Was the Jubilee Year an Ancient Calendar Formula?

[Gideon]

There has been debate among biblical scholars concerning the Jubilee year inaugurated after Israel’s release from Egypt. It appears to be the last year in a cycle of fifty, hence our popular anniversary events which are celebrated every fifty years. However, a significant minority of authorities disagree with the said length of time. They point out that Jubilee was part of a broader sabbatical system, necessarily divisible by seven. Judah the Prince, a second century rabbi and chief editor of the Mishnah, believed that the Jubilee year was identical with the 49th year. The para-biblical book of Jubilees agrees, always counting in multiples of seven and forty-nine, as did the ancient Samaritan calendar. Moreover, a larger group of 490 years is mentioned in scripture, indicating ten Jubilees periods.

At first sight, our primary reference creates the confusion. Forty-nine years is emphasized; but a fiftieth is then added. Leviticus 25:8-10 reads:

“You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement (the 10th) you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.”

It immediately raises questions. Apart from our inability to divide seven into fifty, why would a year begin on the 10th of a month and not the 1st? Indeed, why would a year begin on the seventh month of the previous year at all? Commentators have made excuses for this, the most common being that the Jewish calendar has more than one New Year. However, that was not always so. Yes, the modern Rosh Hashanah (New Year) begins on the 1st of Tishri, but it was originally the 1st of Abib, now called Nisan. Exodus 12:2 says,

“This month (Abib) shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” (Exodus 12:2)

So, we are left with a curious 'fiftieth year' that does not synchronise with the Sabbath years, does not start on the New Moon, and finishes at the wrong end of the calendar. I believe there is an explanation, but it requires an examination of calendar astronomy, and a fresh look at certain unusual numbers that appear in the Bible. In short, I believe there was an old Hebrew calendar, different, but perhaps more accurate than our modern ones. The Jubilee year seems to have been part of that ancient soli-lunar calendar system.

Please take 6 minutes to listen to my video presentation concerning this possibility, in new biblical research.

 

[cannot be known]

no, short answer is you add the 50th year. this is explained when God promises them that their harvest in the 48th year will last for three years.!

lev 25:21

21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

 

[visionary]

If the first year of the count is the 50th year Jubilee it harmonizes both the counting and the count. 1-49 [50th year is the 1st of the next 49 years]

 

[Gideon]

If the first year of the count is the 50th year Jubilee it harmonizes both the counting and the count. 1-49 [50th year is the 1st of the next 49 years]

I used to believe that, and its similar to the view of some rabbis. They say the 50th year was synonymous with the 49th year. However, I now believe that the 50th year actually straddled the 49th and 1st years of the old and new cycles.

Here is a diagram:

 

[visionary]

I used to believe that, and its similar to the view of some rabbis. They say the 50th year was synonymous with the 49th year. However, I now believe that the 50th year actually straddled the 49th and 1st years of the old and new cycles.

Here is a diagram:

So... if I am understanding you correctly... You are saying the first of the year is in March/April [Nissan 1] and the straddle Jubilee is from Yom Kippur to Yom Kippur [sometime in Sept/Oct].

If so what about Tishri 1 [Rosh Hashanna] being the start of the calendar year?

Ez 40:1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day, the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me thither.

We know that the Jews have two calendar years every year. One is the civil year and the other is the sacred year. One starts in the spring and one in the fall based on scripture where the Lord tells them that this is the start of the year.

Rosh Hashanah literally means "beginning [of] the year".

Ex 12:2 This month shall be for you the head of months, the first of the months of the year”

Nissan, the first month on Jewish calendar coincides with March-April on the civil calendar.

 

[Gideon]

Rosh Hashanah (the so called New Year) was not part of the original biblical Calendar. Up until the Persian and Greek eras the Hebrew New Year was Nisan only. Your Ezekiel 40:1 reference related to one of his visions and would have been the 10th Nisan 574 BC.

Nowhere in the Bible is there any mention of two calendar years, and in every mention of Tishri it is called the 7th month. So yes, I am saying that the 50th year was superimposed over half of the 49th year, and half of the first year of the following cycle.

Have you checked out my link on the OP?

 

[Mockingbird0]

Gedge writes:

The Bible reveals a 49-year Sabbatic cycle starting New Year, 1st of Abib, following the previous block of forty-nine. They would have intercalated months as explained using the short cycle, until it reached the 10th day of the 7th month of the 49th year…The gap between the two events comes to 17719 days - a figure equalling exaclty 600 lunar months. (Section G).

This is impossible on its face. A period containing a whole number of lunar months cannot begin when the moon is 1 day old and end when the moon is 10 days old. By definition, at the end of a period containing a whole number of lunar months the moon must have the same age as she had at the beginning of the period.

 

[John Hyperspace]

There has been debate among biblical scholars concerning the Jubilee year inaugurated after Israel’s release from Egypt. It appears to be the last year in a cycle of fifty, hence our popular anniversary events which are celebrated every fifty years. However, a significant minority of authorities disagree with the said length of time. They point out that Jubilee was part of a broader sabbatical system, necessarily divisible by seven. Judah the Prince, a second century rabbi and chief editor of the Mishnah, believed that the Jubilee year was identical with the 49th year. The para-biblical book of Jubilees agrees, always counting in multiples of seven and forty-nine, as did the ancient Samaritan calendar. Moreover, a larger group of 490 years is mentioned in scripture, indicating ten Jubilees periods.

At first sight, our primary reference creates the confusion. Forty-nine years is emphasized; but a fiftieth is then added. Leviticus 25:8-10 reads:



It immediately raises questions. Apart from our inability to divide seven into fifty, why would a year begin on the 10th of a month and not the 1st? Indeed, why would a year begin on the seventh month of the previous year at all? Commentators have made excuses for this, the most common being that the Jewish calendar has more than one New Year. However, that was not always so. Yes, the modern Rosh Hashanah (New Year) begins on the 1st of Tishri, but it was originally the 1st of Abib, now called Nisan. Exodus 12:2 says,



So, we are left with a curious 'fiftieth year' that does not synchronise with the Sabbath years, does not start on the New Moon, and finishes at the wrong end of the calendar. I believe there is an explanation, but it requires an examination of calendar astronomy, and a fresh look at certain unusual numbers that appear in the Bible. In short, I believe there was an old Hebrew calendar, different, but perhaps more accurate than our modern ones. The Jubilee year seems to have been part of that ancient soli-lunar calendar system.

Please take 6 minutes to listen to my video presentation concerning this possibility, in new biblical research.

I believe that with the 50th year we're talking about the 1st of the following cycle. There is a "man sabbath" and a "land sabbath" in that, every 7 days is a man sabbath, and every 7 years a land sabbath; likewise here is a land "Pentecost"; such as counting 7 weeks of days and then a double-sabbath, the 49th day sabbath followed by the 50th day Pentecost sabbath; in year-form here in 7 weeks of years with a 49th year sabbath followed by a 50th year sabbath. Also the blessing of the 3 year crop mentioned above.

I do agree there is only one legitimate biblical calendar with the year beginning Abib; but I'm wondering why you think sounding the Jubile trumpet on the 10th of the 7th is being considered a "year start" and not simply the trumpet being blown on the Day of Atonement during the course of the biblical year which started in Abib as all years do?

 

[Gideon]

I do agree there is only one legitimate biblical calendar with the year beginning Abib; but I'm wondering why you think sounding the Jubile trumpet on the 10th of the 7th is being considered a "year start" and not simply the trumpet being blown on the Day of Atonement during the course of the biblical year which started in Abib as all years do?

It was more than the annual Day of Atonement. Leviticus 25:9-10 explicitly says that on the DoA of the 49th year included a proclamation announcing the arrival of the 50th year. (verse 9-10)

Thanks for acknowledging the Abib New Year John. Most people assume that the modern Tishri New Year was the same as the biblical one.

 

[Gideon]

This is impossible on its face.

Fair point. I'll get back to you on this soon.

 

[Gideon]

A period containing a whole number of lunar months cannot begin when the moon is 1 day old and end when the moon is 10 days old. By definition, at the end of a period containing a whole number of lunar months the moon must have the same age as she had at the beginning of the period.

Sure; but a 10 day overlap equals a month over a span of 3 Jubilee cycles. So the figure of 17719 days is the average span of days for any number of Jubilee cycles. When divided by a synodic month (29.531 days) it equals 600 months. I have checked this figure over 20 Jubilee eras and each era is 600 months precisely when averaged.

If you are interested, I can upload an excel spread sheet showing the astronomical dates (and the calculations) of the temple period to Christ. There is no doubt in my mind, that the pronouncement of Jubilee was, among other things, a device for reconciling the solar and lunar years.

 

[Mockingbird0]

Sure; but a 10 day overlap equals a month over a span of 3 Jubilee cycles. So the figure of 17719 days is the average span of days for any number of Jubilee cycles. When divided by a synodic month (29.531 days) it equals 600 months. I have checked this figure over 20 Jubilee eras and each era is 600 months precisely when averaged.

You did not address the point that I raised, which is that adding 17719 days to the 1st of Abib can never bring you to the 10th of Tishri in the later year, unless your lunar calendar is badly out of synchronization with the visible moon. You will always fall short.

 

[Gideon]

You did not address the point that I raised, which is that adding 17719 days to the 1st of Abib can never bring you to the 10th of Tishri in the later year, unless your lunar calendar is badly out of synchronization with the visible moon. You will always fall short.

I may have to adapt my theory to say that it averaged 17719 days over repeated Jubilee cycles. I have the astronomical dates showing 20 Jubilee cycles between the dedication of the first temple and the coming of Christ. Unfortunately, I can't see where to upload the file?

I realise that yovel wasn't observed during the inter-testament era, but the calculation actually works perfectly.

 

[Mockingbird0]

I may have to adapt my theory to say that it averaged 17719 days over repeated Jubilee cycles.

It can never average to 17719 days, because the correct average is around 17728 days: 600 lunar months plus 10 days. The approximation you are using here is

600 synodic lunar months ~ 48 Spring equinox tropical years + 6 synodic lunar months + 10 days.

The ten days you have already added are on the solar side of the expression, not on the lunar side. You need to add 10 more days to both sides:

600 s.l.m. + 10 days ~ 48 S.e.t.y. + 6 s.l.m. + 20 days

to get the period that runs from the 1st of Abib in the 1st year to the 10th of Tishri in the 49th year.

 

[Mockingbird0]

I have the astronomical dates showing 20 Jubilee cycles .

Please provide the date, in the Julian proleptic calendar, of the 1st of Abib at the beginning of the first jubilee and the date of the 1st of Abib at the beginning of the 20th (not the 21st) jubilee.

 

[Gideon]

Please provide the date, in the Julian proleptic calendar, of the 1st of Abib at the beginning of the first jubilee and the date of the 1st of Abib at the beginning of the 20th (not the 21st) jubilee.

I'd be happy to provide the Julian, Jewish, and astronomical dates side by side each other. Please send contact me at, bread@5loaves2fishes.net

 

[Mockingbird0]

I'd be happy to provide the Julian, Jewish, and astronomical dates side by side each other. Please send contact me at, bread@5loaves2fishes.net

I have no need to see the entire spreadsheet. All I need are the two dates. Or you can do the analysis. The scheme in Section F of the linked paper is based on the approximation

606 synodic lunar months ~ 49 tropical years.

since 4 of the 7-year periods, by the plain sense of section F and its diagram, contain 87 lunar months each and the other 3 contain 86 months each. If this pattern is repeated 19 times exactly as diagrammed in Section F, then the whole contains 606x19 = 11514 lunar months. If the Metonic period is repeated 49 times, the whole contains 235x49 = 11515 lunar months. If your 19 Jubilees contain 11515 lunar months, then you are using the Metonic system. If they contain 11514 lunar months, then you are using the system of Section F. If you have 11515 lunar months and think you are using the system of Section F, then either you are mistaken, or Section F is badly written.

 

[Gideon]

The scheme in Section F of the linked paper is based on the approximation

606 synodic lunar months ~ 49 tropical years.

since 4 of the 7-year periods, by the plain sense of section F and its diagram, contain 87 lunar months each and the other 3 contain 86 months each.

No, Im saying the 49-year cycle counted from the 1st of Abib to the 10th of Tishri. If you look at the left hand side of the diagram you should notice that, but I admit the scale of the diagram makes it hard to see. So, it is 600 synodic months - not 606.

Is there some way I can show that on the diagram without making it appear cluttered?

 

[Mockingbird0]

So, it is 600 synodic months - not 606.

You are mistaken in this. Whatever you may have meant, the paper itself equates the 600 lunar months to 48 solar years plus six lunar months plus 10 days (Section G):

600 s.l.m. ~ 48 trop. yr. + 6 s.l.m. + 10 days.

add 6 lunar months to both sides and you get:

606 s.l.m ~ 49 trop. yr.

since 12 lunar months + 10 days is almost 1 tropical year. Or, a little more exactly, using 1000 BC values for the Spring equinox tropical year and the synodic lunar month:

606 s.l.m ~ 48.9976 trop. yr.

This is confirmed by the diagram in Section F. The diagram shows 7 periods of 7 years. The years with a green mark have 13 lunar months. The years without a green mark have 12 lunar months. In the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th 7-year period there are three 13-month years. In the 2nd, 4th, and 6th 7-year periods are there are two 13-month years. This gives

(12x49) + (4x3) + (3x2) = 606 synodic lunar months.

 

[Gideon]

Yes, the diagram in Section F shows 606 lunar months from 1st Tishri to 1st Abib in a typical 49-year period. However, at the top of the same diagram it also shows the 600 months stopping shy of 49 years on the 10th Tishri. On that day a '50th year' was added to the solar year, presumably to synchronise it with the lunar count. (see illustration in post #4)

These 600 months average 17719 days over repeated jubilee cycles. (17719/29.531 = 600) My purpose is to draw peoples attention to what I believe are underlying calendar formulas in the Bible.