The BANG Blog

Leviticus 25:8–12 describes a system of timekeeping that, in my judgment, has been misunderstood or misapplied for millennia. “Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.” “Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month…” “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year…” “A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you…” “For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you…” From these verses, two major methods have long been derived for calculating the Jubilee cycles: the 49-year method and the 50-year method. Both are built from Leviticus 25:8–12, yet both have been treated as though they are separate and complete solutions for identifying the year of Jubilee, the number of weeks, and the full chronological position of a given year within the Jubilee structure. I describe that full position as the Jubilee Date. For example: “Th...