The Jubilee is the greatest instrument of economic freedom ever conceived. An entire doctoral dissertation such as Geoffrey Allen Fager’s of Vanderbilt University would be required to give the reader an appreciation of the impact the Jubilee would have on the wealth of the middle class in this country, but. This brief chapter will be devoted to proving when the Jubilees fell. Suffice it to say that if every head of household was ensured a landed estate beyond the city walls of each city, the ability of families to be self-sufficient, food-producing entities who could dictate to employers their salary rather than the other way around, would be multiplied many times over. The well-being of the middle class is the key to the stability and continuance of democracy and republican govern-ment, something which wealth has the money brokers almost destroyed in this country during the past 100 years. Geoffrey Fager demonstrates lamentably how identical our land policies are to those of the Canaanites, and the extremely deleterious effect this has had on our economic well being. In addition, it must be pointed out that Latin American societies, intuitively realizing how wrong it is for their aristocracies (comprising less than 2 % of the population) to control and own 95% of the land, have periodically risen up in rebellion to reclaim the use of their own land. Latifundia is the propensity of peasant land to be swallowed up by the wealthy into large estates. Failure of government to respect the need of the working class people for land is perhaps the prime cause of revolutions throughout the world. The greatness of the Jubilee law can be inferred from its inscription on our Liberty Bell in Philadelphia:
Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…
Thanks to our secular educational system, and equally ignorant churches, only a tiny percentage of Christians are even aware that the word “liberty” here refers to debt forgiveness, and restoring people back to the landed estates of their grandparents. This is a centerpiece of Yahweh’s wise and thoughtful solution to homelessness, poverty and a whole host of social ills. But of course greedy patrician class of America’s oligarchy would never let such an institution be implemented, despite the fact that America, with its plethora of arable watershed, is in a better position per capita to put into effect this divine legislation than any other country. Richard Kelly Hoskins, in his academically acclaimed book War Cycles, Peace Cycles, showed that the economic depressions in this country have occurred approximately every 50-60 years, a cycle which has spawned the onset of the politics of war, because it is accelerated government expenditures during wars that have pulled America repeatedly out of Jubilee period depressions brought on by mountains of private and public debt. The brain trusts that run this country are fairly aware of these economic laws and cycles, and the power of war to head off recessions.
The Jubilee legislation in Leviticus 25 goes on to prohibit the sale of rural land in perpetuity. “The land is mine, saith Yahweh…you may not sell it forever.” Why? Because “a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” Proverbs 13:22. Selling one’s house/estate for one’s own immediate benefit without consideration of heirs is self-centered and covetous.
Jewish Observance of the Shemittah
The Jews have historical records indicating when the land Sabbath (shemittah) was kept. They were all seven years away from each other. Amazingly, this cycle has been maintained from the time of Joshua. Biblical history has preserved a sequence of Jubilees that can be pinpointed with accuracy, as we shall soon see. Though the Jews did not observe the shemittah prior to the Babylonian captivity, the seventy years in Babylon taught them a valuable lesson about the importance of letting the land lie fallow, about avoiding idolatry, and about the need to diligently keep the weekly Sabbath. Since that exile only lasted seventy years, spanning eleven shemittot, it is likely they kept track of the land Sabbaths through that period. That period spanned 604-534 B.C.
The Land Sabbath was similar to Jubilee in that the land lay fallow, and personal indebtedness was forgiven.[1] Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati has published a number of scholarly articles by Ben Zion Wacholder, a prominent Judaic historian, proving from history when the shemittot occurred.[2] He has documented ten land Sabbaths. All ten are multiples of seven years away from each other, indicating an uninterrupted cycle the priests, the scribes and Jewish people kept track of. His cycle is only one year removed from Schurer’s[3] and other historians in the nineteenth and twentieth century who came close to establishing when the shemittah occurred.
One of Wacholder’s ten historically-documented land Sabbaths runs from 27 to 28 A.D. He believes, as I do, that John the Baptist’s messianic ministry naturally began on this land Sabbath. Wacholder and other scholars show conclusively that Herod’s conquest of Jerusalem took place at the end of the Land Sabbath year in 36 B.C. This is precisely nine land Sabbaths prior to the start of John the Baptist’s ministry. When it is realized that 27 A.D. was the seventh and last land Sab-bath of a Jubilee cycle, it is all the more remarkable, then, that Eusebius (the ‘father of the church history’), says 28/29 A.D. was a Jubilee year! This makes Yahshua’s reference to the Jubilee in Luke 4:16 all the more literal. He truly was proclaiming “the acceptable year of YHWH.”[4]
It is recognized by Jewish scholars that the Jews did not observe the Jubilee, at least after the fall of Samaria in 718 B.C.[5] The reason for this is given in the Talmud, which states that since “all the in-habitants of the land” were no longer “in the land,” therefore the Jubilee law no longer applied. Since the ten tribes were removed from the land in 718 B.C., the conditions for keeping the law were no longer extant. Wacholder made no attempt to determine when the Jubilee years fell. But the time has come to unveil a chronology that has its basis in historical fact, building on the foundation of Wacholder and Ernest Martin, whose reconstruction of Herodian history was accomplished with the help of Wacholder’s land Sabbath cycle. My chronology hinges on one reference to an historical Jubilee in the Old Testament during the reign of King Hezekiah, and upon the one referred to by Messiah Yahshua at the start of his ministry in 28 A.D., which was 15 Jubilee cycles (to the exact year) after Hezekiah’s.
It is surprising that so few scholars, including Wacholder, have paid any attention to Hezekiah’s Jubilee, mentioned in the accounts of Sennacherib’s (king of Assyria) attack on Jerusalem, despite the fact that it is mentioned and dated in three places in the Old Testament—II Kings 18, II Chron. 32, and Isaiah 36. Though scholars have been concerned over the past century or more with problems over the exact year for the fall of Samaria and the end of the Northern Kingdom, I argue here that the synchronicity between the Jubilee cycle and the later date of 718 B.C. may be useful to Assyriologists in solving this problem. This information is derived from Assyrian annals as well as document on cuneiform tablets, where the carrying away captive of some 28,000 Israelites from bit-Humria is mentioned in the records of Sargon II.[6] Omri (Humria), the father of Ahab, and builder of Samaria, is recognized as a reference to N. Israel. The fall of Samaria is one of the most clearly attested dates of ancient history. II Kings 18: 9 links the 4th year of Hezekiah (721-720) with the seventh year of Hoshea, last king of Northern Israel. This was the first year of the siege. The last year of the siege (719-718 B.C.) was the sixth year of Hezekiah, the ninth year of Hoshea. Therefore the siege of Jerusalem by Assyrian King Sennacherib, during Hezekiah’s 14th year (II Kg. 18:13), must be 711-710 B.C. Isaiah makes the reference to the 49th year land Sabbath and 50th year Jubilee in II Kg. 19: 29:
And this shall be a sign unto you, Ye shall eat (this) year such things as grow of themselves (Heb. xypo), and in the second year the self-produced; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
The Hebrew lexicons[7] are in agreement that xypo (Strong’ # 5599) is growth from kernels poured out accidentally… serving as food when no grain could be sown during sabbatical year. Careful comparison of this verse with Leviticus 25:11 will show the reader that Isaiah definitely had a 49th year land Sabbath and 50th year Jubilee in mind. This sign was given in connection with assurances that the king of Assyria would not succeed in taking Jerusalem.
However, our chronology of the Jubilee (see chart in Appendix 2) would have these back-to-back sabbatical years fall two years later if the Jubilee of 708-707 B.C. is to be part of a 49 year cycle that is predictive of the start of Messiah’s ministry in 28/29 A.D in the 15th year of Tiberius. We propose two possible solutions to this discrepancy. Martin Anstey[8] has shown that the first two years of Hezekiah’s reign he was co-rex with Ahaz his father. The 14th year then of Hezekiah’s sole reign would be 709/708 B.C., the year we have computed as the 105th land Sabbath. Alternatively, since technically Isaiah did not say ‘this’ year Hezekiah and the Jews would eat the self-growth of an immediate sabbatical, he may have been referring to the upcoming sabbaticals two years hence, and Yahweh’s promised provision during the sabbatical year as being the sign that Sennacherib had not been successful. In any case, it is difficult to imagine how a two year span of eating what grows of itself in the field could be any kind of sign ahead of time that Isaiah’s prophecy was a true, since the story indicates there was no delay between the prophecy itself and the destruction of the enemy camp. Therefore, Isaiah, knowing how important the land rests were in the mind and economy of their Covenant God, and how large a factor their desecration would play in the judgments that awaited a mere century away, used his awareness of the upcoming sabbatical year as a sign of why YHWH was sparing Hezekiah and Jerusalem at this time: Keep YHWH’s [land] Sabbaths, or in fifteen more, Judah shall be no more!
It is quite probable that the knowledge of exactly when the sabbatical years fell was known only to Isaiah (and perhaps a few other prophets and priests). Therefore it would have been only at this time that Isaiah instructed Hezekiah in the necessity of honoring YHWH’s sabbatical and Jubilee laws by way of completing the restoration which Hezekiah had begun so successfully fourteen years earlier. The failure of the Jews to continue the precedent set by Hezekiah, including the sabbatical years, is listed as one of the main reasons for forcing the land to rest for 70 years under the boot of Babylon:
In order to fulfill the word of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths; all the days of the desolation it kept the Sabbath, to the full measure of seventy years.
In fact, might it not be said that the two-year land rest was a two way sign, pointing back to the fact that Sennacherib had been turned back by the faith of Judah’s righteous king, and pointing forward to the dangers that lay ahead if Judah did not keep the Shemitah.
Judah was in dire straights as a result of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem and the plundering of dozens of Judean fenced cities. How was Judah to be provided for after the faithful resistance by her righteous king? It would seem to have been a most inopportune time for a double land Sabbath to come along, in the midst of such undue external hardship.
It is right after Isaiah gives the sabbatical sign when an angel of Yahweh went out and killed every mighty warrior (185,000)[9] in the camp of the Assyrians. Sennacherib not only had to return in shame to his own land, but had no one to carry away the booty from months and months of successful plundering of other nations. All of Sennacherib’s spoils of war fell into the hands of faithful Hezekiah.[10] One way or another, YHWH-Yirah provided for Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The 49th year land Sabbath ran from the fall of 709 to the fall of 708 B.C., and the Jubilee was the following year–708-707 B.C. Since there are 735 years in 15 Jubilee cycles, 28 A.D. is easily cal-culated as the 15th Jubilee from that of Hezekiah’s day, and the 30th Jubilee since Joshua. These dates correlate perfectly with the chronological clues given in scripture that point to the years when the Exodus and the crossing of the Jordan took place. In the concluding section it will be demon-started that the conquering of Canaan and the year of the Exodus correlate with this chronology.
There is enormous significance to Hezekiah’s fifteen-year life extension, which was conferred upon him shortly after the vanquishing of the Assyrian army. Why 15 years? Why not 10 or 20 years? These things happened to Hezekiah because he was a type of the Messiah. His name meant “he who YHWH has strengthened.” His life extension foreshadowed two things: 1) given as it was right after the Jubilee sign, it was a shadow picture of the fact that 15 Jubilees remained until the appearing of the Messiah (28-29 AD) 2) But it should be noted that there remained fifteen land Sabbaths after 709-708 B.C.—the first year of Isaiah’s sign—until the first year of Nebuchadnezzar (604 B.C.), when he carried away the first Jewish captives to Babylon. This captivity under Babylon was partly due to Judah’s negligence in keeping the land Sabbaths.[11] Hence, Hezekiah’s fifteen year life extension contained both a negative foreshadowing—i.e. that there remained only 15 more land Sabbaths before His people would begin their punishment under the Babylonians—and a positive one–fifteen Jubilee cycles before our 30-year old Savior began His ministry at the onset of the 30th Jubilee. It was in this same context that Isaiah came to Hezekiah and reproved him for showing the Mesopotamian emissaries all the gold in his treasury and in his palace. Isaiah told him the day was coming when all of it would be carted away to Babylon. Hezekiah said, “Your prophecy is good, since it is not coming in my day.” But now it appears that Hezekiah’s 15 year life-extension was an indication that only 15 more land Sabbaths would transpire (unobserved) before Yahweh would force the land to rest by the hands of the Babylonians. That period was 105 years, from 709/708 to 604-603.
The Jubilee Cycle—Was it 49 or 50 Years in Length?
The Book of Jubilees, written around 200 B.C., was one of the most important books to the sectarian Qumran communities. It says that the Jubilee cycle was 49 years.[12] The Talmud has a difference of opinion on whether it was 49 or 50 years long. Can we know for sure, aside from the historical coincidences I am about to be pointing out? Yes! The key lies in Jubilee’s similarity to the 50-year count to Pentecost. Both involve seven sets of perfect sevens in the count toward a 50th day or year. Let us look at Pentecost first.
Leviticus 23 tells us to count 50 days from the morrow after a Sabbath, unto the morrow after a seventh Sabbath seven weeks later. Seven Sabbaths are to be complete. Since the word “complete” is tamiyd, which means perfect, Sunday to Saturday sevens are insinuated. A seven day period extending from Monday through Sunday would not warrant the adjective tamiyd. The clincher is that the 50th day of the count is said to be the morrow after the seventh Sabbath (Lev. 23:16). Now Sunday Pentecost was understood by no less than four different Jewish groups: the Sadducees, the Essenes, the Samaritans, and the Jewish Karaite sect of the Middle Ages. Only the Pharisaic rabbis succeeded in twisting the people’s understanding of these simple facts. For the purposes of this discussion, the main focus is that Sunday Pentecost is not just the 50th day, but also the first day of the week during the eighth week from Passover. Also of paramount importance is the fact that the perfect weekly cycle of Sabbaths is not broken or interrupted by Pentecost. The analogy to the Jubilee count is inescapable. When one counts seven sets of seven years from a beginning point, which we will get to in the next section, one arrives at a 50th year. Leviticus 25:8 stipulates how to count years to get to Jubilee:
You shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee 49 years…and ye shall hallow the 50th year.
The scripture declares that the space is to be 49 years between Jubilees. The 50th-year Jubilee is analogous to the day of Pentecost, a fiftieth day but also a first day of the following week. Those who insist on excluding the Jubilee year from the count toward the next land Sabbath, end up with eight years between the 49th year land Sabbath and the next land Sabbath (in year 57). This is wrong. Since Jewish history shows all the land Sabbaths were a multiple of seven years away from each other[13], it follows that the Jubilee year had to be year one toward the next land Sabbath, in order that the seven year cycle not be interrupted. Also the one-to-one correspondence between Jubilee and Pentecost is not destroyed by this interpretation.
Let us now turn to the messianic Jubilee prophecy in Isaiah 61 which Christ said He fulfilled. We will see the tremendous overlap in meaning between Jubilee and Pentecost.
The Spirit of Adonai YHWH is upon Me: because YHWH has anointed Me (Mashiach) to preach good tidings (gospel) unto the meek; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. (v. 2) To proclaim the acceptable year of YHWH.
Yahshua interrupted the prophecy, because it was not the time to proclaim vengeance, or the Day of Vengeance. The acceptable year of YHWH was the Jubilee, as E.W. Bullinger (The Companion Bible) and many other scholars have pointed out. He told his friends and relatives in his hometown synagogue where He read this prophecy “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
Eusebius (bishop of Caesarea, the father of Church history) states that 28/29 A.D. was the 15th year of Tiberius.[14] In Helm’s edition of Eusebius’ Chronicles, the marginal note reads “the 81st Jubilee according to the Hebrews.”[15] Is it not curious that if we add the span of 735 years to 708-707 B.C., we come up with 28-29 A.D.? (735 years is the span of 15 Jubilee cycles, as 15 X 49 = 735.)
There can be no doubt that the giving of the Holy Spirit to the assembled believers on Pentecost of 31 A.D. was Yahweh’s means of bringing about deliverance from prisons of both literal and figurative nature. Healings, signs, and wonders were wrought by Yahshua and His apostles as Pentecost was fulfilled under the aegis of the spiritual Jubilee proclaimed by Yahshua in the first year of His ministry, the fall of 28 A.D.
Ernest Martin points out that the reading of Isaiah 61:1-2 is specified for the day of Pentecost in second year of the triennial cycle.[16] This is an indication that “the day of Sabbaths” in Luke 4:17 was a Pentecost Sabbath. Hence we have evidence that Pentecost and Jubilee were joined at the hip liturgically and spiritually. Refer to chart in APPENDIX 1: THE EXACT CORRESPONDENCE OF THE COUNT TOWARD THE JUBILEE AND PENTECOST.
Does Hezekiah’s Jubilee Dovetail with a Plausible Year for the Exodus?
Next we wish to calculate the date of the Exodus based on Hezekiah’s Jubilee (working backwards). Let us see if the date arrived at comports with the Biblical record. 735 years prior to 708/707 takes us to 1443/42 B.C. But we must add one because there are fifty years to the first Jubilee. Hence, 1444/43 is the year from which we would have to start the count to the first land Sabbath. Since it took six years for Israel to conquer the Canaanites under Joshua,[17] the crossing of the Jordan would be 1450 B.C.[18] Since those six years were spent warring against the Canaanites, not in planting and sowing, it makes no sense to start counting toward the land Sabbath until the land had rest from war, i.e. six years later. More importantly, the count could not begin until the land was apportioned to families by the casting of lots, which did not take place until the six years of war had ended.
The science of astronomy can help us to rule out most years proposed for the crossing of Jordan. Leviticus 23:10-11 says that when they would come into the land they were to perform a ceremony before eating the new grain in the spring. This wave-sheaf ritual was carried out every year there-after during or after[19] the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and was carried out on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath (rabbinic misinterpretations notwithstanding). Joshua 5:11-12 tell us they ate the produce[20] or new yield of the land on the morrow after the Passover. Therefore, Joshua’s entry into Canaan had to take place in a year on which the 14th day after the lunar crescent (Passover) fell on a Saturday. This fact is well known among some Sabbath-keeping groups and has been noted in the Talmud.
Using Starry Night software, we determined that in 1450 B.C. the moon set 1½ hours after the sun on Saturday March 26th (being un-viewable the previous evening), plenty of time for viewing the crescent. Therefore the 14th Passover did indeed begin on Friday evening April 8, 1450 B.C. Israel ate the Passover on the Sabbath, and offered the Wave Sheaf Sunday morning, allowing them to eat of the new produce of Canaan on the morrow after the Sabbath.
Next, we must figure back forty years to the year of the Exodus, i.e. 1490 B.C. Thankfully, we have a double check for the year of the Exodus that limits the parameters of that year. It is this: the fifteenth day of the second month must fall on a weekly Sabbath, a Saturday, as per Exodus 16:1. There it tells us that the children of Israel encamped on this day, a Sabbath, as the rabbis in the Talmud also realized. YHWH sent quail on Saturday night, and manna the next morning–Sunday morning (the first of six successive days of manna) in order to show the Israelites which day was the holy Sabbath, upon which no manna came.
With the help of Starry Night[21], it has been possible to determine when the conjunction of the moon occurred for that second month in 1490 B.C., and when the crescent would be viewable for starting that second month. It was clear that the crescent would have been visible 31 hours after the lunar conjunction, i.e. on Friday night April 16, making Saturday April 17th the first day of the second month. Therefore, the Sabbath would also have been on the 15th day of the 2nd month (which was on May 1).[22] Therefore, 1490 B.C. is eminently workable as the year for the Exodus. The Sabbath of Exodus 16:1 was on May 1st, and the manna fell on Sunday May 2nd.
The fact that 1490 B.C. and 1450 B.C. coincided so perfectly with previously determined years for Hezekiah’s Jubilee (708/707 B.C.) and the start of Messiah’s Jubilee ministry (year 28/29) A.D., is a discovery that warrants critical examination by other scholars. The fact that 1450 and 1490 accommodate the details given in their respective chapters (Joshua 5 and Exodus 16) provides hard evidence that these were the years for these pivotal events in Israelite history. Any alternative chronology would have to provide a similar span accommodating these details. However, the years given above are the only ones which will allow there to be a Jubilee at the start of Messiah’s ministry. All of this confirms what Daniel prophesied for our days in Daniel 12:4:
But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Mysteries of Time in the Jubilee Cycles
Unlike many other subjectively derived Jubilee cycles, especially ones that purport to go back to Creation[23], the above chronology actually starts with dating the one historical Jubilee in the Old Testament under Hezekiah during the time when Sennacherib of Assyria was trying to conquer Jerusalem, and then extrapolates from there backwards and forwards to arrive at a number of historical coincidences which we find it to hard to ascribe to mere chance. Was it mere happenstance that Hezekiah’s was the fifteenth Jubilee occurring somewhere near the fifteenth year of his reign, and that the king was given a fifteen year life extension that foretold fifteen more land Sabbaths before the House of Judah would be no more, but which also foretold of fifteen more Jubilee cycles before Yahshua would inaugurate the most important ministry of all time in 28 AD? Hezekiah was one of Israel’s most righteous kings, possessing not only moral and spiritual greatness, but also humility to listen to YHWH and His prophets. The scriptures record one great failure in his life and it is related to the fifteen year life extension he was granted. When Isaiah prophesied to Hezekiah that he would die, Hezekiah “wept sore” before YHWH, and Isaiah was sent to him with another prophecy:
I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold I will add unto thy days fifteen years……And this shall be a sign unto thee from YHWH, that YHWH will do this thing that he hath spoken. Behold I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. (Isaiah 38: 5-8)
The King of Babylon sent a letter and presents to Hezekiah because he had heard he was sick and recovered. No doubt these sun-worshipping Chaldeans were also very curious about the sign that accompanied Hezekiah’s cure: the sun moved backwards! This was no small miracle, and YHWH performed it to call attention to something very significant. If Hezekiah had humbly sought to understand this mystery, and prayed as earnestly as Daniel, perhaps YHWH would have revealed the understanding that fifteen more Jubilees would extend until the Messiah. Hezekiah would have been able to witness to the gentile nations about YHWH’s miraculous care and provision for Israel during the fifteen Jubilee cycles since the entrance into the Promised Land. He would have been able to give glory to the Elohim of Israel by sharing this with the Babylonian emissaries. Not only did he miss this opportunity, but proudly showed the Babylonians his material wealth. After the Babylonians departed, Isaiah brought Hezekiah word from YHWH that after his death, all that was in his house would be carried away to Babylon and his sons would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
There are even more numerical signs connected to Jubilee cycles. It can be demonstrated that John the Baptist’s message and ministry of “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived,” was part and parcel of Yahshua’s very own message and ministry[24], and that John’s work began fifteen 49-year cycles after Isaiah gave Hezekiah and Judah the sign of not planting, sowing, or reaping their fields. That message and sign was given by Isaiah at the start of the 49th year land Sabbath, 735 years before 27 AD. In addition to that, 27 AD was 69 prophetic weeks of years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem mentioned in Daniel 9:27[25], which the Jews of the first century all under-stood to be a Messianic prophecy whose fulfillment was to be in their generation.
Is it mere coincidence that John’s messianic ministry began in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, somewhere near the start of the 210th land Sabbath, that 210 = 7 x 30 or 15 x 14[26], and that the man he designated that year as the Lamb of Elohim was about 30 years old[27], and would begin his ministry shortly, near the 30th Jubilee? I think not. The pattern of fifteens signifying fullness of grace (3 x 5) is just the surface of a kaleidoscope of numerical and other fabulous patterns that reflect the purpose and design of the Great Watchmaker in the heavens in whose hand are all the times and seasons.
| THE EXACT CORRESPONDENCE OF THE COUNT TOWARD THE JUBILEE AND TOWARD PENTECOST | |
| COUNT THE YEARS TO JUBILEE
“You shall count off 7 Sabbaths of years, Seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto you 49 years.” Lev. 25:8 |
COUNTING THE DAYS TO PENTECOST
“You shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days.” Lev. 23:15-16 |
| Israelites cross Jordan under Joshua | |
| Israelites spend 6 years conquering the Canaanites; then distribute land, at this point there are six years of planting. | Sabbath
First weekly Sabbath during Feast of Unleavened Bread |
| Year 1—1444 B.C.–Began at the beginning of the seventh year after Joshua crossed the Jordan. Year six was 1439/1438 B.C. | Day 1 (Sunday) Wavesheaf Offering:
”Ye shall wave the sheaf before YHWH to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” Lev.23:11 |
| Year 7—1438/1437 B.C.
First Land Sabbath |
Day 7
First Sabbath after Passover |
| Year 14
Second Land Sabbath |
Day 14
Second Sabbath after Passover |
| Year 21
Third Land Sabbath |
Day 21
Third Sabbath after Passover |
| Year 28
Fourth Land Sabbath |
Day 28
Fourth Sabbath after Passover |
| Year 35
Fifth Land Sabbath |
Day 35
Fifth Sabbath after Passover |
| Year 42
Sixth Land Sabbath |
Day 42
Sixth Sabbath after Passover |
| Year 49
Seventh Land Sabbath |
Day 49
Seventh Sabbath after Passover |
| Year 50 (1394/93 B.C.)
JUBILEE The year of rest will be followed by five years of planting, years 51-55. |
Day 50
PENTECOST Followed by five days of work, Monday-Friday. |
| Year 56
First Land Sabbath of the next Jubilee cycle. Uninterrupted seven year cycle. |
Day 56-
Eighth Sabbath Note uninterrupted weekly Sabbath cycle |
|
CHRONOLOGY OF THE JUBILEE EXODUS TO THE START OF THE MESSIAH’S MINISTRY IN 28 A.D. |
|
|
YEAR |
MAJOR EVENTS CORRESPONDING TO BENCHMARK JUBILEES |
| 1490 B.C. | Year of the Exodus. In this year, the 15th day of the 2nd month must fall on Sat. Sabbath (Ex. 16:1) Using the lunar crescent, it does. Calculated using Starry Night. |
| 1450 B.C. | Crossing of the Jordan under Joshua. In this year, the Passover must fall on Sabbath (Sat.), because the new grain of the land could not be eaten until the wave sheaf had been offered. Josh. 5:12 says they ate the new produce of the land the morrow after the Passover. This only happens in years where the Passover falls on Saturday. Warfare against Jericho and Canaanites ensues. |
| 1450-1444 B.C. | Six[28] years of warfare leads to subduing of Canaanites. “The land rested from war” (Josh. 11:23) First year of planting comes when land is apportioned to families by lot, after the warfare is finished. |
| 1438-1437 B.C. | This is the first land Sabbath under this reckoning–Fall to fall |
| 1394-1393 B.C. | 7th land Sabbath=49th year |
| 1393-1392 B.C. | First Jubilee=50th year from distribution of land by Joshua. |
| 724 B.C. | First year of Hezekiah, 2-year co-rule with Ahaz his father. Revives the keeping of the Passover. Sends messengers to N. House of Israel to compel them to worship YHWH in Jerusalem. They mock. This happens three years in a row. |
| 721-718 B.C. | N. Israel’s refusal to repent leads to Assyrian captivity under Sargon II
(4th-6th year of Hezekiah), who besieges Samaria from 721- 718 B.C. |
| 711-710 B.C. | 14th year of Hezekiah. Fenced cities of Judah seized by Sennacherib. Jerusalem besieged, testing Hezekiah’s faith. Isaiah comes to Hezekiah to give sign that Sennacherib will not be successful: when the land Sabbath and Jubilee come around in two years, Judah will still be in the land eating what grows of itself |
| 709-708 B.C. | 105th land Sabbath. Compare Lev. 25:5, 11-12 with Isa. 37:30.
|
| 708-707 B.C. | 15th Jubilee, prophetic 15-year life extension afforded Hezekiah.
|
| 604 B.C.
120th land Sabbath |
15 land Sabbaths after Hezekiah’s 15-year life ext., Nebuchadnezzar takes the House of Judah into captivity. But the count is on toward the 30th Jubilee and the zenith of redemptive history in 28 A.D.
|
| 28/29 A.D. | 30th Jubilee, 15 Jubilees after Hezekiah’s 15th Jubilee, Yahshua the Savior (age 30) claims fulfillment of Isa. 61:1-2a. (Lk. 4:16)–“Acceptable year of YHWH”– Eusebius’ Chronicles refers to 28/29 A.D. as “81st Jubilee of the Hebrews.” |
| 1988/89 A.D. | 70th Jubilee. Non-compliance always brings judgment in the form of drought, crop disasters, and stock market crashes (Black Monday was Oct. 19, 1987), some of which was prophesied for these years.
|
| 2037/38 A.D. | 71st Jubilee. The cycle we are currently in represents 7 x 10, or completion of Judgment, i.e. America’s last hurrah. The final seven years of this age, will be taken up by the events of the book of Revelation, by which the table of the earth will be cleaned to start anew with YHWH’s Kingdom,[29] during which every man will dwell under his own vine and fig tree. So we anticipate that 2030 will see the 6th and 7th seals opened. |
The formula for calculating the total numbers of years spanning ‘N’ number of Jubilee cycles is (N x 49) + 1
[1] This is the basis for the seven years it usually takes a person to emerge out of bankruptcy so they can have this blotch on their record removed and be able borrow money and purchase a house again.
[2] “The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the 2nd Temple and Early Rabbinic Period” Hebrew Union College Annual, 1973. Also “The Timing of Messianic Movements and the Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles” in the 1975 HUCA, pp. 201-218.
[3] Schurer was the most influential chronologer of the 19th Century.
[4] The Day of Atonement is called “the acceptable day to YHWH” in Isa. 58:5. Lev. 23:11 says the wave-sheaf is accepted on our behalf. Yeshua fulfilled the wavesheaf when He was accepted by the Father the day after He was raised from the dead. Many other things could be said about the favor, grace, and acceptance which Yeshua’s ministry procured for the believer beginning in 28 A.D.
[5] E. R. Thiele, Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, p. 163, argues for the 722 B.C. fall of Samaria.
[6] Thiele argues that Sargon took credit for this accomplishment from his predecessor Shalmaneser, who II Kg. 17:3-9 seems to give credit for the punishment of Samaria.
[7] BDBG Heb-Eng. Lexicon, p. 705, and WTM Morphology in Bible Works.
[8] Page 196 of Chronology of the OT.
[9] II Chron. 32:21.
[10] In II Chron. 32:29 it says Hezekiah had immense riches and honor. And he made for himself treasuries for silver, gold, precious stones. Etc.
[11] II Chron. 36:21—“To fulfill the word of YHWH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate, to fulfill seventy years.”
[12] The Essenes also taught the Jubilee Cycle to be forty-nine years in length.
[13] See Hebrew Union College Annual, 1973, “The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the 2nd Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period” (pp. 183-196) and Hebrew Union College Annual 1975 “The Timing of Messianic Movements and the Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles” (pp. 201-218).
[14] Technically speaking, he says it was the 4th year of the 201st Olympiad, which was year 15 of Tiberius.
[15] See Jack Finegan’s Handbook of Bible Chronology, page 340.
[16] See article “Triennial Cycle” in the Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk & Wagnalls, 1906 and Martin’s The Star that Astonished the World, page 246.
[17] See Appendix 50 in Companion Bible, Bullinger. This six year figure is well-known to most scholars.
[18] This is only one year after the year indicated by Bullinger for the crossing of Jordan (1451). However, Bullinger mistakenly counts the land Sabbaths from the crossing of Jordan, instead of six years later.
[19] See Julian Morgenstern, ‘Supplementary Studies in the Calendars of Ancient Israel’, HUCA X, p. 12.
[20] See Brown, Driver, Briggs Gesenius Hebrew-English lexicon for Strong’s # 5669 = rwbu.
[21] Astronomy programs that tell us on exactly what dates conjunctions of the moon and planets occurred.
[22] The official full moon was Friday night (April 30), when the moon rose only 3 minutes after the Sun set.
[23] The Jubilee Law was not needed before there were nations. It was a law given to Israel to prevent the accumulation of debt, poverty and landlessness being passed on to Jacob’s grandchildren. It only makes sense in the context of an organized nation. Taking the Jubilee cycle back to Adam is abstract idealism that finds its basis in the hyper-religiosity of Qumran and the Essenes, whose favorite book was The Book of Jubilees.
[24] It is wrong to try to separate the two ministries, as the one was simply the introduction to the other (see Mark 1:1-11 and Acts 10:36-37 for confirmation of this point), John prepared the way for the Messenger of the Covenant. Together they comprised 3 ½ years, from the fall of 27 A.D. to the Passover of 31 A.D.
[25] Both Adventists and various Church of God organizations understand the Daniel 9 prophecy (which begins with Artaxerxes decree of 457 B.C.) is carried forward in time by 69 weeks of years, or 483 years, down to 27 A.D. and the start of John the Baptist’s messianic ministry.
[26] Roman history shows Yahshua was born after Caesar Augustus’ 14th Triumph (Triumphs were conferred by the Senate after major victories in the provinces) in 8 B.C. but before his 15th Triumph in 1 A.D.
[27] The minimum age for serving at the Temple as a priest.
[28] Josh. 14:10 tells us Caleb was 40 years old in the second year of the Exodus at Kadesh-Barnea (Nu. 13). Nu. Chap. 9 is the second Passover, therefore Numbers 13 is in the second year.
[29] Yeshua the Messiah cannot build His Torah-based civilization on man’s cities and system.
« Is the phrase “first day of the week” properly translated in the New Testament? | Todd Derstine Two Doctrinal Ditches | Todd Derstine »