Year of release

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The jubilee (Hebrew שנת היובל. Shnat hajovel "the Joveljahr"; also the year of jubilee , jubilee year , Jubilee , free year or year of release ) is a commandment of the Torah ( Lev 25.8 to 55  EU ): Every 50th year after the seventh of seven sabbatical years, i.e. every 49 years, the Israelites were to grant their subordinate people complete debt relief, return their hereditary land to them ( land reform ) and abolish debt slavery .

The alternative term `` jubilee year '' has been used since 1300 for church calls for a year of indulgence , which is about the forgiveness of sins . Since the 1990s, many development-policy non-governmental organizations have been referring to the biblical term “year of remission” to demand comprehensive debt relief for highly indebted developing countries and a reform of international insolvency procedures between states. The alliance Erlassjahr.de - Development needs debt relief is internationally active.

Designations

“Year of remission” is the common biblical name for debt relief that the Torah commands for each of these 50th years. Already in the Tanakh , the Hebrew Bible (Lev 25,10; Ez 46,17), this year was also called “year of free” and “year of release”, referring to the equally necessary rest from work and the liberation of debt slaves. The terms "year of reverberation", "Jobel" - and "Jubeljahr" go back to the Hebrew word jobel for the ram . Its horns were used as a wind instrument, the noise trombone (Hebrew shofar ), which was blown on all-Israelite religious occasions. Jobel was transferred to the widely resounding blowing of the shofar at the opening ceremony of a Jubilee Year on the Day of Atonement and then to this itself ( shenat hajobel ).

The Bible translation of the Vulgate transferred the Hebrew word (shenat) hajobel onomatopoeically into the Latin (annus) iubilaeus ("year of the joyous sound "). This name spread in Christianity from about 300 years . Since the High Middle Ages , popes have used them to proclaim church penalties, and later also for special church festivals ( Holy Year ) on various occasions and themes. The foreign word anniversary also comes from there . The German term Jubeljahre is derived from the Latin and can also be found in the phrase "all Jubeljahre".

Bible

Torah

The Torah is introduced as a revelation to YHWH , the God of Israel , who presented himself to his people through his act of liberation in the Exodus from Egypt (Ex 20: 1ff.). It establishes the socially just social order it demands and many specific protective rights for poor minorities as a binding right of this liberating God.

According to this experience of God, the “promised land” was seen as a gift. The supreme principle of the biblical land and property right is the divine saying ( Lev 25,23  EU ): "The land is mine, and you are strangers and guests with it." Because all hereditary goods of the Israelites are merely "leased" from God, they are supposed landowners only “strangers” and “guests” as well as the Jews or non-Jews who are dependent on them. The Torah thus justifies the commandment of the year of Jubilee ( Lev 25.8-31  EU ):

After that, all fieldwork should rest for that entire year, as in a sabbatical year. Every Israelite should only get back his "leased" land from God, the actual landowner, if he had to sell it in an emergency: be it through repurchase or return. Israelites fallen into debt slavery should be released unconditionally (even by non-Israelite masters). Land sold and pledged (excluding houses in walled cities and fields promised to the sanctuary) should be returned to the original owner or his rightful heirs without compensation from strangers, and all debts should be forgiven them.

This redistribution of land ownership was supposed to restore the equality of all Israelites commanded by God at least once per generation, open up future prospects for impoverished, dependent landless people, oblige the landowners to release them and grant them a new beginning together. Human property and rulership relationships are therefore not eternal, but must be regularly changed in favor of the dispossessed according to the will of the God of Israel. The Jubilee year should always begin on Yom Kippur , the 10th day of Tishri , and be proclaimed with trumpets across the land.

prophecy

It is uncertain whether this commandment of the Torah was actually followed before and after the Babylonian exile (586–530 BC). Land appropriation by the royal court, as described in the example story 1 Kings 21 ( Nabot's vineyard ), the sharp social criticism of large estates and debt slavery by Amos and Hosea (8th century BC) and post-exilic promises of salvation such as Isa 61.1f  EU , which the Expecting the future Messiah to fulfill the commandment Lev 25 speak against it.

In the northern Reich of Israel and the southern Reich of Judah there was a form of latifundia economy: the royal court appropriated the freed hereditary land from Israelite or Judean farmers or forced its sale through high taxes. On the other hand, from around 850 BC Chr. Prophet on which the kings of Israel and Judah to the God right of unpropertied reminded ( 1 Kgs 21  EU ; Am 2  EU ; Jer . 34,8ff  EU ) and sharp social criticism on the behavior of the haves practiced (for example, Am 5,11f  EU ):

“Because you oppress the poor and you take high taxes in grain from them, you should not live in the houses that you built of ashlar. For I know your iniquities, which are so many, and your sins, which are so great, because you oppress the righteous and take bribes and oppress the poor in the gate [where justice has been pronounced]. "

The promise of a just future for the oppressed and oppressed becomes here a sharp indictment against the oppressor; Foreign policy defeats are interpreted as an inevitable consequence of domestic corruption of law by those in possession. This prophetic criticism shows that the ruling classes in both parts of Israel disregarded the commandment of the Jubilee or had never obeyed anyway.

In exilic and post-exilic prophecy of salvation (since 586 BC), the just redistribution of the land, the abolition of debt slavery and thus the social contradictions became an integral part of the eschatological hope for the future . So Isa 61,1  EU promises that God's future Messiah will proclaim a year of remission for the poor:

“The Spirit of God the Lord rests on me; for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor and to heal all whose hearts are broken, so that I may announce release to prisoners and liberation to those who are bound, so that I may proclaim a year of grace from the Lord ... "

In Isa 65,21f  EU it also says:

“They will build houses and live in them themselves, they will plant vines and enjoy their fruits themselves. They do not build so that someone else lives in their house, and they do not plant so that someone else can enjoy the fruit. "

Despite its extensive historical non-compliance, the Torah commandment of the Jubilee was preserved as a hope for an end-time, just social order without exploitation, in which everyone can live and work together and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

New Testament

According to Lk 4,18ff  EU, Jesus of Nazareth opens his appearance in the synagogue of Nazareth with the quotation of the promise of an eschatological year of remembrance (Isa 61,1):

“The Spirit of the Lord rests on me; for the Lord has anointed me. He sent me to bring good news to the poor; so that I may announce release to prisoners and sight to the blind; so that I may set the broken free and proclaim a year of grace from the Lord. "

He comments on the quote with the single sentence: "Today the scripture that you have just heard has been fulfilled." With this he expressed that his work will finally realize the required year of Jubilee, that this forgotten commandment has remained valid. In the more recent NT exegesis, the text is regarded as a programmatic summary of the preaching of Jesus and his intention to fulfill the Torah commandments for the poor and disadvantaged.

Jesus' Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount ( Mt 5,3-12  EU ) correspond to this : They promise the poor, the mourning, the powerless and the persecuted that the kingdom of God already belongs to them and that they will also own the earth (the land, the soil) in the future become. Out of an acute famine, according to Mk 2,23-28  EU , Jesus allows his disciples to collect food in the already harvested fields of the large landowners and then explains this when asked: In an acute famine, this work is also allowed on the Sabbath , since the Sabbath commandment is for the good of the To serve people. As a justification, Jesus refers to biblical examples of a violation of the law due to an emergency. This shows the social nature of the Torah commandments and their interpretation. A large landowner, who asked Jesus how he could obtain eternal life , he invited to Mk 10: 21ff. EU to give up all its possessions for the benefit of the poor and declares this invitation to its disciples as a (rarely or not at all) precondition for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. With his surprising visit to one of the then hated and ostracized Jewish collectors of Roman taxes ("tax collectors"), Jesus moved him to reimburse the poor for goods stolen four times ( Lk 19.8  EU ). These and other texts from the Jesus movement show targeted transgressions of individual Torah commandments in order to reveal the meaning of the entire Torah.

The community of property of the early community in Jerusalem followed on from this Jesus tradition , which Acts 2,44  EU describes: “All who had believed were together and owned all things in common.” Acts 4,32-37  EU affirms that the community of property takes care of this that no parishioner suffered from a shortage: This alludes to Dtn 15.4  EU , where overcoming poverty is mentioned as the goal of the sabbatical year on which the year of the Jubilee is based. According to Acts 11 : 27-30  EU , the original community determined by the community of goods achieved a burden-sharing between rich and poor communities, which realizes the task of the universal church revealed in the Pentecostal miracle : the end-time unity of all people in the kingdom of God (the Shalom or the peace of nations , the final year of remission).

Talmud

In the Talmud , the commandment of the year of Jubilee was abolished for practical reasons: The Jews no longer owned the land of Israel, and the biblical prohibition of interest also proved impracticable in the Roman Empire. The Torah protection rights were preserved in the form of detailed poor relief under the umbrella of mercy .

literature

Bible

  • Robert North: Sociology of the Biblical Jubilee. Volume 4 of Analecta Biblica: investigationes scientificae in res biblicas. Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1954
  • Jeffrey A. Fager: Land Tenure and the Biblical Jubilee: Discovering a Moral World-view Through the Sociology of Knowledge. Sheffield Academic Press, 1993, ISBN 1850753989
  • Elias E Meyer: The Jubilee in Leviticus 25: A Theological Ethical Interpretation from a South African Perspective. LIT Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3825888053
  • John S. Bergsma: The Jubilee from Leviticus to Qumran: A History of Interpretation. Brill Academic Publications, Leiden 2006, ISBN 9004152997
  • Christoph Berner: Years, weeks of the year and anniversaries. Heptadic conceptions of history in ancient Judaism. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3110190540
  • Gabriel Kyo Seon Shin: The proclamation of the final jubilee year by Jesus in Nazareth: a historical-critical study on Lk 4, 16-30. Volume 378 of European University Writings: Theology. Peter Lang, 1989, ISBN 3261041374

Church history

  • Georg Scheuermann, Francesco Bianchi (Hrsg.): The changing year of the Jubilee year: Investigations on the year of jubilee and year of jubilee texts from four millennia. Echter, 2000, ISBN 3429021898
  • Kim Tan: The Jubilee Gospel: An Entrepreneur Discovers God's Justice. Neufeld Verlag, 2011, ISBN 3937896996

Web links

Wiktionary: jubilee year  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Single receipts

  1. ^ Gerhard Maier, Fritz Rienecker: Lexicon for the Bible: More than 6000 key words on people, history, archeology and geography of the Bible. Scm R. Brockhaus, 2010, ISBN 3417246784 , p. 417 ; Donald Guthrie, J. Alec Motyer: Commentary on the Bible: OT and NT in one volume. Scm R. Brockhaus, 2012, ISBN 3417247403 , p. 195 ; Thomas Krüger: The human heart and God's instruction: studies on Old Testament anthropology and ethics. Theological Verlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 3290175359 , p. 170
  2. ↑ Heribert Smolinsky: Jubeljahr II , in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie Volume 17: Jesus Christ - Catechism Sermon. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3110115069 , p. 282
  3. ↑ Christoph Gutknecht: Every "Jubeljahre" a jubilee year? In: Jüdische Allgemeine . September 25, 2017, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Martin Honecker: Grundriss der Sozialethik. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3110144743 , p. 475
  5. ↑ Hans Bardtke: The latifundia in Juda during the second half of the eighth century before Christ. To understand Isa 5: 8-10. In: Hommages a Andre Dupont-Sommer , Paris 1971, pp. 235-254
  6. ↑ Verena Moritz , Hannes Leidinger : Socialism. UTB, Stuttgart 2008, [http: books.google.de/books? Id = OtL_NNWRqvwC & pg = PA27 p. 27]
  7. ↑ Detlev Dormeyer, Folker Siegert, Jacobus Cornelis de Vos: Work in antiquity, in Judaism and Christianity. Lit Verlag, 2006, p. 171
  8. ↑ Frank Crüsemann: The Old Testament as a truth space of the new: The new view of the Christian Bible. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2011, ISBN 3579081225 , p. 196
  9. ↑ Gabriel Kyo Seon Shin: The proclamation of the final jubilee year by Jesus in Nazareth: a historical-critical study on Lk 4, 16-30. Volume 378 of European University Writings: Theology. Peter Lang, 1989, ISBN 3261041374 . Sabine Plonz: Heavenly Citizenship - Love of the World: Approaches to a dialogical-political theology in an ecumenical context. Lembeck, 2007, ISBN 3874765350 , p. 162
  10. ↑ Ulrich Busse, Michael Reichardt, Michael Theobald: Memory of Jesus: Continuity and discontinuity in the New Testament tradition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, p. 345f.
  11. ↑ Cornelis de Vos: Holy Land and God's Nearness: Changes in Old Testament Land Concepts in Early Jewish and New Testament Writings. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 352553583X , p. 124f.
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Stegemann: Jesus und seine Zeit , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2010, p. 280
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Stegemann: Jesus and his time , Stuttgart 2010, p. 328
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Stegemann: Jesus and his time , Stuttgart 2010, p. 279
  15. ↑ Wolfgang Reinhardt: The growth of God's people. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1995, ISBN 3525536321 , pp. 175-177
  16. ↑ Max Beer : General history of socialism and social struggles. (1929) Salzwasser-Verlag, 6th edition, reprint 2012, p. 36