceived beliefs about consciousness and what (or who) is or isn’t a conscious being. Most Christians believe that only humans, angels and God “himself” are conscious while all other things (animals, plants, especially the sun and moon), are not conscious in the same sense.
Ok, to be fair, most might argue animals are conscious but not conscious in the same way as humans. They (animals) certainly don’t face judgement on judgement day for example over their right and wrong choices in life. Humans and angels on the other hand do face judgement and must answer for their actions on judgement day according to most Christian believers. But on what basis is this opinion being formed?
Ancient civilizations (long before Judaism arrived on the scene) have long believed that the planets themselves are conscious beings that “rule over” various seasons and times of the year. This belief is carried on today in the form of modern astrology and the new age movement which suggests that mother earth is a spirit and that planets above influence behaviors here on earth because they are “ruling” over forces on earth while they are in alignment.
Somewhere along the line, perhaps around the 4th century AD, Christianity largely began to reject this notion. The book of Jubilees suggests to me however that early Christians likely would have been more open to this idea of planets having consciousness if they were reading the following passage carefully:
“On the first day He created the heavens which are above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits which serve before Him – the angels of the presence, and the angels of sanctification, and the angels of the spirit of fire, and the angels of the spirit of the winds, and the angels of the spirit of the clouds, and of darkness, and of snow and of hail and of hoar frost, and the angels of the voices and of the thunder and of the lightening, and the angels of the spirits of cold and of heat, and of winter and of spring and of autumn and of summer, and of all the spirits of His creatures which are in the heavens and on the earth, (He created) the abyss and the darkness, eventide (and night), and the light, dawn and day, which he has prepared in the knowledge of his heart.”
Jubilees 2:2
There is a whole lot to be dissected above but the primary question is, on what basis do we separate out one thing from another in this big list? According to Jubilees, on the first day God created all the spirits which serve him. We are then given a huge list of what these spirits are. Of these “spirits”, we are told there are:
- angels of presence (which apparently are spirits)
- angels of sanctification (which apparently are spirits)
- the Spirit of Fire (another spirit in which some angels or spirits serve it)
- the Spirit of the Winds (another spirit in which some angels or spirits serve it)
- and so on and so on….
Why is it then that most Christians accept that angels are conscious beings which can think and serve God and can be judged on judgement day but that other spirits in the same list such as “the Spirit of Fire” is not a real conscious being? On what basis does this verse suggest angels are sentient beings but the “Spirit of Fire” is not? How can angels SERVE the “Spirit of Fire” if the Spirit of Fire is not also a conscious being? How also is it that we can selectively pick out human beings from this big list as a conscious being but not also the Spirit of the Winds?
In other words men and angels are listed in this huge list as just ONE of many spirits yet many Christians tend to believe men and angels are conscious beings but all the rest of the spirits are simply metaphorical. But I see no basis for suggesting that one is conscious and another is not.
The accepted canon of books most Christians use lists other spirits as well but again, most consider these metaphorical and not real spirits. For example the modern canon mentions the following spirits:
- Spirit of Wisdom
- Spirit of Counsel
- Spirit of Might
- Spirit of Knowledge
- Spirit of Fear
- etc, etc, etc
In almost all cases modern Christians reject that any of those above spirits are literal conscious beings and I would argue that suppressing books like the Book of Jubilees helps the modern church maintain this position. The Book of Jubilees seems to make it pretty clear that man is just but one of many different conscious spirits. Furthermore it seems to clearly suggest that man’s spirit is separate from his body and existed before being put into his physical shell.
I want to end this long winded analysis by clarifying one major point. I am NOT saying the Book of Jubilees NOR the Bible is authoritative truth. The point of my entire analysis is to point out that modern Christianity may not be playing fair with it’s own historical scriptures and that the early Christian believers may have been prone to believe that more than just men and angels have consciousness. Also, early Christian believers may have had good reason to believe that man’s consciousness or spirit exists outside of his or her body. I also find it possible that these beliefs may not be compatible with what modern Christianity is teaching and therefore I can see why they may want to forbid their followers from reading books like Jubilees for themselves.