The Jubilee Spirit

The Code of the Covenant [Exodus 20:22-23:33]

This is so called in modem authors because of the mention of Moses in Exod 24:7 reading the book of the Covenant. Scholars believe that the nucleus of that was the Ten Commandments. However, mention of slaves, fields, cattle and vineyards suggests that it was written for a settled population. The contents best fit the period of the Judges inisrael [c.1200-1025 B.C.E.]. The code could have been promulgated during assemblies like the assemblies mentioned in Josh 8:30-35 or Josh 24. It applied the basic law to the settled population in Israel during the end of the second millennium B.C.E.

CONCERNING THE FALLOW YEAR. Intensive cultivation of crops impoverished the soil, resulting in greatly reduced harvests. Even in the very early days of agriculture farmers came up against this phenomenon and devised various means of improving harvests. One of these means was to allow the land to lie fallow for a year. The first mention of the fallow year in the Bible is in Exod 23:11: "For six years you will sow your land and gather its produce, but in the seventh year you will let it lie fallow and forgo all produce from it." The same law was applied to the vineyard and the olive grove. The reason given in the code for the fallow year has nothing to do with agricultural sfience; instead it was to benefit poor people and wild animals.

Why the seventh? Immediately following this law there is reference to resting on the sabbath day, i.e. every seventh day. So, it would seem that the sabbatical year was modelled on the seven-day week.

LIBERATION EACH SABBATICAL YEAR. Mention was made of the poor in connection with the fallow year. The Covenant Code tries to mitigate another more serious evil, the loss of freedom as a result of poverty and loss of land. "When you buy a Hebrew slave, his service will last for six years. In the seventh year he will leave a free man without paying compensation" [Exod 21:2-3]. Verses 1-11 deal with slaves, male and female. If the man preferred to stay with his master because e.g. he was given a wife from one of his master's women slaves, there was a special rite authenticating this desire. His ear was pierced with an awl at the door. This symbolic act indicated the slave's obedience [ear] to the master of the house [door].

The Deuteronomic Code

Roland de Vaux (1961, p. 144) suggests that fundamentally the Deuteronomic Code was the law' reported to have been discovered in the Temple in the time of Josiah [2 Kgs 22:8f]. It contains a number of ancient elements which seem to have originated in the Northern kingdom, but it is difficult to say how long before the reign of Josiah [640- 609 B.C.E.] they were collected and completed. Possibly they were brought to Judah after the fall of Samaria [721 B.C.E.] and put together under Hezekiah [716-687 B.C.E.] The same author suggests that it was designed to replace the old code. As we saw above, there were tremendous political, social, economic, and religious changes from the time of David to the capture of Samaria. The new code was designed to apply the basic law to these changes. Here we are interested only in the structuring of the socio-economic life of the Israelites.

POOR AND NEEDY. Lohfink (1996) has submitted the Book of Deuteronomy to a very close linguistic analysis and has found that the words "poor" and "needy" are confmed to chapters 15 and 24, which deal with laws related to indebtedness. In these chapters he finds five laws which deal with the different stages by which a free Israelite, man or woman, loses his or her house of land and ends up being a slave.

Following Lohfink's analysis, we can set out these different stages as follows:

Stage 1: A farmer, due to crop failure or for some other reason, finds that he needs a loan in order to provide food, clothes and shelter. "The law in Deut 15:7-11 calls on his brother Israelite to give him an interest-free loan. Such a loan may be enough to solve his problem.

Stage 2: If this is not enough and the farmer is later compelled to work for another farmer as a farm hand in order to make some money, the law in Deut 24:14-15 provides him and his family with a daily wage. Jeremiah would have approved of the law.

Stage 3: This may not be enough and his creditor may be inclined to seize the poor farmer's goods as a pledge. Deut 24:10-13 protects him to the extent that the farmer's face is saved when the creditor comes to collect the pledge.

Stage 4: If the taking possession of the pledge is not enough to ensure the payment of the loan, the legal system of the time provided that the debtor would have to sell one of his family members to the creditor to settle the debt. The story in 2 Kgs 4:1-7 gives us a graphic description of the dilemma of the debtor.

Stage 5: In this case Deut 15:1-6 says that no one be enslaved at least in the sabbatical year. It a person is enslaved in any other year, Deut 15:12-18 says that he or she should be released in the sabbatical year. Furthermore the released person should be provided with all the necessities to start off anew on the farm.

As Lohfink says: "The problem of indebtedness is thought through systematically. The legal system is attempting to bring every aspect of this practice to an end". This ideal is expressed in Deuteronomy as, "There must be no poor among you" [Deut 15:4]. According to these laws the 'poor' are not a definite group of people accepted as fomiuig a part of Israel. They are like individuals who have become sick through some disease; the cause of the disease must be removed right away. The indebtedness mentioned above is such a disease; it cannot be tolerated, it must be removed from Israel. Israel' and 'shalom' should be synonymous. That is only possible if Israel "obeys Yahweh your God by carefully keeping these commandments which I lay upon you this day" [Deut 15:5].

GROUPS WITHOUT LANDED PROPERTY. There is another set of laws which provide for groups of people without land. These were provided for by other laws. They were not mentioned along with the poor, because their support was guaranteed by the structures of society and were given a share in all the festivals of the land. They were part of Israel; there may be Levites, aliens, orphans and widows in Israel, but there must be no "poor" [Deut 15:4] It is surprising to find slaves mentioned among the other four and not with the 'poor'. They were part of the house or family to which they belonged. It is presumed that the slave will be well treated and may not want to leave his master, "because he loves you and your household and is happy with you". The rite mentioned in the Code of the Covenant [Exod 21:5-6] can then be performed. A female slave was dealt with in the same way.

UTOPIA? Some Scripture scholars regard this vision of Israel as a dream conjured up by the Deuteronomists. But, as Lohfink says, they believed that this impossible society could turn into a reality. Israel was called by Yahweh. It was Yahweh who kept it in existence down the centuries and who brought it back from exile as earlier out of Egypt. The society outlined by Deuteronomy was not a dream but a promise.

THE FEAST OF SHELTERS. Towards the end of the Book of Deuteronomy we are told that Moses committed the Law [== Deuteronomic Code] to writing and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of Yahweh's covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. Moses then commanded the Israelites: "At the end of seven years, at the time fixed for the year of remission, at the feast of Shelters, when all Israel assembles in the presence of Yahweh your God... you must proclaim this Law in the hearing of all Israel" [Deut.31:9-13]. The feast of Shelters began on the 15th day of the seventh month, and was the climax of the agricultural year when all the crops including the grapes had been gathered in. It was a time of great rejoicing [Deut 16:13-14].

The Holiness Code [Leviticus 17-26]

This Code, like that of Deuteronomy, begins with rules about sacrifices and ends with blessings and curses. It seems to have come into being as an independent literary complex towards the end of the monarchy and the early days of the exile, but in a different milieu from that of Deuteronomy. Since it shows a preoccupation with rites and the priesthood it is regarded as belonging to the priestly tradition.

The name of the Code comes from the stress on Yahweh's holiness: "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy"' [Lev. 19:1]. Yahweh is separated from all other gods, and all forms of immorality are an abomination; Israel take note!

Like the other codes before it, the Holiness Code 'updates' the application of the basic law to the daily lives of the Israelites in new circumstances. So customs from the distant past were included together with additions that were found necessary after the return from Babylon. An example of an addition to a piece of legislation from the past is found in chapter 23:1-36, which deals with the feasts of Israel. Then in 23:37-38 comes a summary conclusion which signals the end of the section on the calendar. However, the section then continues with two items of legislation about the feast of Shelters. The first piece is about waving palm branches and rejoicing before Yahweh for seven days. The second is about living in shelters for seven days to remind all Israelites of their coming out of Egypt [Lev 23:39-43]. It is clear that these two ancient customs were passed on in the legislation after the Exile with the purpose of reminding those who returned that it was Yahweh who brought them out of Egypt - and out of Babylon. While they were rejoicing during the harvest festival the Israelites were to keep in mind that Yahweh was the Lord of the Harvest, the Lord of the Covenant and the Lord of History. The legislation looks to the past and to the future. We might note in passing that the celebration just mentioned reminds us of Chinese festivals like the Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn festivals.