Abstract:
In this article the author engages with his own work on the Jubilee published
in 2003. The focus is especially on Lev 25 and 26. In 2003 the
author argued that Lev 25 was a text associated with the elite about to
return from exile and who wanted their land back. This argument was
supported by referring to the “myth of the empty land” in Lev 26, which
views the land as lying empty during exile and waiting for the exiles to
repopulate it again. On historical–critical grounds the first part of his
argument about ch. 25 is rejected. The second part of the argument about
the “myth of the empty land” is supported by current historical–critical
debates about the portrayal of land in the Priestly text and the Holiness
Code.