Jubilee years Luke and the Birth of Jesus

[andrewcriddle]

The following is largely based on essays by Roger Beckwith but he would probably not agree with my version.

There have been several interesting recent threads about NT chronology Jubilee years and the seventy weeks of Daniel.
There certainly was a later understanding that the seventy weeks were fulfilled in 70 CE with the fall of Jerusalem. And if 70 CE was a significant year then 21 CE (one previous Jubilee) would also be a significant year. The problem is that although we have good evidence that 69 or 70 CE was a sabbatical year we have no good early evidence that, before the tragic events of the fall of Jerusalem, it was regarded as a particularly significant sabbatical year, e.g. the end of a Jubilee. The significance given to this year may well postdate the fall of Jerusale.

However we have an interesting interpretation of the seventy weeks of Daniel in the Testament of Levi. From the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

AND whereas ye have heard concerning the seventy weeks, hear also concerning the priesthood. For in each jubilee there shall be a priesthood.
2 And in the first jubilee, the first who is anointed to the priesthood shall be great, and shall speak to God as to a father.
3 And his priesthood shall be perfect with the Lord, and in the day of his gladness shall he arise for the salvation of the world.
4 In the second jubilee, he that is anointed shall be conceived in the sorrow of beloved ones; and his priesthood shall be honoured and shall be glorified by all.
5 And the third priest shall he taken hold of by sorrow.
6 And the fourth shall be in pain, because unrighteousness shall gather itself against him exceedingly, and all Israel shall hate each one his neighbour.
7 The fifth shall be taken hold of by darkness. Likewise also the sixth and the seventh.
8 And in the seventh shall, be such pollution as I cannot express before men, for they shall know it who do these things.
9 Therefore shall they be taken captive and become a prey, and their land and their substance shall be destroyed.
10 And in the fifth week they shall return to their desolate country, and shall renew the house of the Lord.
11 And in the seventh week shall become priests, who are idolaters, adulterers, lovers of money, proud, lawless, lascivious, abusers of children and beasts.
12 And after their punishment shall have come from the Lord, the priesthood shall fail.
13 Then shall the Lord raise up a new priest.
14 And to him all the words of the Lord shall be revealed; and he shall execute a righteous judgement upon the earth for a multitude of days.

A major problem is that the Testaments in their present form are a Christian work, (the immediately following section is clearly basically Christian), however Beckwith presents good evidence that the section about the Jubilees is based on pre-Christian material. (Fragments of a Hebrew Testament of Levi related in some way to the version in the Twelve Testaments have been found at Qumran.) Although this does not exclude Christian modification I am going to regard the passage as evidence for a pre-Christian interpretation of Daniel.

The passage divides the seventy weeks into ten jubillees of 49 years each. The defilement of the temple under Antiochus and the establishment of the (libelled) Maccabean priesthood occur towards the end of the seventh Jubilee. In order to fit the chronology of these events the seventh Jubilee must end somewher around 150-148 BCE with the tenth Jubilee ending around 3-1 BCE. (Probably in the Sabbatical year 2-1 BCE.)

This would make the claim in our current text of Luke that Jesus was about 30 in the 15th year of Tiberius as amounting to a claim that Jesus was born in a sabbatical year. (IF Irenaeus gives evidence of a tradition that Jesus died at age 49 then this would be a claim that Jesus died in a sabbatical year but I'm a bit dubious here.)

This would imply that if Luke is adjusting his account so that events should occur on a significant date, then the significant date involved is the date of Jesus' birth. (The dates of Jesus' ministry may have gone back to pre-Lukan tradition.)

Andrew Criddle

[DCHindley]

Andrew,

It has been my impression, from reading about Jubilee and Sabbatical years, that many critics think that the "Jubilee" year immediately followed the 7th sabbatical year. This would mean that it would be the fiftieth year, i.e., the first year of the next Jubilee cycle.

On the other hand, if a sabbatical year is every 7th year, a jubilee year should be the 49th year and identical to the 7th sabbatical year.

Due to the differences in the epochs of the many local calendars in use and the different ways of counting of regnal years used by ancient writers to date significant dates, there is often a significant margin of error - sometimes this way, sometimes that - of up to a year either way between the stated date and an absolute date we would calculate by the modern Julian year system.

I have a book, somewhere, that researched the various systems of computation of Jubilee years found in Judean scriptures, but in my addled old age cannot recall the title or author. A quick scan of the bookcase did not cause it to jump out at me, and I did a Google search for my last name and Jubilee or Sabbath to see if it was mentioned in a discussion group exchange but it still eludes me.

DCH

edit: I just remembered the name of that book I alluded to in my initial post: The Land is Mine: Six Biblical Land Ideologies, by Norman C. Habel (1993).

[Stephan Huller]

The Samaritans know the answer and I have a Samaritan regularly at my house. 49 + 1 where the Jubilee becomes the first year of the next series of 49. The announcement of the Jubilee starts six months earlier. The one who does the announcing is called a mevasser (evangelist).

[Stephan Huller]

Am I mistaken for seeing a distinction between the initial discussion of 'jubilees' going up to 'seven' and then a subsequent discussion of 'weeks'? The discussion of 'weeks' may not necessarily mean that 'jubilees' were not counted in the traditional manner (i.e. 50th year). In the 364 calendar of Qumran the first day of the Jubilee is always a Sunday (= eighth day, eighth year)

[Stephan Huller]

we have no good early evidence that, before the tragic events of the fall of Jerusalem, it was regarded as a particularly significant sabbatical year

But in all fairness if the original implications of this destruction in a Jubilee were that the Jewish religion was over and something superior had overtaken it, it would not be surprising that the rabbanites downplayed 70 CE being a Jubilee. Let's also not forget that the Jews also 'forgot' how to count jubilees and according to the rabbinic sources 'forgot' what to do when Passover fell on the Sabbath, forgot their list of high priests etc. The only information that Jews had about the Jewish War was the ludicrous material in tractate Gittin (where Nero is claimed to be a proselyte, Titus had sex in the holy of Holies and was killed by a gnat and other legendary nonsense) until the Jews stole a copy of Josephus already corrupted by the Christians in Russia somewhere and modified the Yosippon).

Can the situation be any more pathetic and illustrate the 'ghetto life' of Jews in the middle ages that Yosippon became something of a holy text in the communities? They had no idea about who they were, what their history was, beyond oral tradition.

In short then there was a collective amnesia not only about the implications of the end of the old religion but the actual historical details of the revolt. Why was this? I think it is plausible that the two powers in heaven tradition was one and the same with Justin's Christian religion and that as Judaism reconstituted itself and reacted against this interpretation (i.e. that the end of the religion in the final Jubilee of Daniel meant that something new and better superceded the old) it suppressed arguments in favor of the rival 'two powers' theology. What did these include? Certainly the existence of a 'second power' identified as Jesus by some, but also the idea that the end of Judaism in the final Jubilee of the seventy weeks meant that Judaism itself had 'died' and been replaced. Even Maimonides can't explain why the sacrifices ended in 70 CE other than to say it did.

Let's not forget that somehow Jews and Christians agree that the seventy weeks 'ended' with the destruction of the temple.

[Clive]

Leviticus 25

25 The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. 6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

The Year of Jubilee

8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property....

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=NIV

[Clive]

Has anyone asked if there is any relationship between the census and a Jubilee year?

[DCHindley]

Has anyone asked if there is any relationship between the census and a Jubilee year?

The idea came to my mind several years ago. There was a sabbatical year from fall of 8 BCE to end of summer 7 BCE, which was significant to me because I was looking at the possibility that the "star" of Bethlehem was Halley's comet (seen fall of 12 BCE). This could have been seen as an omen of the conception of a prince, and so 3 years later, when Jesus is said to be two years of age, he is "found" by the Magi on their quest to see this prodigy.

If 8/7 BCE is also a Jubilee year (or alternatively 7/6 BCE if the Jubilee was observed on the "fiftieth" year), then Jesus' family may be attempting to redeem family land "sold" to others 50 years previously. This was misunderstood by the author of Luke as a reference to a Roman census. Unfortunately, there are six different sets of regulations for land tenancy in Judean scripture, generally at variance with one another, so we cannot be sure which was being applied, if any. I just remembered the name of that book I alluded to in my initial post: The Land is Mine: Six Biblical Land Ideologies, by Norman C. Habel (1993).

I also think that the land was very likely "God's" land administered by the temple state in Judea, which was technically not "owned" by anybody, but leased from God. So, in the case of temple land held in tenancy by a family, there might have been cases where the control went to other parties (say as security for a loan) which could be rectified by repayment of the loan. It might explain why the Magi supposedly brought him gold, frankincense and myrrh.

If one has an especially fertile imagination, this could be the farm of 39 "plethra" (at minimum 13 & 1/4 acres = 53.7 dunams if the original Greek measure is meant, or about 26 & 1/2 acres = 107.5 dunams if the Greek word plethron was used for the Latin measure iugerum) that the two grandsons of Jesus' brother Judas were supposed to have jointly owned in the time of Domitian.

FWIW, estimates as to the minimum area of land needed to support a family of six ranges from 6 acres (Dar & Applebaum) to over 16.5 acres (Ben David & Oakman). Hopkins suggests 8 acres and Brunt estimates at least 10.8 acres. See David H Fiensy, The Social History of Palestine in the Herodian Period (1991, pp 92-95). Unfortunately, the discussion of these same authors in Jack Pastor, Land and Economy in Ancient Palestine, (1997, pp 8-10), shows that they cannot even agree on the area these plethra refer to, or how to calculate family nutrition needs, or even how much land was allowed to remain fallow each year.

DCH

[Stephan Huller]

The reason the story of the Passion was called "the gospel" is because 20 CE was a 49th year and 21 CE a jubilee

Ben Zion Wacholder has shown conclusively that the sabbatical year fell in 69/70. Likewise, although Josephus avoids a detailed exegesis of Daniel 9, his echoes of the language of the oracle and some of his cryptic comments make it clear that he too associated the end of the seventy weeks with the fall of Jerusalem in the Great Revolt. And Mark's temple apocalypse in chapter 13 also ties the destruction of the temple by implication with the end of the seventieth week (Mark 13:14). At minimum, I think we can say that first century Jewish circles, including the first-generation Jewish circles, including the first-generation Jesus movement, were aware of an exegetical tradition in which the consummation of the tenth Jubilee and eschatological redemption were expected around the year 70 C.E., and that the troubles that culminated in the Great Revolt were very likely not unrelated. And the evidence that Barker has collected does support the possibility that either Jesus' early followers or even Jesus himself drew on eschatological Jubilee traditions about Melchizedek to construct a theology of the mission and person of Jesus. In fact, according to this reckoning, the first week of Daniel's tenth Jubilee must have fallen in 20 - 27 C.E., sharpening the (admittedly highly speculative) possibility that Jesus himself deliberately began his ministry at the end of this first week on the conviction that he was the Melchizedek to come. [The Dead Sea scrolls as background to postbiblical Judaism and early Christianity p. 270 - 271]

[Clive]

If 8/7 BCE is also a Jubilee year (or alternatively 7/6 BCE if the Jubilee was observed on the "fiftieth" year),

Why is there any question about the Jubilee being the 50th year? Isn't Leviticus clear? What am I missing here?

The Year of Jubilee

8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you;