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.

the claim about the uniquely ethical character of Israel’s religion, and possibly a desire to locate ancient Israel firmly within the firmament of the nations of the Near East in a fashion that today’s Israel would like to emulate. Nonetheless, it would be foolish not to recognize that the ideas that underlie the biblical laws had indeed some basis in the life of ancient Israel despite the lack of direct evidence. When Weinfeld states that the proclamation of liberty in Leviticus 25 is "functionally speaking identical with" the Mesopotamian edicts, he hastens to add the important qualification that the literary framework into which the Israelite institution has been woven adds "a utopic coloring"³⁶. My claim is that this coloring, if not everything, is of crucial importance. The biblical scribe sets out to recall Israel’s legendary past in Egypt with a view to laying out an institution that, however much it may resemble contemporary ones in either the Israel of his time or among his neighbors, differs significantly from them. The difference lies in the fact that the scribe sketches it by way of contrasting it with the Egyptian institution in Joseph’s time. Indeed, what is inside the literary framework should not, as Weinfeld implies, be kept separate from the framework itself. If my inclination is to maximize the inventiveness of the biblical scribe, Weinfeld’s is to reduce it to a religious gloss.