In defense of a Fiftieth year Jubilee

First, I am going to suggest we take the reading of the text at face value.

 ‘You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.  You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.  You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. Leviticus 25:8-10

The most simple reading of the text brings you to the logical conclusion that the 50^th year is a Jubilee and after the Jubilee you start with a new count in year one. This view is consistent with the view of the classical Rabbis. (Those teachers of whom we have record of before the Romans destroyed the temple in 0070)

I also count Noah’s story as evidence.

Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son.  Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.” Genesis 5:28-29

When Noah was born they said” This one will give us rest” six hundred years later he survived the flood

“Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth.” Genesis 7:6

And the text tells us he went out, on to his own land, in the six hundred and first year.

“Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.” Genesis 8:13-5

I expect Noah was born on a Jubilee and that is why they named him Noah (which means rest) and exclaimed “this one will give us rest” and I expect he was in the ark during a Jubilee six hundred years later and went out onto his own land in the first year after the Jubilee. For all this to work the Jubilee calendar obviously needs to be 50 years.

Jeremiah has something for us as well. The 70 year exile he predicted also give us useful evidence.

Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men ….Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon… to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept Sabbath until seventy years were complete. 2 Chronicles 36:17-21

As Judah goes into exile in the 580’s BCE, Jeremiah pronounces seventy years of exile because the Sabbaths had been ignored. If you consider that each 50 years should have had 8 sabbatical years, seven Shmitas and one Jubilee then a mathematical calculation could be set up to establish how long it was since these things where in practice (70/8) X 50 = 437.5 years since the Sabbatical years where kept. Add 437.5 to 582 BCE and you find yourself in the approximate time frame of Saul and David. I am not trying to be exact here I am just pointing out that if the sabbatical years where kept if at all was very early in the united monarchy and it very quickly fell out of use. Indeed Ezekiel 20 gives us the sense that Sabbath keeping was never done very well.

If the Sabbatical years where not kept for over 400 years while Israel and Judah where in the land then it is very unlikely that Sabbatical years were kept during the exile or the very stressed years of the returned exiles under Ezra and Nehemiah and the later occupation of the Greeks and Romans.

So if this is the case then, it was over one thousand years since the abandonment of Sabbatical years that Yeshua (Jesus) shows up on the scene. I believe that this story from Luke has some information for us.

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:18-21

The passage Yeshua quotes is from Isaiah 61 and goes on to talk about the restoration of the land to the people of Israel. (see Isaiah 61:4 below) This language can only be Jubilee correlated as the return of the land is only at the 50 year Jubilee. (see Leviticus 25) Land does not return to its original owners in the other seventh years.   

Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,
They will raise up the former devastations;
And they will repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations. Isaiah 61:4

I contend that Yeshua was re-establishing the date of Jubilee and that this event had to happen in the late 0020’s or very early 0030’s. I expect it was the fall of 0029.

Can I prove it? No, but it seems to fit what we see in the modern market place.

I intend to be generous here to all other points of view but our focus is to be looking for rhymes, parallels and patterns. If the evidence leads us to another conclusion so be it, we need to be sure that we are not trying to force round pegs in square holes.

Interestingly as of this moment the modern rabbinic count is the same as what I have proposed here but in 2029-2030 their count will become year one, in contrast to what I see as a fiftieth year. As a result for the next 15 years our counts for Shmita agree. This may be a very wonderful opportunity to work together to restore Shmita.

A Jewish group called Hazon is doing their part to remind the world of Shmita you can find them hazon.org/shmita-project