chapter 3 Similarities between the Message of Isaiah 58, 61 and the Jubilee Legislation in Leviticus 25

In this chapter we are going to analyse briefly some of the main similarities between the legislation of the Jubilee year in Lev 25 and the prophetic messages of Is 58 and 61.This chapter also draws some conclusions concerning the theme, creating in this way the bridge between the first two chapters, which deal with our theme in the Old Testament, and the fourth chapter, which is concerned with the subject in the New Testament. Before we start to deal with the theme of Sabbath and the year of God’s favour in the Gospel of Luke, we are going to review the following indications regarding the relations between the message of Is 58, 61 and the Jubilee legislation in Lev 25. Is 58:1 mentions a trumpet that is closely connected with the Jubilee year, can mean לֵבוֹי which is announced by blowing a trumpet1 (Lev 25:9). The word a ram’s horn, i.e. a wind instrument. The year of Jubilee was inaugurated by blowing that special kind of trumpet (yobel). The speaker in Is 58:1 is called to be like a trumpet voice declaring to the Lord’s people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. On the Day of Atonement people confess their sins and transgression as well.The Jubilee year begins on the Day of Atonement, i.e. on the tenth day of the seventh month, which was a fast day (Lev 16:29–31; 25:9) (Koole 2001, 120). Also, one of the main themes of chapter 58 is a theme regarding a fast day as well (Webb 1996, 225–227). Furthermore, Lev 26:2 presents an exhortation to the Sabbath observance and can be seen as the conclusion of the Jubilee teaching, which is very similar a ‘day acceptable’ to the ( ֽןוֹ֖צָרםוֹ֥י ) to Is 58:13–14. Is 58:5 speaks about a fast day as .the ‘year acceptable’ to the Lord, i.e ( ֽ֙ןוֹצָר־תַנְֽשׁ ) Lord while Is 61:2 talks about about the year of the Lord’s favour. Strong Jubilee themes are present in Is 582

1 Hartley argues about a connection between the Jubilee and the messianic era in the symbol- ism of the trumpet. The trumpet needs to be sounded when the exiles return to worship God in Jerusalem (Is 27:13) and when the Messiah enters the holy city in triumph (Zach 9:9–10, 14–16) (Hartley 1992, 447). 2 Although Is 58 does not specifically mention the Jubilee year, there are many similarities between Is 58 and the Jubilee regulations. See e.g. Hanks (1983, 99–103); Weinfeld (1995, 18).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi: 10.1163/9789004343474_005 130 chapter 3 and 61. ‘The acceptable year of Jubilee’ begins on ‘an acceptable day, the Day of Atonement.’3 The description of the unacceptable day of fasting when the people lie down in ‘sackcloth and ashes’ may be found in Is 58:5.4 Is 58 brings details and explains what the acceptable fast day must be. In correlation with the fast day, for example Is 58:6, 10 say that ‘the oppressed need to go free’ and ‘if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted’, which is very similar with the description in Is 61:1 ‘bring good news to the poor;5 to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the pris- oners’. Is 58:6–7 and 61:1 bring the same message regarding the announcement of the same good news to the poor and captives (Westermann 1969, 337). Both these similar references are an obvious indication of the fundamental provi- sion of the Jubilee.6 Furthermore, the care for needy, homeless, hungry and naked in Is 58:7 corresponds with the regulations for the Jubilee year in Lev 25:35–37, 47–49, especially to take the homeless into one’s house and to provide food for the hungry without charge. Moreover, the phrase ‘not to hide yourself from your

3 “That is to say, the ‘acceptable year’ (Jubilee, Is 61:3) is to be inaugurated by the ‘acceptable day’ (Is 58:5), the fast Day of Atonement … Because the fast of the Day of Atonement, prescribed by the law, could scarcely be abandoned, we may say that Isaiah 58:1–12 proposes the proper observance of the one true fast, including the Jubilee provisions for the poor, as opposed to the multiplication of purely religious rites devoid of ethical content (cf. Zech 7:3– 7, 8–10).” (Hanks 1983, 99, 100). 4 “The passage next turns to a positive description of what constitutes true piety before God. The ritual of fasting is not rejected out of hand, but redefined by enlarging its parameters.” (Childs 2001, 478). About God’s chosen fast see Knight (1985, 25–27). 5 “This oracle of Trito-Isaiah’s is therefore, indeed, good news. It proclaims to all who are bound by any circumstance that there is freedom to be had in God: to all who mourn and are brokenhearted that they may greatly rejoice in the Lord; to all who are faint of spirit that there is quickening renewal for their lives; to all who are poor that God will reward abundantly; to all who are homeless, helpless, rootless that their lives may be firmly planted; to all who are without God in the world that he favours them and comes to them in mercy.” (Achtemeier 1982, 94). 6 “The combination of Isa 61,1–2a and a line from 58,6 via ἄφεσις evokes the Jubilee/Sabbath year. Both texts concern a time pleasing to the Lord (cf. δεκτός in Isa 58,5 lxx and Isa 61,2 lxx; see Isa 49,8 lxx). Moreover, we find that the poor are mentioned in Isa 58 as well as in Isa 61 (58,7 and 61,1). We saw, how the intention of the Jubilee/Sabbath Year is profoundly social in character: restoration of the land through redistribution is a central element. This element is worded in a rather general sense in Isa 61,1–3. However, the addition from Isa 58 calls it even more to attention.” (Koet 1989, 33).