Returning to an empty land : revisiting my old argument about the Jubilee

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.