he would reestablish the legitimate Davidic dynasty and free the people from foreign domination. Isaiah 61 refers to a specific liberation, and it is a social one: “To preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Being the hoped-for Messiah, Jesus meant to accomplish what the prophet announced as the task of the Messiah. He was setting out to liberate the oppressed4 of Israel. He was proclaiming a “year of freedom” (“the year of the Lord’s favor” or the “acceptable year of the Lord”).
We now hold the key to the problem. By proclaiming a “year of freedom” in Nazareth, Jesus was threatening the interests of property owners, those with power. This is what incited their murderous anger. His adversaries never admitted the real motives behind their fear and hate. As good conservatives do, they hid behind noble pretexts to discredit the prophet from Nazareth. They wanted to defend certain institutions, the temple in Jerusalem, and the tradition of their fathers.5 They resisted the “year of the Lord’s favor.”
Exactly what was this “year of the Lord’s favor” that Jesus proclaimed? Most exegetes agree that it was nothing less than the sabbatical year or Jubilee instituted by Moses.6
Moses had instituted a genuine social revolution aimed at preventing the accumulation of capital in the hands of a few. This was to recur every seven and every forty-nine years. I use the term “revolution” intentionally because the social readjustments commanded by Moses were far more radical than the efforts of modern revolutionaries. Contemporary revolutions grow primarily out of economic disparities caused by technological developments. Jesus’ revolution, on the contrary, drew its strength from God’s liberating justice. By proclaiming the Jubilee, Jesus wanted to bring about a total social transformation, with an eye to the future, yet based on the vision of justice God had already set forth in the past.
The Jubilee, with it practices and norms, would have been known to both the poor and the rich of Nazareth. Was not the Law of Moses read every Sabbath in the synagogue? But it was not being fully put into practice. Here Jesus suddenly demanded that the Law be put into immediate effect – “today.”7 Was this good news or bad? That depended on who you were. The Jubilee demanded, among other things, expropriating the lands of the wealthy and liquidating the usurious system by which the ruling class prospered. It is easy enough to understand the enthusiasm of the poor, as well as the fear of the rich, which prompted them to try to stop this social revolution by means of a crime. Before specifying the details of the jubilean provisions and regulations, it would be good to explain the meaning of certain terms used to describe the Jubilee, which help to reveal its radical social significance. When Jesus quoted Isaiah, the jubilean connotations of these words would not have been not lost on his listeners.
The Language of Jubilee
Isaiah speaks of the “year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19 – Isa. 61:2). The adjective “favorable,” in Hebrew ratson, comes from the verb ratsah, which means either “to pay a debt” when it refers to the person paying it, or “to be favorable” when it refers to God accepting the payment. The Revised Standard Version uses “acceptable year,” which points to the double meaning of ratson. For example, in Leviticus 26:41, we read, “Then [when they are in exile] when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,” and further on (v. 43), “For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths [it will lie fallow to compensate for all the unobserved sabbatical years]…and they will pay (ratsah) for their sins.”8 Here payment of debt is in view. Other passages, however, emphasize favor and acceptance.9 In the passage quoted by Jesus, the Messiah proclaims, “The Lord has anointed me to…proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (a year of acceptance, or ratson) and the day of vengeance of our God.” Jesus stops the quote with “the Lord’s favor,” but for Isaiah, the God “of vengeance” and the God “of mercy” are one and the same, in whom there is no contradiction.10 In this context the “year of favor” proclaimed by Jesus involved a judgment as well as a pardon or the forgiveness of God. This was the content of the good news.
The passage in Isaiah also refers to “freedom.” “The Lord has anointed me…to proclaim freedom to the captives.” The Hebrew word derôr, which means literally “liberty,” is also found in Leviticus 25:10: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.” Ezekiel 46:17 also calls the Jubilee the “year of freedom.” This strongly suggests that derôr was used as a technical term referring to the periodic liberation of slaves as prescribed by Moses.11
Closely related is the idea of “release.” This word (shemittah, in Hebrew) is found neither in Isaiah nor in Leviticus, but only in Deuteronomy (chapters 15 and 31). The verb shamôt means “to let alone, to let rest, to release, to remit (the payment of a debt).” Shemittah occurs six times in Deuteronomy 15:1–11, where it means “release, periodic cancellation of debts.”12
In Luke’s text, the Greek word aphesis translates both shemittah and derôr.13 “The Lord has anointed me to proclaim aphesis (liberty, release) to the captives.” Aphesis comes from the verb aphiemi (to send away, to liberate, to leave aside, to remit a debt). Sometimes it means “liberty,” or better, the “liberation” of a slave, sometimes, “the remittance of a debt.”
This word occurs quite frequently in the Gospels both as a substantive and as a verb. For instance, when John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance it was for the release of sins considered as debts (Mark 1:4).14 Later, referring to the healing of the paralytic, Jesus stated, “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive (aphiemi) sins” (Matt. 9:6). For the Messiah, the jubilean remission of debts extended to all areas of life – material, moral, and social. In the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus portrays God as a king who remits (aphiemi) debts acquired by his servant (Matt. 18:27–32). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus advises us to also “let go” or “remit” our cloak to him who wants our coat (Matt. 5:40).15
The jubilean significance of aphesis in the first three Gospels is beyond doubt. Peter, Andrew, James, and John, when called by Jesus, “left everything (aphientes panta) and followed him” (Luke 5:11). Shortly before Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem, the apostles happily reminded him that they had put the jubilean ordinance into practice as soon as they had heard his call: “We have left everything (aphekamen panta) to follow you! What then will there be for us?” (Matt. 19:27). And Jesus told them that their obedience meets God’s generous jubilean initiative: “No one who has left (apheken) home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields – and with them, persecutions), and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10: 29–30).
Finally, Jesus uses the same word during the Last Supper, where the Jubilee is announced in eschatological terms: “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness (aphesis) of sins. I tell you, I shall not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:28–29). The supreme Sabbath celebrated in the kingdom of God is thus announced by a terrestrial Jubilee that foreshadows it.
In addition to the above language of freedom and release there is the notion of restoration. The word “jubilee” itself (yobel, in Hebrew) does not seem to have had any particular meaning. The yobel was probably the ram’s horn used in the land every forty-nine years on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, to proclaim the beginning of the year of Jubilee. Later, it became associated with the Latin word jubilum (from jubilare, to rejoice, to exult), but this was merely
