From: Leviticus 25:1, 8-17
[1] The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
Rules About the Jubilee Year
[13] “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. [14] And if
you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one
another. [15] According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy
from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell
to you. [16] If the years are many you shall increase the price, and if the years
are few you shall diminish the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is
selling to you. [17] You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your
God; for I am the LORD your God.”
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Commentary:
25:1-7. Here we can see concern for the conservation of land, trying to ensure
that short-term productivity is not obtained at the cost of deterioration in the long
term. It is always made clear that the earth is a gift from God: therefore, God’s
sovereignty over the land has to be periodically acknowledged. This is the pri-
mary reason for these rules about allowing the land to lie fallow.
Exodus 23:10-11 also talks about the sabbatical year, but here there is reference
to additional reasons for it, to do with the welfare of the under-privileged. These
rules did not all have to be put into effect at the same time, because that might
have created a huge problem of generalized idleness. In the book of Maccabees,
for example, there are references to difficulties that arose at that time due to one
sabbatical year (cf. 1 Mac 6:49).
25:8-22. Here again the number seven, by being applied to the calendar, creates
a special situation. Now we have seven weeks of years, that is a run of forty-nine
years; and this leads to the following year, the fiftieth, being a jubilee year. The
rules about letting the land lie fallow are applied to the jubilee year; special clau-
ses are added, such as that to do with the redemption of property. So, in the ju-
bilee year, land acquired had to be returned to its original owner. This custom
meant that what in fact was sold was the usufruct of the land and its price would
be a function of the number of years’ use the buyer was getting.
Again, underlying this is the idea that the land is a divine gift which ought always
to revert to those to whom the Lord originally granted it. Even so, these regula-
tions were not obeyed very well. Thus, we find the prophets vigorously denoun-
cing the way some people built up land holdings to the detriment of others. The
basic reason for their complaint was not just a fine sense of social justice but
the fact that God’s rules were being violated (cf. Is 5:8; Mic 2:2).
Verses 14-15 here are [as in the Spanish edition, which is also in line with most
modern vernacular translations] divided differently from the Nev Vulgate division.
Verses 18-22 round off the previous passage and introduce what follows. They
remind people about the promises God makes to those who are faithful to his
commandments, and they are meant to encourage those who might be tempted
to think that God will not look after them if they have to face three years without
harvest (the sabbatical year, the jubilee year and the year after it, at the end of
which a harvest would be reaped). A provident God will ensure that those who
stay true to him will experience no want.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 14:1-12
The Death of John the Baptist
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Commentary:
1. Herod the tetrarch, Herod Antipas (see the note on Mt 2:1), is the same He-
rod as appears later in the account of the Passion (cf. Lk 23:7ff). A son of Herod
the Great, Antipas governed Galilee and Perea in the name of the Roman empe-
ror; according to Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian (”Jewish Antiquities”,
XVIII, 5, 4), he was married to a daughter of an Arabian king, but in spite of this
he lived in concubinage with Herodias, his brother’s wife. St. John the Baptist,
and Jesus himself, often criticized the tetrarch’s immoral life, which was in con-
flict with the sexual morality laid down in the Law (Lev 18:16;20:21) and was a
cause of scandal.
3-12. Towards the end of the first century Flavius Josephus wrote of these same
events. He gives additional information—specifying that it was in the fortress of
Makeronte that John was imprisoned (this fortress was on the eastern bank of
the Dead Sea, and was the scene of the banquet in question) and that Herodias’
daughter was called Salome.
9. St Augustine comments: “Amid the excesses and sensuality of the guests,
oaths are rashly made, which then are unjustly kept” (”Sermon 10”).
It is a sin against the second commandment of God’s Law to make an oath to do
something unjust; any such oath has no binding force. In fact, if one keeps it—as
Herod did—one commits an additional sin. The Catechism also teaches that one
offends against this precept if one swears something untrue, or swears needless-
ly (cf. “St Pius V Catechism”, III, 3, 24). Cf. note on Mt 5:33-37.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.