THE BIBLICAL ROOTS OF JUBILEE FORGIVENESS

Raymond F. Bulman^1_
Professor of Theology
St. John’s University

On Christmas Eve 1999, Pope John Paul II opened the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, thus inaugurating the Jubilee Year 2000. Given the connotations of the word “Jubilee" in English, it is tempting to think of the Holy Year 2000 as primarily a time of celebration, festivity and joy at the 2000^th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ (all questions of historical accuracy apart).

The biblical idea of Jubilee, however, has much broader and much deeper ramifications than the normal English usage implies. For that matter, the English word "jubilee" is itself derived through Latin (jubilare) from the original biblical Hebrew word “yobel,” meaning "ram's horn" or trumpet, i.e., the instrument that was to be sounded on the Day of the Atonement to inaugurate a very special Sabbatical year, one which took place every 50 years in ancient Israel.² The biblical year of Jubilee, then, was named from the musical instrument that announced its commencement. Liturgically, by connecting the beginning of this holy year with the solemn Feast of the Atonement (Yom Kippur), the Israelites made it clear that the spirit of the Jubilee was to be one of repentance and forgiveness.

Both the meaning and the prescriptions for the Jubilee Year are found primarily in chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus, which pictures God as mandating this practice with all its specifications to Moses: "You shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family” (Lev. 25:10).
Without going into the many legal ramifications involved in the celebration—all of which had to do with the complex Jewish laws of land tenure—the Jubilee required two principal observances:

1) The proclamation of liberty to those Israelites who had become enslaved by reason of debt; and
2) The restoration of land to those families who had been forced to sell it out of economic need during the past 50 years.

Ultimately, the Jubilee Year was based on the theological conviction of God's sovereignty over the land and all of creation: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God." (Lev. 25:38) The Israelites saw themselves as strangers and sojourners on a land that does not belong to them by right, but which has been bequeathed to them by God as an inheritance: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me." (Lev. 25:23)

While its roots were clearly theological, the Jubilee Year was still in essence an economic institution. It was designed to preserve the smallest unit of the Israelite kinship structure, i.e., the family or household. In effect it provided a remedy against placing ownership of the land exclusively in the hands of the wealthy few and it did this through a systematic forgiveness of debt.³ To prevent individual Israelites from losing their land, the requirements of the Jubilee Year stipulated that the land "must be released and returned to its original owner.” (Lev. 25:28) These unusual economic arrangements were directly grounded in the theological conviction that ultimately the land belonged to God.

Even this brief reflection on the biblical basis of the Jubilee Year and Jubilee forgiveness gives us a fuller understanding of what Pope John Paul II intended when he declared the year 2000 “an extraordinarily great Jubilee."⁴ It is very clear from the Pope's guidelines for entering the new millennium, especially as found in his Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, that he views the ancient Israelite institution of the Jubilee Year as a central model for contemporary biblical ethic. It is for this reason that the Holy Father urges all disciples of Jesus to avoid any type of triumphalism and to approach the Holy Jubilee Year in a spirit of renewal and forgiveness. To apply the biblical model of Jubilee to today's ethical agenda however, is far from an easy task and requires nothing less than "that people face the sovereignty of God, trust in his providence, know his redemptive action, experience his atonement, practice his justice, and hope in his promise.”⁵ Today's discussion will serve to test the relevance of the ancient notion of jubilee to contemporary moral concerns.


Endnotes:

^{1 _}Raymond F. Bulman is a Professor of Systematic and Foundational Theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, St. John’s University. Orbis Books published his most recent book The Lure of the Millennium. His other books include Paul Tillich: A New Catholic Assessment and A Blueprint for Humanity. He participated in the Lutheran-Catholic Bilateral on behalf of the Brooklyn Diocese’s Ecumenical Committee, served as President of the North American Paul Tillich Society, and currently chairs Columbia University’s Seminar on Studies in Religion. He holds an S.T.B. from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; was a Special Research Student at Oxford; and additionally holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

² Dizionario Biblico (1955), s.v. “Giubileo, Anno Giubilare.”

³ Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992), s.v. “Jubilee Year” by Christopher J.H. Wright, 1029.

⁴ John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, Vatican trans. (Boston: Paulist Books and Media, 1994) 3.

⁵ Wright, “Jubilee Year," 1029.

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