Sabbatical and Jubilee Years 

    Wacholder has the Jewish civil calendar year of 16/15 

B.C.

 as both a Sabbatical year and a Jubilee year.

1203

However, during this time period, I believe that the Jews placed the Jubilee year in the year following the 

Sabbatical year, the 50th year, not the 49th. Josephus refers to the Jubilee year, calling it the 50th year.

1204

 I 

agree with Wacholder that the year 16/15 

B.C.

 was the seventh Sabbatical year (49th year), but the Jubilee 

year would then be 15/14 

B.C.

 (50th year). 

    Wacholder's chronology of the Jubilee years fits my revised chronology well. He has a Jubilee year in the 

Jewish civil calendar year of 

A.D.

 34/35 (coinciding with a Sabbatical year). Though I place the Jubilee year in 

A.D.

 35/36, the year after the Sabbatical year, this timing fits my chronology of the early Church (see chapter 

11). 

    One of the early Church Councils settled a controversy as to whether or not Christians had to follow all of 

the rules of the Jewish Law (Acts 15). My chronology of the early Church places that Council in 

A.D.

 35. Why 

did this controversy reach a high point in 

A.D.

 35, rather than some years sooner or later? Because 

A.D.

 34/35 

was a Sabbatical year and 

A.D.

 35/36 was a Jubilee year. Early Christians who converted from Judaism would 

have had to decide whether or not to follow those portions of the Jewish Law which apply to Sabbatical and 

Jubilee years. Such issues would include who owned the land, whether or not one could plant and harvest (for 

two years in a row), and whether or not other types of work could be done (Lev 25). 

Messianic Prophecy 

    The Jubilee year was associated in Jewish thought with the Messiah. The Jubilee year was a holy year, a 

year of favor from God, which foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah. Jesus also made this association 

between the Jubilee year and Himself, when He quoted Isaiah:   `The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 

he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor .to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'   (Lk 

4:18 19; Isaiah 61:1 2). What is the association between the timing of the Jubilee years and the timing of the 

arrival of the Messiah? Jesus became Incarnate, at His Virgin Conception, in early 15 

B.C.

, during the 

Sabbatical year of 16/15 

B.C.

 Jesus was born in late 15 

B.C.

, during the Jubilee year of 15/14 

B.C.

 The 

combination of a Sabbatical year with a Jubilee year was the holiest of times in the Jewish faith and fittingly 

coincided with the Incarnation and Birth of the Messiah. 

    There was a widespread belief among the Jews that the Messiah would arrive during a Sabbatical year.

1205

The Jubilee year too was associated with Messianic prophecy, as seen in Isaiah 61:1 4. These expectations 

turned out to be true. Jesus Christ was conceived in the Sabbatical year 16/15 

B.C.

 and born in the Jubilee year 

of 15/14 

B.C.

 The Sabbatical year is not only an image of the Sabbath day, it is a preparation for, and a 

celebration of, our salvation by the Messiah; so also with the Jubilee year. Thus it was fitting that Christ's 

Incarnation should occur in a Sabbatical year and His birth in a Jubilee year. 

Eschatology 

    Jesus quoted the first part of the passage from Isaiah which refers to the Jubilee year and to the Messiah. 

That first part refers to the arrival of the Messiah at the time of a Jubilee year. But the next part refers to the 

more distant future:   to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God .They 

shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, 

the devastations of many generations.  (Isaiah 61:2 4). This part of the passage, referring to both the day of 

vengeance of God and the rebuilding of ruined cities and former devastations, does not refer to Christ's 

Ministry, nor to anytime in the past. It refers to the Second Coming of the Messiah, after the devastations 

predicted by Daniel (Daniel 11) and by the book of Revelation. The prediction that there will be a time of 

rebuilding after those great sufferings is clear from Revelation 20:1 6. That time of peace, holiness, and 

rebuilding is sometimes called the Millennium (because it lasts for over a thousand years). 

    Jesus the Messiah arrived at the time of Sabbatical and Jubilee years. And, at His Second Coming, after the 

sufferings described by the book of Revelation, Jesus will again arrive  at the time of Sabbatical and Jubilee 

years. 

    The Sabbatical year is the 7th year; but 7 sets of 7 years are also counted, so that the 49th year, a Sabbatical 

year, contains the start of the Jubilee year (in the 7th month of that 7th year, counted from Nisan, as it ought 

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