Christian socialists are fond of citing the Old Testament passages about the Jubilee in support of their socio-economic theories. Easton has the following definition for the Jubilee
Jubilee: A joyful shout or clangour of trumpets, the name of the great semi-centennial festival of the Hebrews. It lasted for a year. During this year the land was to be fallow, and the Israelites were only permitted to gather the spontaneous produce of the fields (Lev 25:11-12). All landed property during that year reverted to its original owner (Lev 25:13-34; Lev 27:16-24), and all who were slaves were set free (Lev. 25:39-54), and all debts were remitted.
Was the Jubilee Ever Actually Done?
There is no record in Scripture of the actual observance of this festival, but there are numerous allusions (Isa 5:7-10; Isa 61:1, Isa 61:2; Eze 7:12, Eze 7:13; Neh 5:1-19; 2Ch 36:21) which place it beyond a doubt that it was observed.
Christian socialists appeal to this passage for a variety of social agenda items including the idea of forgiving foreign debt. A careful reading of the passages on jubilee show that there is nothing in these passages about foreign debt, it is about individual debt, not foreign. It is at that point that the Christian Socialist’s agenda becomes more clear as he/she then attempts to make a more general principle out of these specific passages.
Jubilee is not re-distribution of wealth
This is not a system of redistribution of wealth from the wealthy to the poor. Rather, it is a system of ensuring that the land stays in the hands of the families who originally had the land. If your family in the beginning of such a system was wealthy, then they would remain wealthy. If your family had little land, this insured that they would continue to have little land. The only hope for gaining wealth was to work as a sharecropper on someone elses land, or lease that land.
A Question for the Christian Socialist
It would be an interesting question to ask a Christian socialist how and if the jubilee was fulfilled in Jesus Christ? Was it part of the ceremonial laws which Christ fulfilled? Would return to Jubilee be a return back to the Law?
Use of the Law as a General Principle
Certainly, the Christian socialist is not making the case that the Old Testament Laws should be the laws of the United States? That is where the appeal to general principles comes into play. The Christian socialist seem to be able to mine the Old Testament Laws at will, picking and choosing general principles out of the Law, without taking the entire Law. What is the criteria for this mining? Lacking support for a Christian socialist agenda from the New Testament, they are forced to make a case from principles (greatly stretched principle in this case) in the Old Testament.
Economics and Theology Mixed
It is tempting to dismiss Christian Socialists as merely naive thinkers when it comes to issues around economics. After all, many of them have spent a large portion of their adult lives in the ivory towers of academia. The knee jerk reaction is that perhaps they should stick to theology rather than economics. But these questions are all theological ones which ultimately hinge on questions of exegesis of Scripture. The real problem here is how to move from Scripture to application and how far a stretch we can go in our application of Scripture.
What Does the Jubilee Call for?
The Jubilee calls for two things, freedom for slaves and return of real property to the original owners or their heirs. The timeframe of the return is so long (every fifty years) that it would have little relevance for most slaves, unless they were in slavery at or near the end of the fifty year period. A man could become a debt slave at age 40 and remain one until age 90 if he just happened to hit things right. Slaves were to be freed since it was to be made clear that everyone in Israel was God’s property. Land was to be returned so that it could not be taken away forever.
What did the Jubilee do?
The Jubilee requires the return of personal property to the individual who owned it at the beginning of that fifty year period. This shows God’s support for property rights of individuals. No one could permanently sell his/her birthright. In effect, they were leasing it out for a term up to the next Jubilee. This would clearly affect the lease price of property since leases closer to the term would be of much less value than leases at the start of the new fifty year cycle.
The Jubilee Effect
The Jubilee had the effect of making the value of slaves and property variable depending upon the time to the Jubilee year. Slaves were mostly debt slaves. People who wanted to borrow money would have found it easy to borrow money immediately after the Jubilee year since the money borrowed was secured by their person. As the time got closer to the Jubilee year it would become increasingly harder to borrow money in significant sums since the security of the person themselves becomes less valuable closer to the Jubilee year.
Even Wright is not Right on this one
As much as I respect N. T. Wright in every other area, in this area, he is quite dreadfully mistaken. His position on debt forgiveness of the Western States for the third world is off base and has the same Christian Socialist agenda. Dr. Wright should re-examine his position on these issues. If we are to pick up Jubilee, should we pick up Passover and the other festivals? It seems that Wright is clear enough on those issues, but unclear on these other issues.
Leave a Reply