Commentaria in Leviticum
When the fiftieth year after was at hand, Clement VI ordained that the jubilee be celebrated every fiftieth year (because the life of man could scarcely reach that jubilee at the hundredth year), which was the true jubilee. This he ordained in the year of Christ 1345, Volaterranus testifies, book 22. Such a jubilee was first, therefore, in the year of Christ 1350, in which year there was so great a multitude of men at Rome, as Petrarch, an eyewitness, testifies, that it was no wonder that thence arose a pestilence so grievous in all Italy that of a thousand scarcely ten survived, as Crantzius testifies, book 9 Metrop. chap. 42. Again under Nicholas V, in the jubilee of the year of Christ 1450, there was so great a throng of men at Rome that many perished in it suffocated, Platina and Sabellicus testify, book 5 Enn. chap. 10.
Finally Sixtus IV reduced the jubilee to every twentieth year, and first celebrated it in the year of Christ 1475; this he did that every age might become partaker of that gift. Moreover in the jubilee the Pontiff opens the golden door, as they call it, to which an immense multitude flocks, to obtain the remission of sins. The prayers, alms, penances and other exercises of piety which are performed in that year, both at Rome and elsewhere, are beyond telling. And in these the Roman Prelates and nobles lead the rest.
10. EVERY MAN SHALL RETURN TO HIS POSSESSION,—namely to field, house and like immovable goods; for of these only is the speech. For these, though sold a thousand times, returned in the time of the jubilee to the first owner of themselves, without any price. Hence it came about that the nearer the fiftieth year was, the cheaper immovable things were sold. The sale of these goods among the Jews was therefore not absolute, but only to a certain time, so that this sale seemed to be rather a letting of the thing for fifty years than an absolute sale, though in truth it transferred the dominion of the thing to the buyer. Understand this of goods situated in Judaea itself. For if the Jews bought fields outside it, even from their fellow Jews, these fell to them for ever, and did not return in the jubilee to the first heir. So Oleaster. Hence it follows that in Judaea no one was rich in immovable goods, unless he was born rich, or unless they devolved upon him by hereditary right, the other heirs being dead. In movables, therefore, only could the Jews grow rich.
God ordained this return of goods to the first owner in the jubilee, first, to this end, that the tribes of Israel might not be confounded, but by inheritances and hereditary successions, in the lands and possessions assigned to each tribe, it might be known to which tribe each belonged; and that on account of the Messiah, that it might be certain to the Jews, according to the prophecy of Jacob, Gen. 49:10, that Christ was born of the tribe of Juda. So Abulensis.
Secondly, that honourable and noble families might remain in their honourable estate, lest a prodigal might squander the ancestral estates and goods, and so overthrow the family. For this evil provision was made by this return of goods in the jubilee.
Thirdly, that they might put a limit to avarice and covetousness, lest some miser, buying up all goods, should grow immensely rich.
Fourthly, that a certain equality might be kept among the Jews, lest some become exceedingly rich, others exceedingly poor, and so room be given to envy, pride and murmuring; but that each, content with his own lot, equally divided by Josue among all, might lead a social and friendly life.
Fifthly, that the Jews might know that they had of their land not so much dominion as use, and that God had reserved to himself the dominion of it, of which ver. 23. Finally, for this reason the Jews, ever since their exile, do not observe the jubilee, because the distinction of possessions and tribes among them is now taken away, nor have they themselves possessions, on account of whose return the jubilee was chiefly instituted.
AND EVERY ONE SHALL GO BACK TO HIS ANCIENT FAMILY.—For by the fact that he returns to his former possession, as has been said, he returns also to his family, because to single families possessions had been distributed and assigned by Josue in the promised land.
11 and 12. YOU SHALL NOT SOW, BECAUSE OF THE SANCTIFICATION (holiness) OF THE JUBILEE (that you may keep this year too with religious rest), BUT AS THEY ARE OFFERED (so to be read with the Roman, not “taken away,” that is, the fruits of the field growing of themselves and at hand, in the year of the jubilee) YOU SHALL EAT,—by plucking only, not by reaping or gathering them in for yourself alone. The Hebrews give this reason for this law, that the rich might lift up their eyes to heaven, and think of the necessities of the poor, that when they themselves in the seventh year complain: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink? they may remember that the poor are always in that anxiety and care, who never sow or reap, and may thus learn to have compassion on them and to help them.
lest you buy contrary to the law here prescribed by me, or wish to keep beyond the jubilee, in perpetuity, what you have bought from him; or wish to sell a thing for more, or buy for less than the thing is worth, that is, the use and fruit of the thing up to the jubilee. For this is what follows: “But according to the number of years of the jubilee thou shalt buy of him, and according to the account of the fruits he shall sell to thee,” so that, namely, if few years remain to the jubilee, the thing be sold for less; if more, for more: for a thing ought to be sold according to the reckoning of its fruits and produce; if therefore the buyer is to receive the fruits of few years, let him buy the thing for less; if of more, for more. For this is what follows: “It is the time of the fruits that he shall sell to thee.”
20–21. IN THE SEVENTH YEAR? etc., I WILL GIVE MY BLESSING TO YOU THE SIXTH YEAR, AND IT SHALL YIELD THE FRUITS OF THREE YEARS.—Hence it is plain that the fertility of the holy land was in part not natural but divine, and a gift of God. For God here promises the Jews, if they keep the law, especially concerning the rest to be kept in the seventh or sabbatical year, that he will give them in the sixth year fruits for three years, namely for the sixth year, and the seventh or sabbatical, and the eighth, in which they would again sow.
Let Christians hear this, and learn not to seek their gains by violating feasts through labours, sales, etc. For if God here promises the Jews who keep rest through the whole sabbatical year a harvest sufficient for three years, much more will he provide food and gain for Christians who keep the rest of a few feasts.
Of this so great benefit of God, namely the triple harvest of the sixth year, the Jews were deprived in the time of the Machabees.
23 and 24. THE LAND ALSO SHALL NOT BE SOLD FOR EVER: BECAUSE IT IS MINE, AND YOU ARE STRANGERS AND SOJOURNERS WITH ME. FOR WHICH CAUSE ALL THE COUNTRY OF YOUR POSSESSION SHALL BE SOLD UNDER THE CONDITION OF REDEMPTION.—The Hebrew is:
The land shall not be sold to destruction, perdition or cutting off, that is, so that it be for ever cut off and alienated from the seller. The Chaldee renders, the land shall not be sold for a property; the Septuagint, for a confirmation, that is, so that it be appropriated and confirmed to the buyer for ever. The reason follows: “Because it is mine,” as if to say: I God, as lofty and transcending, have dominion over your land: wherefore it is lawful for me to attach what conditions I will to its sale, especially since I brought you into it as strangers and sojourners.
Beautifully does Philo, book On the Cherubim, teach from this place that God alone is lord and possessor of all things; but that men have of them only the usufruct for life, not dominion over them.
of them. Hence it is plain, he says, that we use another’s possessions, having neither glory, nor riches, nor honours, nor any thing but the use for life.
we have the usufruct only, while we live here.” Wherefore we must use this world only in passing, just as dogs drink from the Nile; for in Egypt dogs, lest they be seized by crocodiles, make no delay in drinking, but lap and flee, as Pliny testifies, book 8, chap. 40. Whence after the flight from Modena, to those asking what Antony was doing, someone answered: “What the dog does in Egypt, drinks and flees.” So the necessaries are to be taken hastily from the world, lest we be seized by the devil, the rest are to be passed by. “Whatever things lie about thee, look on them as the baggage of an inn: thou must pass on,” says Seneca, book 17,