12 C.

René Padilla

C. René Padilla

THE RELEVANCE OF THE JUBILEE IN TODAY'S WORLD

(Leviticus 25)

If there is one aspect of contemporary life in which we cannot take it for

granted that the Scriptures have something to say to us, it is the field of
economics. What relevance could these ancient writings have for us who
live in this complex modern society, characterized by the integration of
production, commerce and finance in gigantic international corporations?
The text that we have chosen for our reflection is Leviticus 25, the
well-known chapter in which the laws regarding the Year of Jubilee are
defined. Even to the uninitiated reader the centr^lity of economic issues in
this biblical passage is obvious. But of what use to us are these Jubilee
laws, designed for the rural lifestyle of a people that lived thousands of
years ago? The question becomes even more complicated when we take
into account that, according to accepted scholarly opinion, there is no
evidence that the Jubilee was ever put into practice (cf. de Vaux 1976:175-
177). On this basis it could be argued that if not even Israel - the original
recipient of the regulations which we are considering - practiced the Jubi-
lee, much less can we expect that these laws should help us in shaping the
economic life of our society.
We dare to affirm, however, that in today's world there is nothing more
urgent than an ethical revolution that takes seriously the very values rep-
resented by the laws of Jubilee. Capital has become the determining factor
not only in the field of economics, but also in practically every area of
human life. Under the tyranny of Mammon, king and master of the global
economic system, millions and millions of people in every part of the
world live submerged in misery. In spite of this fact, it is claimed that this
perverse system is the only one possible and that the very suggestion of
another alternative is not realistic. In the face of the fatal claims made by
this economic imperialism it is imperative that we Christians recognize
that an essential dimension of our mission is to reaffirm the ethical values
that are part of our heritage. The present Bible study is an invitation to
reflect on these values on the basis of Leviticus 25 in the context of the
tragic situation created by the present economic system.
In spite of the time that has passed since they were formulated, the
Jubilee values maintain their relevance for the following reasons:

Mission Studies, Vol XIII-1&2,25&26,1996

The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 13

1. God's purpose for humanity and the creation remains unchanged,

and one of the essential elements of that purpose is that human relations,
including those that have to do with economics, be based on love and
justice.
2. "The gifts of land to live in and law to live by were intrinsic to the
way God shaped Israel to be a 'model' people" (Wright 1995:148). There is
a paradigmatic relationship between Israel and the rest of humanity.
3. The basic problems that hindered human relationships in biblical
times continue to obstruct human relationships today: the abuse of power,
the ambition for material gain, the exploitation of the poor.
The Old Testament prophets appealed to Mosaic teachings to criticize
the oppressive structures of their times and looked forward to a new
world of justice and peace. In line with them, Jesus Christ proclaimed the
coming of the Kingdom of God, an era in which the Jubilee prescriptions
regarding the remission of debts, the liberation of slaves, and the redis-
tribution of capital would be fulfilled (cf. Yoder 1994:60-75). Today again a
return to the ancient teaching is urgently needed in order to witness to
God's purpose for economic relations and for human life in general.

I. Ecological Integrity and Liberation

(Leviticus 25:1-2)

If anything demonstrates that the present economic system, dominated

by the neoliberal ideology, is in need of drastic transformation, it is the
deepening of the serious economic problems of our day: environmental
contamination and poverty, aggravated by unemployment. These are
structural problems, and their solution demands a political decision based
on the recognition that human life does not depend on the possession of
many things.
Without this recognition, the economic plan adopted by many national
governments in today's world leads to an increase of poverty and of the
destruction of the environment. Evidently, the "science of economics" on
which this plan is based helps to corroborate the ideology of the powerful,
but does not take into consideration the statistics of social and ecological
devastation that this plan is producing.
What answer does biblical revelation have to offer to the cry of creation
and to the cry of the poor caused by this horrible devastation?
14 C. René Padilla

A God's Concern for the Earth (w. 1-7)

1. The God of Jubilee is the God who speaks "on Mount Sinai" (v. 1).
He is not the god of a religious sect; he is Yahweh, the Creator of heavens
and earth, the God of history who freed his people Israel from slavery in
Egypt (w. 38,42,55).
2. The first section of the chapter (w. 1-7) is concerned with the sabbati-
cal year, the year of rest, also mentioned in Exodus 23:10-11 and Deuteron-
omy 15:1-2. In the first place, God prescribes a periodic rest for the earth,
every seven years ("in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of com-
plete rest for the land," v. 3). This measure is an expression of God's care
for his creation. Rest for the land, however, is not an end in itself, nor is it
justifiable on the basis of economic considerations. According to the bibli-
cal text, the rest is for the Lord (NRSV) or to the Lord (NIV), as verses 2 and
4 point out. The honor that rightly belongs to the God of biblical revelation
is not limited to religious services; it is the honor that flows from the
recognition of his care for creation and is expressed in a lifestyle charac-
terized by true ecological responsibility, exemplified by allowing the land
to rest.
The land of Israel is a microcosm of Planet Earth. The promise of the
Covenant, which is at the very foundation of the history of redemption,
includes the earth. As Wright observes, "in purely statistical terms, land is
clearly the dominant note in the ancestral promise": of 46 references to the
promise from Genesis to Judges, only 7 do not mention the land, while 29
refer to it exclusively (1995:147). The conclusion is obvious: "The economic
sphere is thus legitimately included within the scope of a biblical under-
standing of redemption and its missional implications" (ibid).
3. The key term here is sabbath, "rest," which appears in verses 2, 4, 5
and 6. The earth, like human beings, needs rest. The sabbath is an ex-
pression of God's grace. Just as one day of every seven is dedicated to rest,
one year of every seven is a sabbatical year, and one year of every seven
cycles of seven years - every forty-nine years - is dedicated to the Jubilee.
The Jubilee, then, is a special sabbatical year.
During the year of rest all agricultural activity should stop (w. 4-7). The
fruit of the earth during that period, however, would be sufficient to meet
the needs of the people - all the people, without distinction of social class,
sex or race - and of the animals (v. 6). There is no place for hoarding by the
few elite. The produce of the fields must be shared equally among all.
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 15

4. At least two conclusions for economic life may be derived from the
sabbath laws:
In the first place, these laws emphasize the importance of caring for
natural resources, here represented by the earth. The ideology of unlimited
economic growth leaves no place for rest for either human beings or for
the creation. The only absolute norm is the maximization of production
because it is supposed that human happiness depends on material pros-
perity, on the quantity of material possessions. This is the root of the
ecological problem in modern society, in the light of which we must ask
ourselves in what way today the earth can be given the rest it needs. Crop
rotation, the refusal to use chemical pesticides, and the development of
organic agriculture may be initial steps in the contemporary practice of the
ecological responsibility indicated by the sabbatical rest of the earth.
In the second place, these laws invite us to elaborate an economic
system conceived of as "the caring administration of what has been entrusted to
us (the original meaning of the word economics), an economics of care, or an
economics of enough" (Goudzwaard and Lange 1995:42). This "economics of
enough" cannot but question the basic premises of the present economic
system, that is, that human life consists in the quantity of goods possessed,
and that work derives its meaning from its relationship to the gross na-
tional product and its monetary remuneration. The economics of enough
favors a simple lifestyle and includes rest because it gives priority to rela-
tionships with God, with one's neighbor, and with creation over against
material interests. It is "economics as if people mattered," in the words of
E. E Schumacher (1973); an economy that insists on the satisfaction of the
basic needs of all members of society, without exception, and that pre-
cludes the accumulation of material possessions in the hands of an elite.

B. God's Concern for the Poor (w. 8-12)

1. In the second part of our passage (w. 8-12) the emphasis is placed on
the year of Jubilee, the culmination of the seventh cycle of seven years, or
the period of forty-nine years. The number 7 is a sacred number, and 7
times 7 is even more sacred. Indeed, the Jubilee is a "holy" or "conse-
crated" year (w. 10,12). Scholars are not in agreement on the meaning of
the word "jubilee," or the origin of the year of Jubilee, or on the relation-
ship between the seventh sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee (cf. Hart-
ley 1992:434-436). What we want to point out here is the socioeconomic
significance of the year of Jubilee outlined in the legislation.
16 C. René Padilla

2. The initiation of the Jubilee is set for the tenth day of the seventh
month (Tishri), which is the Day of Atonement (v. 9), the most solemn day
of the Israelite calendar. There is thus a suggestion of the close relationship
between sin and inequality, and between liberation from sin and liberation
from economic slavery Among God's people it is impossible to experience
God's forgiveness, which is liberation from the guilt of sin, and at the same
time to consider oneself exonerated from the responsibility of liberating
those who are suffering socioeconomic oppression. The renewal of spiri-
tual life is inseparable from the renewal of creation itself, because human
beings are inseparable from creation.
3. At the outset of the Jubilee, the heralds' horns can be heard proclaim-
ing "liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants" (v. 10). The year of
Jubilee is mainly that: a "year of liberation" in which slaves regain their
freedom, debts are cancelled, and poor families recover their property and
their sense of family unity. It is a year of radical transformation of the
structures of oppression, a year of liberation and restoration. In the instruc-
tions for the sabbatical year in the first section of our passage, as we have
seen, God's concern for the earth is emphasized; in the instructions for the
year of Jubilee, in the second section, the emphasis falls on God's concern
for the poor. The entire passage demonstrates, then, that there is no place
for merely "environmental" ecology that focuses on problems of the natu-
ral environment but ignores human beings. There is a place only for holis-
tic ecology that takes into account every aspect of human life in its rela-
tionship with nature. Boff and Elizondo point out the relevance of this
perspective when they write: "Today, nature's most threatened creatures
are not whales or the giant pandas of China, but the poor of the world,
condemned to die of hunger and disease before their time" (Boff and
Elizondo 1995:xi).
4. At the very heart of the Jubilee is the divine demand for equality for
all. On the one hand, it is recognized that human life always has an econ-
omic and communitarian basis, and that this basis is the same for all
members of society, without class distinctions. This recognition is implicit
in the initial distribution of the land among the tribes of Israel, during the
period of conquest, according to the number and size of the clans and
families in each tribe (cf. Nb 26:52-56; Jos 13-19). On the other hand, the
unalienable character of the land assigned to each extended family is rec-
ognized, and measures are taken to correct the inequalities that have oc-
curred as a result of unpredictable factors, in order to return to the socio-
economic equality that God desires. As Hartley aptly affirms, "the goal of
Jubilee was to maintain the solidarity of the various clans in Israel by
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 17

keeping alive the ideal of the equality of all Israelite citizens under the
covenant" (Hartley 1992:443).
5. The year of Jubilee is the year of liberation. This liberation does not
grant an absolute right to private property; rather, it leads to the recuper-
ation of the family property that has been lost and that constitutes the
economic and communitarian basis for human life. The liberation during
the year of Jubilee gives every person the freedom to live like a human
being, according to God's purpose. It is not an act of generosity on the part
of the powerful, but rather a gift from God who expresses his own justice,
which is instituted in his law. Today more than ever God's people must
recover their mission as heralds who "proclaim liberty throughout the
land to all its inhabitants" (v. 10). Liberty in the capitalist world is essen-
tially the liberty of the "free market": the liberty of the "invisible hand"
that organizes the economy in agreement with the interests of the rich. In
contrast to this type of liberty instituted by the system of death, the God of
life who spoke on Mount Sinai calls us to be free and to proclaim liberty to
the captives because he is the God who has heard the cry of the poor.

IL Justice and Peace

(Leviticus 25:13-23)

From the perspective of the Old Testament, Israel is the covenant

people, the people that have experienced liberation from slavery in Egypt.
For this very reason, at the same time they are the people called by God to
become a paradigmatic nation in the practice of justice. As Rolf E Knierim
has pointed out, liberation is not an end in itself.
As the just rescue from, or removal of, injustice, liberation points
beyond itself toward the confirmation of justice in its practice by the
liberated. Without this continuation and goal, liberation by itself
would lose its validity. In this continuation, those involved in the
process of justice become grantors of liberation after being recipients
of liberation. Liberation is not only to be received, it is also to be
granted by the same people. Since it is an element of justice, and
since justice is indivisible, liberation cannot divide people into two
groups, one that receives it and another that grants it. It unites all in
both roles, or it is not just (1995:114).

Israel, the paradigmatic nation, was freed from slavery in Egypt in

order to love Yahweh above all else and to practice justice and enjoy the
fruit of justice, which is shalom, peace. The laws regarding the Jubilee, in
18 C. René Padilla

Leviticus 25, are oriented toward the structuring of Israel as the people
that embodies God's justice and peace.

A. A Demand for Fair Prices (w. 13-16)

1. According to the law given by the God who spoke on Mount Sinai,
during the year of Jubilee ancestral property returns to its original owners.
Liberation presupposes the recovery of the material and communitarian
basis of life. Nevertheless, it is taken for granted that in the interim be-
tween one sabbatical year and the next there will be more or less adverse
situations that force several families to sell their property (although in
reality, as we shall see, it is neither bought nor sold, but only transferred).
Thus the need arises for the measures legislated in these verses, to safe-
guard justice in the buying and selling of real estate. From the beginning
honesty in business is called for: "When you make a sale to your neighbor
or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another" (v. 14). Behind
this exhortation lies a premise whose validity in the world of business,
even today, need not be proven: the one who owns less has less power to
negotiate, and consequently is subject to the demands of the one who has
more. The exhortation is repeated in verse 17, and verses 15 and 16 state a
criterion for fixing a fair price: the price of the land should be fixed in
proportion to the number of harvests expected before the next sabbatical
year. From the perspective of this biblical passage, justice in setting the
price expresses God's will for economic relations. Clearly, the intention of
the law is to protect the poor from possible exploitation by the rich. To this
end, the appeal is made, not to the generosity of the powerful, but to justice,
that is, to the rights of the weak to receive that which is due to them.
2. According to the laws of Jubilee, the land is not an item of commerce,
nor a means of personal profit or financial speculation. In reality, what is
sold in case of dire need is the product of the land (the harvest), not the
land itself (the means of production) (v. 16). According to God's law, in
Israel there is no possibility that a clan lose forever the basis of its susten-
ance due to debts or to the law of "might makes right." In fact, this is one
of the main objectives of all the Israelite economic legislation, according to
which not even a powerful leader can compel anyone to sell a parcel of
land. This is illustrated clearly in the case of Naboth, who refuses to sell his
land to King Ahab (1 Κ 21:1-16). The king's violation of this principle,
according to Wright, is evidence of the influence of a pagan cosmovision
and the increase of injustice in rural areas (1995:149). All of this legislation,
including that regarding the Jubilee, is intended to avoid the exploitation
of the poor and the consequent growth of a class of rural landless peasants,
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 19

as well as the unlimited accumulation of wealth by the rich (cf. Is 5:8; Ezk
46:18).
3. No one with even a minimal knowledge of the dynamics at work in
fixing prices in the market economy today would question the urgent
need for a revolution of values in this area, based on jubilee standards. One
need not be a marxist to recognize the role played by unfair prices in the
tragic drama of inequality between rich and poor on the local, national
and international scene. In the case of Latin America, the market economy
is built on the foundation provided by the socioeconomic structures in-
herited from colonial times, placed at the service of the powerful. As many
have recognized, the independence of the Latin American countries from
Spain and Portugal during the last century produced political changes but
left untouched the system of exploitation of the poor. At the root of this
exploitation is the position of absolute disadvantage from which the poor
must negotiate the price of their labor or of the products of their work. The
same exploitation is projected onto the international level in the relation-
ship between the "core countries" and the "countries on the periphery" In
the words of an analyst from the United States,
the gross unevenness of capital distribution in the modern world
between core and periphery is in large part the result of the laborers
in the periphery having long been in a weak bargaining position
with respect to the capitalists in the core (though in principle there
might, of course, have been other causes for the disparity)... Behind
the concentration of capital in Europe and the United States is the
use of much gunpowder, elaborate torture, and many prisons (Wol-
terstorff 1983:32).
Who can doubt that what is needed is a transformation of the economic
system so that ethics be given the place it deserves in the setting of prices?

B. The Promise of Shalom (w. 17-22)

1. From the perspective of the Jubilee, the basis of justice is the "fear of
God": "You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I
am the Lord your God" (v. 17). Economic ethics is inseparable from the
relationship with God. The person who harms his or her weaker neighbor
demonstrates that he or she does not fear God, since God, who loves
justice, takes the side of the poor. His name, Yahweh, is related to his action
in history in favor of an oppressed people in Egypt. The fear of God
impels a person to give greater importance to interpersonal relationships
than to personal profit. For the person who believes in God, relationships
20 C. René Padilla

in the socioeconomic world have a theological basis, since the one who is
most concerned that justice be practiced is God himself.
It is against his will that there be a society in which some are poor;
in his perfected Kingdom there will be none at all. It is even more
against his will that there be a society in which some are poor while
others are rich. When that happens, then he is on the side of the poor,
for it is they, he says, who are being wronged (Wolterstorff 1983:76).
2. According to our text, security depends on obedience to God's com-
mandments: "You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordin-
ances, so that you may live on the land securely" (v. 18). The same promise
is repeated in verse 19. This promise becomes more significant in light of
the possibility that marauding enemy bands destroy the crops and lay
waste their fields, as happened in Gideon's time (cf. Jg 6:1-6) (Hartley
1992:437). The truth, however, is that injustice always breeds violence, and
violence in turn produces insecurity. It is not surprising that, by way of
contrast, the promise of protection is given on the condition of obedience
to God's law, which includes the practice of justice.
Without security there is no possibility for peace. From the biblical
perspective, however, peace (shalom) is much more than the absence of
hostility or conflict. Peace is harmony with God, with one's neighbor and
with nature, and includes full enjoyment of relationships and of the prodi-
gality of the land in accordance with God's design. This is the peace to
which the promise that accompanies the promise of security points: "The
land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely"
(v. 19). On the condition that justice be practiced out of obedience to God
and respect for the neighbor's rights, God promises his "blessing" in terms
of an abundant harvest the year preceding the sabbatical year (w. 21-22).
In this way he answers the understandable concern expressed in verse 20:
"What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our
crop?" Here, as in Isaiah 32:17, the truth that peace is the result of justice is
confirmed. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the way to assure the
satisfaction of physical needs is not the accumulation of material goods by
means of the exploitation of the poor, but confidence in the God of
providence who loves justice and cares for his children.
3. Latin America is a continent that frequently boasts of being a Chris-
tian continent. At the same time, it is characterized by a disturbing and
growing disparity between the rich and the poor, which has resulted from
institutionalized injustice and is exacerbated by the present economic sys-
tem. As a consequence, in the majority of the large Latin American cities
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 21

today opulent residential areas are being constructed, where the wealthiest
find refuge behind high walls or bars, protected by permanent police
vigilance, living in fear of a possible armed attack. Evidently, in these areas
there is an abundance of consumer goods, but also an abundance of inse-
curity. Peace is much more than security, but where there is no security
there can be no peace. High walls and police guards can never provide the
security that is possible only where there is the peace that is the result of
justice.

G The Basis of the Jubilee (v. 23)

1. To speak of the Jubilee is to speak of the fact that all members of the
community of Israel have equal access to the fruit of the land. The last
verse of the passage under consideration (v. 23) defines the concept of
property that makes this perspective possible: "The land shall not be sold
in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants."
The affirmation of God's indisputable right over the land is one of the
essential elements of the faith of Israel. The restriction imposed on civil
property laws by this concept is quite clear and stands in marked contrast
to prevalent concepts in the Middle East and even in the Roman empire,
where ownership of property was an absolute civil right. Its purpose,
however, is not to rrünimize human dignity but rather to protect the weak
from exploitation by the powerful. If God is the only "absolute owner" of
the earth, the only one who holds the title deed (cf. Ps 24:1; 89:11; 95:4f; Jr
27:4ff), those who cultivate the earth have no right to appropriate it perma-
nently. They are only "pilgrims" who are passing through the land as the
aliens who temporarily live among the Israelites in Canaan. The land
cannot be sold "in perpetuity," and the original users should have the
possibility of recovering it and of exercising their stewardship over it.
2. The logical conclusion to this concept of property is stewardship.
Such a conclusion stands in sharp contrast to the market economy, the
economy that regards private property as an inalienable right and takes
for granted that the owner of material goods has absolute freedom to buy
and consume for his own benefit, with no other criterion than that dictated
by his own financial interests. What a need there is here for the teaching of
the ethical values of the Jubilee and their practice in the life and mission of
the Church today!
22 C. René Padilla

III. Stewardship and Solidarity with the Poor

(Leviticus 25:23-55)

At the very heart of the Jubilee lies the firm conviction of the equality
of all people before God, equality that can never be reduced to an abstract
ideal, but rather is realized in the concrete possibility that all people have
their basic needs met. As Christopher Wright has pointed out,
There can be all kinds of "neutral" reasons why some people
become wealthier and others poorer. These may include harsh cli-
matic conditions in one place; differences of soil fertility; insect at-
tack or blight; lack of children; illness; effects of war in border re-
gions, etc. The point is, poverty is not necessarily the result of injus-
tice and oppression by the rich, even though that is the major reason
highlighted by the prophets. The economic laws of Israel, however,
were concerned to redress impoverishment, regardless of its causes.
The OT law seeks to redress the economic balance by structural
measures aimed at the control of debt especially ... and other tactics
to relieve poverty and to restore the poor to dignified participation
in the community - gleaning rights (Lv 19:9f; Dt 24:19-22), storage
and distribution of the triennial tithe (Dt 14:22-27, 26:12ff), the sab-
batical year (Ex 23:11; Lv 25:6; Dt 15:1-3), jubilee year (Lv 25:8ff), etc.
All of this was part of the structures of Israel's economic system, to
encourage justice and compassion in the ordinary vicissitudes of a
functioning economy (Wright 1955:149-150).

What we are considering here is one of the resources available to pre-

vent the rise of a social class that lacks the material foundation necessary
to sustain life: the Jubilee. This was a resource designed so that all mem-
bers of the community could take advantage of an economic fresh start,
completely free of debt and with the opportunity to cover their economic
needs without depending on others. It was, in a way, a sort of institution-
alized exodus in which, in obedience to God, the experience of liberation
from slavery was renewed and a new day of justice and peace dawned.

In this third section of Leviticus 25, three groups of laws are found: 1.
laws concerning the sale and redemption of properties (w. 25-34); 2. laws
concerning interest on loans to poor Israelites (w. 35-38); 3. laws concern-
ing slavery due to unpayable debts (w. 39-55). Each group of laws begins
with the expression "if anyone of your kin falls into difficulty ...," "if any
who are dependent on you ..." (NRSV) or "if one of your countrymen
becomes poor ..." (NIV, w . 25, 35, 39). This emphasizes the state of emer-
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 23

gency that characterizes the lack of means to provide for basic needs, a
state of need so serious that the poor are forced to sell their lands or even
sell themselves.

A. Laws Concerning the Sale and Redemption of Properties (w. 23-34)

1. Verse 23 defines the basic premise undergirding the laws of Jubilee

regarding the possession of the land: "The land shall not be sold in perpe-
tuity, for the land is mine." If God alone holds the property rights over the
earth, it may not "be sold in perpetuity" or "permanently" (NTV); it may
be sold only temporarily, and there always exists the possibility that the
original owners recover it. As has already been pointed out, implicit in this
resolution is the concept of stewardship, although perhaps Wright is right
in suggesting that it is "preferable, and more biblical, to speak of 'servant-
hood'" rather than of "stewardship" (1995:145), since "we humans have
been given dominion over the rest of creation, but it is to be exercised by
serving creation on God's behalf" (146). In any case, it may be inferred
from this text that the right to own property is neither a divine right nor an
absolute right. The possession of the land responds to criteria that tran-
scend human will because they have to do with the very structure of
reality, with factors on which human life depends, as in the case of basic
sustenance. As Knierim states, "Whatever determines all living creatures,
i.e., their need for food to live, is fundamental to their right to and ste-
wardship of the earth" (1995:234). Justice demands that all people should
have access to the resources earth provides to cover their basic needs.
Consequently, every economic system can be evaluated on the basis of the
priority it gives to the intimate relationship between physical life and the
need for food.
2. If "the land shall not be sold in perpetuity," the sale made in case of
necessity is only temporary; sooner or later the property will have to
return to its original owners. This law is absolute: "You shall provide for
the redemption of the land" (v. 24). Verses 25 to 34 define the stipulations
as to how to "redeem" a family property in the country (w. 25-28) or in the
city (w. 29-34). It is stated how the recuperation should be undertaken: a.
with the help provided by a relative (v. 25); b. by means of the original
owner's personal savings (w. 26-27); c. finally, with the arrival of the year
of Jubilee (v. 28), in which Yahweh himself serves as relative of the needy
person. On the other hand, it is pointed out that the right to redemption
does not apply to houses in a walled city, but it does apply to dwellings in
an unwalled city (w. 29-31). Hartley suggests that this exception made for
houses in walled cities is probably due to the fact that in these cities there
24 C. René Padilla

was a high percentage of Canaanites, and that, furthermore, the owners of

a house in the walled city did not depend on their property for their
livelihood, in contrast with the country people who lived off the land
(1992:444). It is stated, however, that the properties of the Lévites maintain
the right of redemption, since the houses in the cities of the Lévites and the
fields surrounding them are a heritage from God and are the property of
Aaron's descendants forever (w. 32-34; cf. Num 35:1-8). These laws con-
cerning the redemption of the land are intended to safeguard the right of
every member of the community of Israel, without exception, to provide
for his or her basic needs. From this perspective there is no place for the
concentration of wealth in the hands of a few: the earth - the principal
means of production in a rural society - belongs to God and he lends it to
fulfill social ends, for the benefit of all.
3. In sharp contrast to the stipulations of the Jubilee in regard to the
right of sale and redemption of property, the economic system predomi-
nant today attributes absolute value to private property and the values of
the market system. Through privatization and deregulation, it encourages
the accumulation of material possessions in a few hands and condemns
millions of people to the miserable life of "the redundant population"
(Hinkelammert 1995:137). As a result, the distance between rich and poor
is growing unrestrainably According to figures provided by the United
Nations Development Program in 1992, the richest 20% of the world's
population has an income 60 times greater than that of the poorest 20%,
and this difference is double what it was in 1960. Is not this pauperization
of hundreds of millions of people who are today living in absolute poverty
a real genocide? The ideology that is causing this genocide has the same
root as did the ideology which caused the unforgettable Holocaust. Nazi
ideology exalted the superiority of the Arian race, while neoliberal ideo-
logy exalts technocracy as the superior social class, but the two coincide in
their rejection of the right to life as a right of all human beings without
distinction. In the light of this situation, an essential aspect of the Christian
mission in this world dominated by injustice is the struggle for the appli-
cation of Jubilee in terms of recognition of the centrality of basic human
needs and of the relevance of servanthood in all economic relationships.

B. Laws Concerning Interest on Loans to Poor Israelites (w. 35-38)

1. Verses 35-38 emphasize the obligations of the Israelites toward per-

sons who, impelled by necessity, are obliged to ask for aid. There is no
doubt about what they should do, nor about what they should not do. The
first obligation, it seems, is to provide hospitality to the needy person:
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 25

"... you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident
aliens" (v. 35, NSRV); "... help him as you would an alien or a temporary
resident, so he can continue to live among you" (NIV). To this is added a
second obligation: lending money without interest (w. 36-37). It may be
argued, as does Hartley, that "the formulation of these laws against mak-
ing loans at interest does not address the issue of loaning money at interest
for a commercial enterprise" (1992:440). This question cannot be resolved
exegetically, but what is clear is that the poor are exonerated from the
payment of interest on a loan. To charge interest to people who cannot
satisfy their basic needs is to exploit their poverty (cf. Ex 22:25; Dt 23:19-20;
24:6.10). Such injustice makes it impossible for the poor to recover from
their difficulties by means of their own effort or work. "The field of the
poor may yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice" (Pr
13:23).
2. In summary, these Jubilee laws demand true solidarity with the poor.
It should be taken into account, however, that this call to solidarity is
coherent with a theological approach to life. Verse 38 emphasizes this: "I
am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give
you the land of Canaan, to be your God." God's identification of himself
here (see also v. 55) recalls God's manifestation to Moses from the burning
bush on Mount Horeb and, consequently, is related to God's purpose of
liberating his people from oppression by the Egyptians (cf. Ex 3:1-10). The
God who relates to his people by means of the covenant is the God of
liberation, the God who hears the cry of the oppressed, the God who loves
justice. Recognition of the true God includes, therefore, the practice of
economic justice. Just as God showed mercy to his people when they were
subject to slavery, the Israelites are under obligation to show compassion
to a neighbor in need. One way, among others, in which the fear of God,
which is the beginning of wisdom, takes shape and shows itself is in the
practice of justice (w. 17,36,43).
3. Injustice today has become a global problem. Through the transna-
tionalization of capital and through deregulation measures, Mammon
reigns not only over economics but also over practically every aspect of
life. As Ulrich Duchrow has pointed out, "With the transnational finance
markets as the agents of the owners of money assets, the capitalist market
economy has made significant progress towards its goal of running world
society as an appendage to self-regulating markets" (1995:71). This situ-
ation is compounded by the "debt crisis" in many countries in the South
and in Eastern Europe. The foreign or external debt has become an eternal
debt! That such is the case is demonstrated by the unrestrainable growth
26 C. René Padilla

of the foreign debt despite the fact that every year the indebted countries
transfer approximately 50 billion dollars of net capital to their creditor
countries or banks. Since the laws of this market dictatorship demand the
payment of these unpayable debts, the indebted countries go into further
debt and are forced to accept horrible Structural Adjustment Programs
designed for the benefit of the creditors at the expense of greater impover-
ishment of the poor. The payment of interest on the foreign debt is the
tribute that the poor countries are obliged to pay to the rich, even though
in order to pay it they have to continue to postpone the attention to the
most urgent needs of their people, such as food, health care, clothing, and
housing. Can anyone doubt the importance that God's call not to charge
interest to the poor has in this context? How can the God of justice be
honored in this world dominated by Mammon? These are questions de-
manding an answer on the part of those who believe in the God who loves
justice. "Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the
rich, will lead only to loss" (Pr 22:26).

C. Laws Concerning Slavery Due to Unpayable Debts (w. 39-55)

1. The last section of Leviticus 25 (w. 39-55) defines the laws pertaining
to the slavery that has resulted from the inability to repay debts. Among
the people of God, life-long slavery of Israelites was unacceptable; there
was only the possibility that they put themselves at the service of the
master "as hired or bound laborers" until the year of Jubilee, when they
were free to return to their own ancestral property (w. 39-41). The theo-
logical foundation of this prescription is clear: "they are my servants,
whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves
are sold" (42). The Exodus - which is mentioned three times in this chapter
(w. 38, 42,55) and two in the next (26:13,45) - is liberation, and liberation
is projected in the practice of justice. Clearly, one aspect of this exercise of
justice is fair treatment of employees and workers. This is so important
that several times the warning against the use of "harshness" (w. 43, 46,
53, NRSV; "ruthlessly," NIV) is repeated. This warning would seem to
bring to memory the abuses suffered by the people of Israel during the last
years of their slavery in Egypt, according to Exodus 1.13-14: "The Egyp-
tians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their
lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field
labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them." The
term used in both Leviticus and Exodus, in both cases related to slavery,
describes "the toil that breaks the body and grinds down the spirit" (Hart-
ley 1992:441). Work is both a right and a responsibility. But, as this passage
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 27

demonstrates, in the Old Testament humane treatment of workers is al-

ways kept in mind (cf. Jb 31:14; Jr 22:13; Is 58:3-14).
2. According to the laws of Jubilee, Israelites were entitled to have
foreign slaves (w. 44-46). As Hartley states, "whereas this legislation frees
the citizens of Israel from any fear of indigenous slavery, it also shows that
the path to travel before the institution of slavery is universally con-
demned will be very long" (1992:441). Centuries later, the coming of Jesus
Christ would inaugurate the period of Jubilee in which there will no
longer be slaves and freemen, because in Christ all will be considered
members of God's people. In the meantime, according to the laws of
Jubilee found in Leviticus 25, if an Israelite sells himself to a rich foreigner,
he should be redeemed by a relative (w. 47-53); if not, he will go free when
the year of Jubilee arrives (v. 54). The book of Ruth is a witness to the
importance of the law of redemption by a close relative ("next-of-kin,"
NRSV) toward the end of the period of the judges (cf. 2:20; 3:9.12.13;
4:1-12.14). The word "redemption" or "ransom" in these verses is the same
word that is used to describe the liberation of the people of Israel from
slavery in Egypt. The God of Israel has redeemed Israel from slavery in
Egypt. Consequently, both the one who buys and the one who is sold
belong to God, and there is no possibility that an Israelite have any other
permanent owner (w. 39, 42). These laws are designed to safeguard the
peasants' freedom in a situation in which they frequently had to sell them-
selves as slaves due to their inability to pay their debts. The Jubilee pro-
longs in history that great original liberation that was the Exodus, and
visibly expresses the truth that the children of Israel have only one abso-
lute owner, Yahweh, the God who freed them from slavery in Egypt (v. 55).
3. In the modern world, for those who have debts there is no way to
escape from slavery. Indeed, as Franz J. Hinkelammert states, the debt of
the Third World has become "the decisive tool with which to dictate econ-
omic and development policy to the countries that are in debt" (1995:138).
This policy is forcing them to postpone caring for the needs of their own
people in order to pay interest on the debt to the rich countries. One of the
results of this situation is unemployment, which is affecting a high per-
centage of the population and so distorting things that even "to be ex-
ploited becomes a privilege" (136). The solution to the problems created by
the free market ideology, unemployment among them, is not in "deepen-
ing the process" (doing more of the same) until the total market is reached,
as defenders of the system are suggesting. The solution lies in the affirma-
tion of Jubilee values such as justice and equality, the stewardship of cre-
ation and solidarity with the poor. As long as in economic relationships the
28 C. René Padilla

primary criterion is an increase in profit for the wealthy, instead of the

criterion of the satisfaction of basic needs for all, socially oriented objec-
tives - for example, a more egalitarian distribution of income or services -
will continue to be excluded from the economic program because they are
considered anti-economical. The same thing will happen to ecologically
oriented objectives. There can be no shalom without Jubilee.

IV Conclusion

1. As we have seen, the ecological unbalance and the socioeconomic

unbalance that affect today's world are the two sides of the same coin. The
neoliberal economic system does not offer the solution to either one. As
Goudzwaard and Lange have aptly said, "neoclassical economics was not
designed to help solve these problems. It seeks to understand and support
only that which relates to the streams of production, consumption, income,
and money in a market economy" (1995:59). The God who hears the cry of
the creation and the cry of the poor demands a restructuring of ecological
and socioeconomic life based on his plan for peace and justice.
2. Neoliberalism subordinates the common good to the economic inter-
ests of a powerful elite for whom the meaning of life is defined in terms of
material possessions. It presupposes, with no basis, that modern society
will be able to achieve "the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people" by means of individual effort to satisfy private economic interests.
In this way, far from providing the solution to the tremendous current
economic problems, it increases them. In this context of suffering and
death, there comes an urgent call to share in God's mission, the mission of
justice and Kingdom peace that has come through Jesus Christ.
3. In spite of the visible adverse results of the present economic system,
one prophet of the neoliberal ideology - the ideology of the empire - has
announced the end of history. According to Francis Fukuyama, with the
collapse of socialism in Central and Eastern Europe the ideological war
has finished: the free market has been validated as the universal norm for
economic life; humanity has discovered the economic model that defines
the meaning of history. As in a process of natural selection, capitalism has
survived as the only possible economic system, the only one that can attain
world dominion.
4. This position which legitimates the capitalist system is completely at
odds with faith in the God of Jubilee. The most common attitude among
Christians, however, seems to be one of compliance with the ideology of
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 29

the empire. The claim is made that, whether we like it or not, this is the only
economic system that exists in reality; consequently, to speak of another alter-
native for the poor countries is to fall into a Utopian trap. According to this
position, realism compels us to accept things as they are, not as we would like
them to be. Our task, therefore, is not to try to change things through
sociopolitical action, but to adjust ourselves to them, to make an effort to
secure individual freedom, and to search for sensible means to correct the
injustices resulting from the exercise of this freedom.
The basic problem with this position is that it views the future as an
incontestable prolongation of the present and gives up the very possibility
of hope. If capitalism is not only the only economic system that exists but
also the only conceivable alternative, humanity will forever be irreme-
diably held captive under the tyranny of Mammon, in a world marked by
exploitation and injustice.
5. In the face of this distressing panorama, the Jubilee manifest invites
us to rediscover what Walter Brueggemann has called "the prophetic im-
agination," the imagination that provides the courage to conceive new
possibilities for the future on the basis of our confidence in the God of life.
The neoliberal ideology is a modern version of the royal consciousness of
the Old Testament, based on power and fascinated with wisdom as the
capacity to rationalize reality to serve the interests of the powerful. In
order to face it we need to reaffirm the prophetic stance that takes as its
starting point the fact that the God who speaks from Mount Sinai is the
God who loves justice and that commitment to his justice is an essential
element of the vision of reality which is derived from God's covenant with
his people.
A critical position regarding the absolutist consciousness manifested in
the neoliberal economic system does not need to look for help from the
marxist ideology in order to articulate a desirable alternative. The Scrip-
tures suffice for us to imagine the world of justice, peace, and the integrity
of creation that God intends to make a reality. Unfortunately Duchrow is
right in stating that the biblical approaches to economic problems have not
been significantly used (1995:16). This abandonment of the prophetic im-
agination has left us unarmed before the ideology of the political and
economic system designed by inspiration of Mammon. As Brueggemann
puts it:
We also are children of the royal consciousness. All of us, in one way
or another, have deep commitments to it. So the first question is,
how can we have enough freedom to imagine and articulate a real
30 C. René Padilla

historical newness in our situation? That is not to ask, as Israel's

prophets ever asked, if this freedom is realistic or politically practical
or economically viable. To begin with such questions is to concede
everything to the royal consciousness even before we begin. We
need to ask not whether it is realistic or practical or viable but
whether it is imaginable. We need to ask if our consciousness or
imagination have been so assaulted and coopted by the royal con-
sciousness that we have been robbed of the courage or power to
think an alternative thought.

The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for
questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision
can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementa-
tion ... It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of
imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing alternative futures
to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one
(1978:4Φ45).

The task of articulating the vision of "a real historical newness" that
would reflect our commitment to the God of Jubilee is an urgent missio-
logical task today To be sure, that will not by itself stop the cry of the poor
nor the cry of creation. We can hope and pray, however, that the Spirit of
God use our prophetic imagination to liberate us from the worship of
Mammon, to give sense to our proclamation of good news to the poor, and
to provide direction for our action.

Bibliography
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Brueggemann, Walter
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de Vaux, Roland
1976 Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions. London: Darton, Longman &
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Duchrow, Ulrich
1995 Alternatives to Global Capitalism Drawn From Biblical History, Designed
for Political Action. Hamburg: Kairos Europe.
The Relevance of the Jubilee in Today's World 31

Goudzwaard, Bob, and Harry de Lange

1993 Beyond Poverty and Affluence: Toward an Economy of Care. Grand
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1995 "Changes in the Relationships Between Third World Countries and
First World Countries," Mission Studies 24:131-144.
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MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
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1974 Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. London:
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1983 Until Justice and Peace Embrace. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
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1995a Walking in the Ways of the Lord: The Ethical Authority of the Old
Testament. Leicester: Apollo.
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YoderJohnH.
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 ^ s
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