- Feb 28, 2009
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1. The sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee
This section deals with the Mosaic legislation of Leviticus chapter 25 and is intended to give the reader a broad overview of the subject without projecting it in anyway into the NT and the fulfilment in Christ. However, I’ve discussed an ‘aside’ at one point and related it through to a fulfilment in Christ as there’s no opportunity in the notes to conclude what is being hinted at later in the text.
It’s quite possible that this section will get just a little bit like trying to wade through treacle as it’s pretty much dealing with commandments and procedures rather than trying to draw spiritual truth from it.
But do try and persevere as the conclusions drawn are important to sections 3 and 4.
a. The sabbatical year
Lev 25:1-7, Deut 15:1-11, Ex 23:10-11
God ordained that every seventh year was to be a year of rest for the land of Israel. To be able to understand the context of this command, we need first to determine which period of time was considered to be the ‘year’ in this context.
As the ‘sabbath’ was tied in with allowing the land rest from cultivation, then it should logically be also tied in to the Israelite agricultural year.
The agricultural year was considered to begin immediately after the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles with the sowing of the fields so that, as detailed in Lev 25:9 with regard to when the year of Jubilee began, the agricultural year would have been counted from around this time, when the harvesting had been fully completed and next year’s crop needed soon to be sown with the advent of the ‘former rains’ which should have begun at the latest by November.
It may even be that Rosh-ha-shanah, the beginning of the civil new year (occurring on the first day of the seventh month along with the festival known as ‘Trumpets’) was chosen as the point from which the agricultural new year was taken to begin (see Rosh-ha-shanah 1:1 in the Mishnah where the four ‘New Year’ days are listed).
However, from an inscription found during the excavations at Gezer, it’s usually thought that we can determine the agricultural cycle that was in existence in Biblical times. AEHL (in the article ‘Inscriptions’) records concerning this that
‘In the excavations at Gezer a seven-line inscription, written on a plaque of soft limestone measuring 3in by 4in, was discovered. This, known as the Gezer Calendar, is considered to be the most ancient Hebrew Inscription. It dates from about 950-900 BC, that is, the days of Solomon’
and Zondervan (under ‘Agriculture’) records for us the actual translated text which reads
‘His two months are (olive) harvest;
‘His two months are planting (grain);
‘His two months are late planting;
‘His month is hoeing up of flax;
‘His month is harvest of barley;
‘His month is harvest and festivity;
‘His two months are vine tending;
‘His month is summer fruit’
These twelve months represent a chronological order of the farming year, beginning with the period mid-September to mid-November and ending where it begins, and may therefore have been a memory aid in use for remembering the agricultural year.
Other interpretations have been proposed but the fact that the agricultural procedures of the inscription tie in with the cycle as demonstrated in the seven annual festivals of Leviticus chapter 23 are indicative that the farming year began on or around Rosh-ha-shanah or even after the Feast of Tabernacles (that is, either the 1st or 23rd of the seventh month - corresponding roughly to our September/October). I’ve detailed this more fully below underneath the first chart.
In the period from the Israelites’ entry into Canaan until the exile of the people to Babylon, nothing much is recorded that indicates to us whether the sabbatical year was observed in the land, though II Chr 36:21 points us to the belief that, on the whole, it was ignored.
In NT times, the seventh year was probably observed amongst most religious Jews, the tractate Shebiith being devoted exclusively to the legislation concerning it. Just how widespread it was amongst the nation is difficult to determine, however, as it can’t be imagined that the Roman authorities would have been pleased to accept a year in which no produce was being cultivated.
In present day Israel (and I’m here speaking about the year 1986 when I visited the land on one of the most mind-numbing tours I’ve ever been on - we seemed to drive past the really important sites and stop at the contrived or uninteresting ones - like crusader fortresses and even, I remember, stopping to look over Jerusalem at the top of one of the hills that was the place of Jerusalem’s rubbish dump!), I overheard a conversation that was being held between a friend of mine and the owner of a vineyard that produced wine that was ‘kosher’.
This necessarily required him to leave the land fallow on the seventh year but, upon further questioning, he admitted that, although they allowed the land ‘rest’ in the sense that they didn’t tend the vines, the grapes that were produced were still picked and fermented into wine that was sold as ‘non-kosher’ - something that the Law didn’t permit (the produce of the land during the seventh year is supposed to be for the poor - Ex 23:10-11).
As with Jubilee, the sabbatical year brought in release and rest, and was a time when the poor benefited, though what actually took place was different on these two occasions. These twin aspects of release and rest are outlined for us in the Mosaic legislation.
http://www.arlev.co.uk/jubilee.htm
This section deals with the Mosaic legislation of Leviticus chapter 25 and is intended to give the reader a broad overview of the subject without projecting it in anyway into the NT and the fulfilment in Christ. However, I’ve discussed an ‘aside’ at one point and related it through to a fulfilment in Christ as there’s no opportunity in the notes to conclude what is being hinted at later in the text.
It’s quite possible that this section will get just a little bit like trying to wade through treacle as it’s pretty much dealing with commandments and procedures rather than trying to draw spiritual truth from it.
But do try and persevere as the conclusions drawn are important to sections 3 and 4.
a. The sabbatical year
Lev 25:1-7, Deut 15:1-11, Ex 23:10-11
God ordained that every seventh year was to be a year of rest for the land of Israel. To be able to understand the context of this command, we need first to determine which period of time was considered to be the ‘year’ in this context.
As the ‘sabbath’ was tied in with allowing the land rest from cultivation, then it should logically be also tied in to the Israelite agricultural year.
The agricultural year was considered to begin immediately after the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles with the sowing of the fields so that, as detailed in Lev 25:9 with regard to when the year of Jubilee began, the agricultural year would have been counted from around this time, when the harvesting had been fully completed and next year’s crop needed soon to be sown with the advent of the ‘former rains’ which should have begun at the latest by November.
It may even be that Rosh-ha-shanah, the beginning of the civil new year (occurring on the first day of the seventh month along with the festival known as ‘Trumpets’) was chosen as the point from which the agricultural new year was taken to begin (see Rosh-ha-shanah 1:1 in the Mishnah where the four ‘New Year’ days are listed).
However, from an inscription found during the excavations at Gezer, it’s usually thought that we can determine the agricultural cycle that was in existence in Biblical times. AEHL (in the article ‘Inscriptions’) records concerning this that
‘In the excavations at Gezer a seven-line inscription, written on a plaque of soft limestone measuring 3in by 4in, was discovered. This, known as the Gezer Calendar, is considered to be the most ancient Hebrew Inscription. It dates from about 950-900 BC, that is, the days of Solomon’
and Zondervan (under ‘Agriculture’) records for us the actual translated text which reads
‘His two months are (olive) harvest;
‘His two months are planting (grain);
‘His two months are late planting;
‘His month is hoeing up of flax;
‘His month is harvest of barley;
‘His month is harvest and festivity;
‘His two months are vine tending;
‘His month is summer fruit’
These twelve months represent a chronological order of the farming year, beginning with the period mid-September to mid-November and ending where it begins, and may therefore have been a memory aid in use for remembering the agricultural year.
Other interpretations have been proposed but the fact that the agricultural procedures of the inscription tie in with the cycle as demonstrated in the seven annual festivals of Leviticus chapter 23 are indicative that the farming year began on or around Rosh-ha-shanah or even after the Feast of Tabernacles (that is, either the 1st or 23rd of the seventh month - corresponding roughly to our September/October). I’ve detailed this more fully below underneath the first chart.
In the period from the Israelites’ entry into Canaan until the exile of the people to Babylon, nothing much is recorded that indicates to us whether the sabbatical year was observed in the land, though II Chr 36:21 points us to the belief that, on the whole, it was ignored.
In NT times, the seventh year was probably observed amongst most religious Jews, the tractate Shebiith being devoted exclusively to the legislation concerning it. Just how widespread it was amongst the nation is difficult to determine, however, as it can’t be imagined that the Roman authorities would have been pleased to accept a year in which no produce was being cultivated.
In present day Israel (and I’m here speaking about the year 1986 when I visited the land on one of the most mind-numbing tours I’ve ever been on - we seemed to drive past the really important sites and stop at the contrived or uninteresting ones - like crusader fortresses and even, I remember, stopping to look over Jerusalem at the top of one of the hills that was the place of Jerusalem’s rubbish dump!), I overheard a conversation that was being held between a friend of mine and the owner of a vineyard that produced wine that was ‘kosher’.
This necessarily required him to leave the land fallow on the seventh year but, upon further questioning, he admitted that, although they allowed the land ‘rest’ in the sense that they didn’t tend the vines, the grapes that were produced were still picked and fermented into wine that was sold as ‘non-kosher’ - something that the Law didn’t permit (the produce of the land during the seventh year is supposed to be for the poor - Ex 23:10-11).
As with Jubilee, the sabbatical year brought in release and rest, and was a time when the poor benefited, though what actually took place was different on these two occasions. These twin aspects of release and rest are outlined for us in the Mosaic legislation.
http://www.arlev.co.uk/jubilee.htm