Theology Annual vol.18 1997. p.87-109
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The Jubilee year 2000 is at the centre of many Church pronouncements during these three years of preparation. In order to help towards a greater understanding of the significance of the Jubilee, the author has examined the relevant Old Testament texts. While the blessings and promises given to Abraham became concretized in the gift of the land, the land itself remained the indisputable property of Yahweh. Human ownership of the land and the economic system in which this ownership was exercised often brought people, whether gentiles or Israelites, into situations of poverty. Perhaps the Jubilee now calls us to view Old Testament legislation on the land and economic structures, not as Utopian, but as a promise and a challenge.
作者在教會宣佈慶祝聖年二０００年的偉大日子裡，邀請各地教會以三年作為預備期的這個時刻，這篇論文便以舊約背境為重點，中肯地幫助大家深入對聖年含意的了解：當天主給亞巴郎的祝福及許諾變作具體的「福地」，這「福地」本身乃雅威不可爭辯的產業。但人?以色列子民或外邦人都不能因著擁有這「福地」，而在經濟系統上致富，反之依然陷於貧乏。為今日的人來說，我們透過禧年的來臨，重新再反思舊約中那規限以色列子民的社會經濟結構，不當視「福地」為烏托邦「理想國」，而要視之為天主的許諾和挑戰。
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Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and said: 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the country which I am giving you, the land must keep a Sabbath's rest for Yahweh. For six years you will sow your field, for six years you will prune your vineyard and gather its produce. But in the seventh year the land will have a sabbatical rest, a Sabbath for Yahweh. You will neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard nor reap grain which has grown of its own accord, nor gather the grapes from your untrimmed vine. It will be a year of rest for the land. But what the land produces in its Sabbath will serve to feed you, your slave, male and female, your employee and your guest residing with you; for your cattle too. and the wild animals of your country, whatever it produces will serve as food. ' (Leviticus 25:1-7)
I suggest that you first read the whole of chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus. However, enough of the chapter has been quoted above to give the feel for the great liberation intended by this piece of legislation. Every 7th year in the Promised Land is to be a sabbatical year - a year of rest for the land - in which the land will lie fallow and will not be worked by human hands. The 7th sabbatical year, i.e. every 49th year, is to be a very special sabbatical year. Moses is to sound the trumpet throughout the land of Israel, declare this 49th/50th year to be sacred, proclaim the liberation of all Israelites: "each of you is to return to his ancestral property, each to his own clan". The beginning of the Jubilee year then was to be a period of great rejoicing. Leviticus gives the impression of a great home-coming celebration.
Reading the passage just like that and at the same time keeping in mind verses one and two, we might furrow our brows trying to picture the whole situation. Yahweh is speaking to Moses in the third month after the Israelites' great liberation from Egypt. Moses is on Mount Sinai, which is a long way from the Promised Land. The Israelites, camped at the foot of the mountain, have yet to break camp and set out on the long journey, murmur against Yahweh and Moses many times on the way and as a result spend 40 years in the desert - as is described in the Book of Numbers. Furthermore the conquest of the promised land, as described in the Book of Joshua, has not yet taken place. Why then should there be this great rejoicing in the 49th/50th year after entry into the land? And what is this talk of liberation and of each one re- turning to his own inheritance and his own clan? Even Moses would have been perplexed.Later in chapter 25 there is mention of buying and selling land "among yourselves" [v.l4], saying it is not to be sold outright [v.23]. Next there is mention of an Israelite being reduced to poverty [vv.25, 35, 39], and a question of loans without interest and even of a man having to sell himself [v.39]. All these things happen among Israelites, but in v.47 there is the possibility of an Israelite selling himself to a person who is not an Israelite. These references show that, in fact, the chapter is closely connected with the economic life and the structure of a society based on a land economy.
This suggests that a long story has to be told if we are to grasp the full import of chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus and the kind of liberation the Jubilee Year was meant to bring.
God could not be seen but worked through a chosen representative, Moses. God spoke to Moses and Moses spoke to the people. It was on Mount Sinai that God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments, the basic law by which the people were to live. This law made known the demands of the liberating God on the Israelites and sketched in broad outline the structure of their society, which should be liberating, too. The people are to be assimilated to God and not God to the people.
To show that the law came from God, the Bible tells us that it was written on two tablets of stone, "inscribed by the finger of God" [Exod 31:18]. This law is to be found in two books of the Bible, the first version in the book of Exodus [20:1-17], and the second in the book of Deuteronomy [5:6-21].
The Book of Joshua deals with the entry of the people of Israel into the Promised Land. Some of the tribes [Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh] were already settled on the far side of the Jordan, but all the tribes were to take part in the conquest of the land given to them by God.
When the time came for the remaining tribes to receive their inheritance, Joshua sent men to survey the country. "The men left, went all over the country and surveyed it by towns, in seven sections, writing down their findings in a book, and then went back to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh. Joshua cast lots for them in Yahweh's presence at Shiloh, and there Joshua divided the country between the Israelites, share by share" [Josh 18:9-10]. This is a very short summary of the apportioning of the Promised Land and we can take it for granted that it was much more complicated than that. However, what comes across is that Yahweh had sovereign dominion over all the land and so assigned to the tribe, the clan and the family the land they possessed. This is put very simply in Lev 25:23 -- "the land is mine". The casting of lots was simply a way of making known what Yahweh had already decided.This new spirit abroad in the land had a profound effect on Israel's ancient ideal of each man under his own vine and fig tree with no one to disturb him. The prophets also condemned the buying up of land and houses. Isaiah has a powerful passage: "Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field and there is nowhere left and they are the sole inhabitants of the country" [Is 5:8]. Micah speaks of evil-doers as "seizing the fields they covet ... owner and house they seize alike, the man himself as well as his inheritance" [Mic 2:1-2; Amos 8:5]. Judges who took bribes must have contributed greatly to this injustice, [Is 1:25; Jer 5:28; Mic 3:11. 7:3]. Creditors who knew no pity also make their appearance: "They have sold the upright for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals" [Amos 2:6-8, 8:6].
From these quotations we see that those who had the misfortune to fall into poverty were liable to lose not only their land but their freedom as well. This situation is well illustrated by the story of the widow's oil which is to be found among the stories about the prophet Elisha [2 Kgs 4:1-7]. The wife of a dead prophet came to Elisha saying, "A creditor has now come to take my two children and make them his slaves". That was because she could not pay her debts, and she had pledged her children against the payment of the debt. All she had left was a jar of oil. Elisha told her to borrow empty jars from all her neighbours and then keep pouring oil from her own jar into the borrowed jars. When this was done she went to Elisha again who said to her: "Go and sell the oil and redeem your pledge; you and your children can live on the remainder ".We might be inclined to think that the 'sin of Jeroboam' with its rejection of Yahweh was like the act of a politician in modem times switching to a new political party. Life then goes on as before - the politician is still working for the 'common good'. That is not so. It was a total rejection of God and God's Covenant. The writer of 2 Kgs puts things very clearly. The destruction of the northern kingdom happened because the king and its people rebelled "against Yahweh their.
God who had brought them out of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt" [2 Kgs 17:7]. Overnight the Israelites were back again in Egypt as slaves and under the whiplash of the overseers. Jeroboam I [922-901 B.C.E.] and his advisers were probably in high spirits at the success of their political and religious policies. Jeroboam II [786-746 B.C.E.] and his advisers at the end of his long reign must have been equally happy at the prosperity and security they had achieved. The only trouble was that the two Jeroboams and the other kings in between were the new Pharaohs, and their overseers with their whips were the greedy landowners, the corrupt judges and the pitiless creditors. It is hardly an accident that the prophet Amos appeared during the reign of Jeroboam II, and that he should have been the most uncompromising critic of the apparent prosperity and stability of the kingdom. It was as bad if not worse than the states round about it; both it and they would be destroyed. Yahweh was as good as his word; what Amos saw so clearly happened in the next generation.
JUDAH, TOO, FALLS SHORT. Judah fared somewhat better in the eyes of the Biblical authors. Some kings feared Yahweh, particularly Josiah [640-609 B.C.E.], who carried out far-reaching reforms. It was during his time that a copy of the law, probably incorporating the contents of chapters 12 to 26 of the present Book of Deuteronomy, was found in the Temple [2 Kgs 22:3-10]. The contents of this book [One God, One People, One Sanctuary] opened the eyes of Josiah, so that he decided to put it into practice. The reformation was not wholly successful.Josiah's successors followed the path of rebellion. Josiah was killed while opposing the advance of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Necho, towards the north. Josiah's son, Jehoiakim [609-598 B.C.E.], after a short break succeeded to the throne. Jeremiah has harsh words for Jehoiakim. The passage is too long to quote in full: "Disaster for the man who builds his house without uprightness ... who makes his fellow-man work for nothing, without paying him his wages. ... Are you more of a king because of your passion for cedar? ... You have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression" [Jer 22:13-17].
In due time the fate that befell the Northern Kingdom became the fate of the southern portion, too. This time it was the Babylonians who carried out Yahweh's will, for the Assyrian empire had fallen before the onslaught of the Babylonian armies. Nebuchadnezzar, head of the new superpower, attacked Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E., destroyed the temple and carried off the upper class into captivity in Babylon.
In the thought of the time, when one nation conquered another the victory was due not only to the superiority of the army and its general; it was due above all to the superiority of the victor's god. This was the god to be cultivated in future. The destruction of Jerusalem with the Temple of Yahweh would have meant to the peoples round about that Yahweh was powerless. It must have been a shattering blow to the exiles in Babylon. They had been removed from the land promised them by Yahweh and in their daily lives looked on in perplexity at the processions of the 'victorious' gods of Babylon. The temptation to doubt Yahweh was ever present.
Their faith in Yahweh was shaken. Nevertheless, it stood the test and came out purified and strengthened. Yahweh had said that if the people did not stop committing sin, did not stop going after false gods and did not stop oppressing the poor, punishment was sure to follow. Everything happened as Yahweh said it would. Yahweh had kept the Covenant; the people on the other hand had not.Certain institutions, like circumcision and the sabbath, held them together as a people and at the same time separated them from others. Circumcision was a sign of who belonged to God's people and who did not. Strict observance of the sabbath, with its readings from Scripture, its songs of praise, lamentations, and petitions became all important in reminding them weekly of Yahweh, who brought them out of Egypt.
They were also spurred on to carry on the work of trying to understand what God wanted of them as a people and embody this in concrete rules of life intelligible to all and covering all aspects of their life. It was a massive undertaking. It meant sifting through the writings of the past and preserving them not only for their own sake but also as God's Word to them. It seems that it was there in the Exile that at least a 'draft' of the Torah [Genesis - Numbers] was produced, the Deuteronomic history [Joshua - Kings] was 'edited', and collections were made of the writings of the prophets.
They were greatly encouraged by a prophet of their own. He was "Deutero-lsaiah" -- to give a name to this nameless prophet. He spoke God's word to the exiles, which in their situation could only be a word of consolation, forgivenness, salvation, and liberation. The period of punishment was over. They would embark on a new Exodus. The gods of the Babylonians were powerless, Cyrus of Persia would prove that. They were encouraged to put their trust Yahweh.Cyrus occupied Babylon in 539 B.C.E. That event signalled the end of the Babylonian empire just as the Assyrian empire had ended with the capture of Nineveh in 612 B.C.E., less than one hundred years before. The enslaving empires were dead but the people of God lived on; however, they were still in exile.
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].
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 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.
However, it did not meet the built-in uncertainties of daily life where people fall into poverty and where debts and loans bring new relationships that complicate social structures. The institution of the Sabbatical Year [Deut 15:1-18] with its remission of debts and the manumission of slaves was meant in large part to deal with those situations. This institution, however, was also found to be lacking.
Hence the institution of the Jubilee Year. There is disagreement among scholars about the meaning of the word 'jubilee'. Since the year is inaugurated on the Day of Atonement with the sound of a trumpet [shopar], some scholars think that the institution was in existence in the past when the Hebrew word yobel was used for a trumpet. Others think that a word similar to yobel with a possible meaning of 'remission' lies behind the word jubilee.
The purpose of this Jubilee Year was to get to the root of the problem of poverty and to restore once and for all the rights of ownership to the land. The rightful owners were those to whom Yahweh had allotted the land in the first place. Only Yahweh is the true owner of all the land. [25:23]The Jubilee Year is a very special instance of the Sabbatical Year. It is to be celebrated on every 7th sabbatical year [v.8] and ends a cycle of 49 years. In v.lO it is called "the 50th year", possibly because the number 'fifty' was a familiar number in the agricultural year. To have two fallow years in a row, both the 49th and the 50th, would have been an impossible burden for a farming community.
THE FALLOW YEAR: 25:1-7. The introductory verses tell us that God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, with a message for the people of Israel. It was a message about the land which God was about to give them, "The land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord" [v.2b]. Just as the people of Israel kept a day of rest in every seven, so the land was to keep a year of rest in every seven. There is a stress on the land "resting". The land belongs to Yahweh [v.23] and that ownership is to be acknowledged. The people can work on it for six years, but on the seventh it is sacred - not to be touched with farming tools.
What the land produces by itself will supply them with food. The message seems to be: "Trust Yahweh". This message is reinforced by vv.l7-23. THE JUBILEE YEAR: 25:8-12. The jubilee year was a specially sacred period. It was calculated exactly, in the 49th year [7x7]; it was to begin on the 10th day of the 7th month, the day of atonement, and liturgically introduced with the sound of the trumpet "throughout all your land". "You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family" [v.lO]. There is a general liberation from some kind of burden, which allows a man to get back his stake in the land and at the same time to join his clan; it is a restoration to his previous and, we might add, his ideal way of life. From the sketch of the history of Israel we can see that the burden under which the poor laboured was debt. In Deuteronomy we saw that the words 'poor' and 'debt' were closely connected.What is the meaning of 'jubilee' in verse 10? From the context it appears as a solemn home-coming after the general release from debt or slavery. Perhaps the release of the Israelites from their exile in Babylon sparked the imagination of the author [Jer 31:9; Is 55:12].
CHANGING ISRAELITE ATTITUDES 25:13-16. In this section the author, still speaking of the jubilee year, wants to lay bare the attitudes that led to the loss of property and a stake in the land in the first place. Some take advantage of their strong position and drive a hard bargain. The poor have to agree or starve; they have to hand over their right to use their own property to another. The jubilee legislation wants to change that attitude. What is actually being sold or bought is a number of harvests, where the number depends on the number of years since the last jubilee year. The jubilee meant that there could be no outright buying or selling of property.
THE LAND IS YAHWEH'S : 25:13-16. Here it is repeated that the Israelites are not to wrong one another, and that is followed by an exhortation to fear Yahweh by keeping the commandments. Then they will live in security in the land and the land will supply them with what they need. The tone of exhortation in this passage suggests thafthe author is not interested in a mere legal prescription but has in his mind a rosy picture of the state of things when everybody is following the spirit of Yahweh's law.
During the fallow year, they are not to worry about eating their fill, for Yahweh will bless them during the sixth year by increasing the yield. They will have enough food during the fallow year and until the next harvest. Here we may note in passing that in the author's mind there is a close connection between the sabbatical year and the jubilee year. IF YOUR BROTHER BECOMES POOR: 25:24-55. The rest of the chapter deals with a number of cases beginning with the phrase, "If your brother becomes poor" [vv.25, 35, 39 and 41],1. 25:25-34. What happens if a landowner can no longer support himself and his family and is obliged to sell the land allotted to him by Yahweh? The next-of-kin has a right to step in and acquire the land. Originally the purpose of this law was to ensure that the land was not alienated from the extended family or clan. However, according to the jubilee legislation, the property had to revert to the original owner in the 49th year.
2. 25:35-38. If an Israelite has lost his stake in the land what are the duties of a brother Israelite? His 'brother' has a duty to take him in and give him hospitality as he would to a stranger or alien. "You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit" [v.37]. No doubt the poor brother is expected to work for the man who has taken him in. In v.38 there is the reminder that Yahweh brought them out of Egypt and gave them this land.
3. 25:39-46. In W.35-38 the ideal put before the Israelites could be summed up with a quotation from Matthew's Gospel: "Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" [Mt 5:48]. This is Matthew's reformulation of Lev 19:2: "Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, 'Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy'. St Luke has, "Be merciful, just as your Father is mercifal"" [Lk 6:36].
The Israelites obviously fell short of this ideal. In this section the poor man has to sell himself to his brother Israelite in order to survive. He is not to be treated in the same way one treats a slave taken from the surrounding nations, i.e. with harshness. His status is that of the hired hand or the alien living with the people of Israel. In the jubilee year he and his children are to return to his own family and to the possession of his fathers.
This piece of legislation seems to ignore the slave laws of Exod 21:1-11 and Deut 15:12-18 in which a 'Hebrew' slave had to be liberated after six years of service. But the jubilee legislation allows that a man might be a slave for 40 or more years. Is this a backward step or a concession to reality? Or is it something else?
The reasons given for this piece of legislation are very informative. "For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God" [vv.41-42]. An Israelite cannot be the 'possession' of a fallow Israelite -- he belongs to Yahweh.
4. 25:47-55. This piece of legislation concerns the Israelite who sells himself not to a brother Israelite but to a non-Israelite. His situation is similar to that of the man in vv,39-46. However, in this case special mention is made of the right of redemption; any blood relation can redeem him, or he may redeem himself.
LEV 27:16-25. This passage is the only other passage in Leviticus which speaks of the jubilee year. It concerns land dedicated to Yahweh.
The provisions of the Jubilee Law have puzzled many scholars. Could its provisions have been put into effect? It speaks of the 49th and the 50th years as being jubilee years for the whole land of Israel. Two fallow years over the whole land of Israel would seem to place an intolerable burden on the food supply.
The buying and selling of land [v.l4], the taking of interest on loans and enslavement for non-payment of debts appear to have been a regular practice after the Exile, as it was during the time of the monarchy. The general return of lands after a long period of alienation would be a difficult if not impossible task. Land reform is not achieved by the blowing of a trumpet; the walls of vested interest do not tumble so easily.
The liberation of those enslaved for debts would have to be postponed for an intolerably long period in some cases; the slave himself might be dead by that time. Furthermore the law conflicts with the liberation mentioned in Deuteronomy for the sabbatical year.Putting the Jubilee Law into effect would mean not only a reordering of the socio-economic life of the whole society. It would also mean a change of attitudes. It would mean removing sin and rebellion against Yahweh or, to use Ezekiel's turn of phrase, replacing hearts of stone with hearts of flesh [Ezek.36:26-27]. That is more than the law can do.
1. Yahweh was the God of the Israelites who chose them when they were the slaves of the Pharaoh of Egypt. He wanted them to recognise him as their God by being holy as he is holy.
2. Yahweh liberated them, he is their liberator and they are his 'slaves'.
3. Yahweh gave them a basic law to live by, namely the Ten Commandments, and a land to live in.
These three points are cardinal to the author's faith. They are his Covenant faith. Yahweh, the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt and who made the covenant with them on Mount Sinai, is the same God who brought them back from Babylon and restored Jerusalem to them. Yahweh always remembers the covenant [Ps 105:8] and everything is in Yahweh's hands.
THE AUTHOR'S OWN EXPERIENCE
1. The author had been poring over all the laws up to that time and saw how they applied the basic covenant law in various historical circumstances. He reflected how he could pass on the gist of these laws and the spirit they embodied to his own and succeeding generations.
2. He was also a man of the Old Testament world which until a very late period did not see any life beyond the grave. Yahweh's promises would have to be fulfilled in this world, not necessarily in the lifetime of an individual, but certainly in the lifetime of Israel. Another characteristic of the Old Testament world was its stress on family solidarity. As Ezekiel chapter 18 and other texts show us, around the time of the Exile family solidarity began to accommodate individual responsibility. The author of Leviticus could then see the jubilee year as the fulfilment of the aspirations of all those alienated from their land and enslaved because of debt. It would be Yahweh's gift to them and their families.
3. The joy of the feast of Shelters which took place after the ingathering of the harvest, and which commenorated Israel's Exodus from Egypt would also have left an impression on him. The return from Babylon would have the same effect as is suggested in Isaiah 55:12, which is the conclusion to the Book of Consolation. In fact that proclamation of liberation and the home-coming celebration seems to have fired his imagination.
4. The author was probably in contact with ideas similar to those found in Isaiah 61:1-3, which is quoted by Lk 4:19. There, the prophet says that the Spirit of Yahweh has sent him to proclaim liberty to captives and a year of favour from Yahweh. If this text of Isaiah was written before Lev 25 and the author knew of it, he would have felt that he was giving effect to God's word.
SO LET IT BE ENACTED, SO LET IT BE DONE. The past, present and future, the whole of history, is in Yahweh's hands. Yahweh is a liberating God, a God of the individual, the family and the people of Israel, and a God of joy for the individual and the family. The ideal situation in the lifetime of Solomon is God's will for the people of Israel: "Judah and Israel lived in security, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, throughout the lifetime of Solomon" [I Kings 5:5]. Nothing is impossible for God [Lk 1:37].
The society outlined by Deuteronomy and Leviticus 25 was not a dream but Yahweh's promise awaiting fulfilment. St Luke tells us that this promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ [Lk 4:16-21].
De Vaux, R. (1961) Ancient Israel. N. Y. McGraw Hill.
Lohfink, N. (1996) The Laws of Deuteronomy: A Utopian Project for a World without any Poor? Cambridge: St. Edmund's College, Von Huge Institute. Lattey Lecture 1995.
Wright, A. G., Murphy, R. E. and Fitzmyer, J. A. (1990). A History of Israel. In: Brown, E. R., Fitzmyer, J. A. and Murphy, R. E. [eds.] The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, #75. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Prentice Hall, Inc.