Calum Carmichael, «The Sabbatical/Jubilee Cycle and the Seven-Year Famine in Egypt», Vol. 80 (1999) 224-239

The comparative method is of limited value in locating the Sabbatical/Jubilee cycle of Leviticus 25 within the framework of similar institutions in the ancient Near East. Not only is the character of the biblical institution distinctively Israelite, but so is the manner in which the Levitical lawgiver devised the entire cycle. The lawgiver formulated rules to ensure that the Israelites do not do what the Egyptians did in their land (Lev 18,3). Borrowing details from the Genesis account of the seven-year famine in Egypt, the lawgiver set out Yahweh’s scheme for his people’s welfare. The scheme stands opposed to the pharaoh’s for the Egyptians at the time of the famine.

can freely hand over to Yahweh fields, houses, animals, and persons. Any compulsion to do so comes from within the Israelite himself. For example, he might dedicate a house or field to Yahweh. He can take it back but an act of redemption is necessary. There is also an additional cost to the transaction. He has to pay a one fifth premium over the value that the receiving priest on behalf of Yahweh had originally placed on the gift. The premium is like the one fifth value of the harvest that the Egyptian has to pay to his lord and master for the initial seed that he gives to his serf. Interestingly, when an Israelite redeems a field he actually pays the extra premium according to the seed that is sown in the field (Lev 27.16.19). Even though the Israelite situation is necessarily different from the Egyptian, the assessment for the Egyptians may have influenced the assessment for the Israelites.

        It is common to think that the biblical lawgiver only constructs laws as a direct response to social and economic forces in his time. But that is to entertain a too narrow, overly passive conception of the nature of law. Sometimes laws aim to shape or reinforce cultural identity. The laws in Leviticus 25–27 are of this kind. They are literary constructions that incorporate symbolic pointers to historical events. The lawgiver’s intent is to give sharper definition to an Israelite’s identity by having him recall his nation’s experience when living in a foreign land.

III. Dreams, Levitical Sabbatical and Jubilee Laws

        The story of Joseph itself presents a literary construction elements of which encapsulate historical events in symbolic form. I refer to the famous dreams. Each of the dreams, Joseph’s, the butler’s, the baker’s, and the pharaoh’s, alludes to historical developments. Indeed, the pharaoh’s dreams may well have inspired the Levitical lawgiver.

        It is first of all interesting to note that, like the Levitical Sabbatical and Jubilee laws, the dreams use numbers to convey the passage of time in Egyptian history. The three branches on the vine in the butler’s dream represent three days within which period of time he is released from prison and becomes his master’s butler again (Gen 40,13). In the baker’s dream the three baskets of cakes on his head betoken the three days within which he too is released from prison, but is hanged on the third day. More pertinent for our purposes are the pharaoh’s own dreams in which there are seven sleek cows,