50 Yr Jubilee Cycle Ending Jewish Captivity (1 out 588 ano antes da era comum – 30 set 538 ano antes da era comum)

Descrição:

DATING THE BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY by Gerard Gertoux

During the 10th year of Zedekiah a jubilee "to proclaim liberty" was deliberately violated (Jr 32:1), resulting in the destruction of the Temple and deportation to Babylon. The release associated with this jubilee occurred 50 years later (Jr 34:8-11, 13-22).

THEN

Destruction of Babylon (539 BCE) and liberation of exiles in Babylon on Cyrus' 1st year (Ezra 1:1-4) in 538 BCE.

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Herod the Great and Jesus Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence by Gerard Gertoux

The length of a Jubilee can be estimated from biblical periods: The 1st Jubilee cycle began after the entrance in the Promised Land (1488 BCE) and ended in Zedekiah's 10th
year (588 BCE). This period lasted exactly 900 years, i.e. 18 x 50-year Jubilees.

According to the adopted chronology, the exile at Babylon ended in the 50th year of a Jubilee [588-538]. This is what Josephus says: [Berosus] comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of this king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor against Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his being informed that they had revolted from him; and how, by that means, he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of their own country, and transferred them to Babylon; when it so happened that our city was desolate during the interval of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia (...) These [Berosus] accounts agree with the true histories in our books; for in them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth year of his reign, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in that state of obscurity for 50 years (Against Apion I:131,132;154). Josephus makes a distinction between two periods: one [of slavery] of 70 years which starts at the end of Nabopolassar's reign and which ends at the beginning of Cyrus' reign, and another period of 50 years which starts at the destruction of the temple and ends with the liberation by Cyrus and his command to rebuild the temple (Ezr 1:1,2). Eusebius (Preparatio evangelica IX:40:11; X:9:3-5; X:10:3-6) also distinguishes between several periods: two periods of 70 years and another one lasting 50 years. There are the "70 years for Babylon" from 609 to 539 and the "70 years of desolation" when there was no cult rendered in the temple at Jerusalem from 587 to 537. Although Mordecai (Est 2:6) was still called a son of the exile under Xerxes' reign around 470, the bulk of the exiles had gone back to Jerusalem between 537 and 517.

The role of the Jubilee to mark the end of a captivity is a recurrent theme in the Bible. When Zerubbabel was appointed, Ezra says: And in the 1st year of Cyrus [538 BCE] (...) Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God prove to be with him. So let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah the God of Israel-he is the [true] God-which was in Jerusalem (Ezr 1:1-3). Zerubbabel's mission was twofold: To gather the Jews (Ne 1:8,9; 7:5) and to rebuild the temple (Ezr 3:1,2): And it must occur in that day that there will be the root of Jesse [Zerubbabel] that will be standing up as a signal for the peoples [in 538]. To him even the nations will turn inquiringly, and his resting-place must become glorious [the temple will be rebuilt] (...) to acquire the remnant of his people who will remain over from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinear and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. And he will certainly raise up a signal for the nations and gather the dispersed ones of Israel; and the scattered ones of Judah he will collect together from the four extremities of the earth (Is 11:10-12). The gathering of the dispersed ones would end by a Jubilee: The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me [Zerubbabel, according to Zechariah 4:6-14], for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive [in 518/517 a Jubilee will put an end to the desolation] and the wide opening [of the eyes] even to the prisoners (...) And they must rebuild the long-standing devastated places; they will raise up even the desolated places of former times, and they will certainly make anew the devastated cities, the places desolate (Is 61:1-4). According to the Gospels, Zerubbabel's mission foretold in details that of Jesus. We read in Luke that Jesus proclaimed a year of liberation to come (Lk 4:18), and John reports that this liberation (Jubilee year) was to exceed a traditional Jubilee (Jn 8:36). This year of liberation is linked to Jesus' death in 33 CE (Rm 8:2), which marked a Jubilee (the one of 133 CE is well attested238). The Biblical chronology, based on Jubilee cycles, then is independent from other chronologies.

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Jeremiah 32

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

Jeremiah 34

8 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, 9 that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. 10 And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. 11 But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves. 12 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 13 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, 14 ‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must set him free from your service.’ But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. 15 You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, 16 but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

17 “Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like[a] the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts— 19 the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. 20 And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. 21 And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you. 22 Behold, I will command, declares the Lord, and will bring them back to this city. And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”

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Ze 1
Zechariah's book throws some light on the link between the "70 years for Babylon" which ended with the fall of Babylon in 539 and the "70 years of desolation" which begin with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 587. On the 24th day of the 11th month, that is, the month Shebat, in the 2nd year of Darius (...) the angel of Jehovah answered and said: O Jehovah of armies, how long will you yourself not show mercy to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, whom you have denounced these 70 years? (...) I shall certainly return to Jerusalem with mercies. My own house will be built in her (...) and a measuring line itself will be stretched out over Jerusalem (Zc 1:7,12,16). This message (dated January/February 520 BCE) announced the near end of the 70 years of desolation and the upcoming completion of the temple and rebuilding of Jerusalem.

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