Was the Book of Jubilees banned by Church 400 years after Jesus? Fact Check

Claim: Viral post on X claims that The Book of Jubilees was banned by the Church, 400  years after Jesus was born.

Conclusion: False, the book is not banned. Even though the Book Of Jubilees is not included in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant Biblical canon, it is considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Rating: Misleading —  

A thread on X posted on 23 July 2025 by the user handle ‘Tommi Innocenti’ claimed that The Book Of Jubilees was banned. The thread claims how the Church deleted the book 400 years after the birth of Jesus. The first tweet of the thread also labels the book as a “forbidden text”.

With over 14 million views, 3,900 reshares and 24,000 likes, this tweet gained a lot of attention. View the tweet here – 

This book was banned 400 years after Jesus was born:

The Book of Jubilees

Angels dictated it. Prophets recorded it. Then the Church deleted it.

Here’s the forbidden text they buried for centuries: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/FcPVVzFsWH

— Tommi Innocenti (@Tommaso_BookPub) July 23, 2025

The third tweet of the thread further elaborates on why the Church banned the book. According to the author, The Book of Jubilees was banned because it “shattered dogma”, advocated that divine law existed before Sinai and “empowered Enoch over Moses”.

FACT CHECK

DigitEYE India decided to take this up and learnt more about the subject in detail. Upon further investigation and questions, we did not find any evidence of the Catholic, Protestant or Eastern Orthodox Church condemning this book.

The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish religious work written between 160–100 BCE. It was never considered canonical by the Roman Catholic Church, but neither was it formally banned. The book was preserved mainly in Ethiopian Christianity, where it remains canonical and there is no proof that it is “banned”.

We then decided to dig deep into the issue and check the Index Librorum Prohibitorum meaning “Index of Forbidden Books”. This was a list published by the Catholic Church for the books they deemed immoral or heretical. The index lasted from 1559 to 1966 after which it ceased to exist. There is no mention of The Book of Jubilees in this forbidden book list.

Find the list of the forbidden books here

An official Vatican Synod report dating back to 2008 highlights the importance of The Book Of Jubilees for scholarly value and not prohibition. Published by the Holy See, the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees are described as important for studying Second Temple Judaism.

The Book of Jubilees was never included in the Roman Catholic biblical canon but was also never officially banned. In simple words, a canon refers to a church law, decree or an official list which the Church recognizes. However, there is no proof that such a book is deemed evil or dangerous. Find the link to the official Vatican page concerning the canon here. 

Moreover, prominent scholars on the  biblical canon formation, F.F. Bruce does not disregard the Book of Jubilees rather speaks of it in high educational regard. In his study ‘A Reappraisal of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature’ he writes “The Book of Jubilees, for example, is a recasting of the narrative of Genesis and Exodus from the creation to the giving of the law; its contents were divulged by an angel to Moses when he ascended Mount Sinai. Its title is due to its presentation of the history from the creation to the Israelites’ entry into Canaan in a framework of fifty jubilees of forty-nine years each. Its main purpose was to command the exclusive use of a purely solar calendar of 364 days. This was the calendar followed at Qumran, where the Book of Jubilees was acknowledged as authoritative.” 

Thus, the claim is false and The Book of Jubilees does not appear on the Index of Forbidden Books (1559–1966), nor is it mentioned in any ecumenical council as heretical. It remained influential in Jewish and Ethiopian Christian traditions but was simply not recognized as canonical by the Church.

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