Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 67:4 (Dec 2024)
Article: Ezekiel’s Jubilee: Real Or Rabbinic Fiction? Part 2: The Jubilee/Sabbatical Year Cycle
Author: Rodger C. Young

JETS 67:4 (December 2024) p. 643

Ezekiel’s Jubilee: Real Or Rabbinic Fiction? Part 2: The Jubilee/Sabbatical Year Cycle

Rodger C. Young*

* Rodger C. Young is an independent scholar. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: This second article in a two-part series dealing with the chronology of Ezekiel 40:1 will focus first on the definite reference to a Sabbatical Year in the text of Isaiah 37:30 and 2 Kings 19:29, followed by the probable, but not quite so definite, reference to a Sabbatical Year when Zedekiah proclaimed a year of release (Jer 34:8–11). The timing of both events will be shown to be consistent with the starting of Jubilee and Sabbatical Years in Tishri of 1406 BC. The second part of the article undertakes the more difficult task of separating the wheat from the chaff in chronological statements related to Jubilee and Sabbatical Years in the rabbinic literature, showing that, if proper methods of historical analysis are used, this literature contains valuable information about when starting of the counting for these cycles began, information that agrees with dates derived from biblical texts for the Exodus and entry into the land.

Key words: Jubilee Years, Sabbatical Years, date of Exodus, Seder ‘Olam, rabbinic chronology

Part 1 of this two-part series concerns the exegesis of Ezekiel 40:1, demonstrating that Ezekiel saw his vision on the tenth of Tishri, a day that he calls Rosh HaShanah, “New Year’s Day,” and that day initiated a Jubilee Year.1 By chronological considerations, both from the Bible and the Babylonian Chronicle, it showed that the year of the vision was 574 BC. The latter part of the article then showed that, consistent with the Bible’s Exodus Era texts and independently of the text of Ezekiel 40:1, a Jubilee Year was due to start in 574 BC.2 It was remarked that this “coincidence” of the time of the Exodus as determined by these two independent chronological systems—the Jubilee Year cycles and the Bible’s Exodus Era texts—has yet to be explained by those who deny a fifteenth-century Exodus.

JETS 67:4 (December 2024) p. 644

In what follows, it will be useful to have a chart of when Jubilee Years were due that is consistent with the thesis that counting started in 1406 BC. This date is fixed by the last of the nine Exodu...