John Sietze Bergsma, «The Jubilee: A Post-Exilic Priestly Attempt to Reclaim Lands?», Vol. 84 (2003) 225-246

The article examines the hypothesis that the jubilee legislation of Lev 25 was a post-exilic attempt on the part of returning Judean exiles — particularly the priests — to provide legal justification for the reclamation of their former lands. This hypothesis is found to be dubious because (1) the jubilee did not serve the interests of the socio-economic classes that were exiled, and (2) Lev 25 does not show signs of having been redacted with the post-exilic situation in mind. A comparison with Ezekiel’s vision of restoration points out the differences between Lev 25 and actual priestly land legislation for the post-exilic period.

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You shall count off seven weeks of years — seven times seven years — so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years (Lev 25,8).

        The counting system of the Feast of Weeks (Lev 23,15-16) provides an explanation for the forty-nine years of the jubilee that is internal to the Holiness Code and arises naturally from the "seven-mysticism" characteristic of the same. It is unclear why an external and speculative explanation — such as the forty-nine years of the second deportation — is either necessary or compelling. Perhaps this line of reasoning would be more convincing if the number of years of both the jubilee and the second deportation were irregular or unprecedented in biblical literature, e.g. thirty-seven or sixty-one.

2. Omissions in the Text of Provisions for the Exilic Situation

        There are at least three elements "missing" from the jubilee legislation which one would expect to be present had it been written or redacted with a "land-reclamation" agenda. The "omission" of these elements would have made the jubilee impossible to implement in the post-exilic situation, at least for the purpose of returning land to the exiles.

        (1) From when does one count the jubilee cycle? Lev 25 does not provide a way of determining when the jubilee should be observed. The text simply says, "Count off seven Sabbaths of years" (v. 8). From when? The only suggestion in the text is found in v. 1: "When you enter the land". Thus, the narrative projection of the text is that the Israelites should observe the jubilee every forty-nine (or fifty) years, starting from the year in which they entered the land, presumably under Joshua (i.e. the settlement).

        How was this to apply to the post-exilic situation? Perhaps "when you enter the land" was meant to refer to the year the exiles returned. However, if the jubilee was meant to justify the immediate repossession of the exiles’ lands, why does the legislation not take effect until fifty years after they have returned to their homeland (v. 8)⁵⁰? Would the exiles really want to wait in Israel fifty years before repossessing their lands?

        (2) What if one misses a jubilee? The logistics of organizing a