Of the Sabbaticals — [as to the fact] that they were observed or neglected by the Jews — [there is] mention frequent enough in the Scriptures (Jer. 34, v. 14; 2 Kings 19, v. 29; 1 Macc. 6:53; and in Josephus, bk. 13, ch. 15; bk. 14, ch. 28; as I noted also in the Harmony of the Maccabees). But that the Jubilee years were in use, I nowhere read. Of these Angelus Pientinus takes that [passage] of Isaiah (last [ch.], v. 23): “There shall be Sabbath from Sabbath.” But there the discourse is either specifically of the weeks of days — because “month from month” precedes — [and this] to signify that Sabbatism of which [in] Heb. 4, vv. 9 & 10; or generally [it means] all time of rest, and then indeed the Sabbatical and Jubilee years will be included, but these are not said to have flourished then, but [to be] future. Another brings forward that [word] of the same seer (v. 1, ch. 61): “The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; to announce to the meek he sent me, that I might heal the contrite of heart, and preach indulgence to the captives, and opening to the shut-in; that I might preach the acceptable year to the Lord.” But that the Jubilees were then in use, those words show nothing, since they treat of the future [things] of CHRIST
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[of CHRIST], in [his] times, as the Lord himself expounded (Luke 4, v. 18). If, however, the Sabbaticals were in use — as [they] were shown to have been in use — why should we not think the same of the Jubilees? The distinction of the tribes remained, indeed, up to the times of the Babylonian captivity; and, in the tribes, the separation of the goods which were proper to the single families. The Jubilees, therefore, ought to have flourished — as is gathered from Num., last [ch.], v. 4. But now the Jews observe neither any Sabbaticals nor any Jubilees; because, forsooth, they possess neither fields, vineyards, meadows, nor any grounds, almost anywhere among the nations; nor is there [now] any old and accurate distinction of tribes and families among them; nor does any necessity or usefulness demand that [there] now be any. For this [distinction] was chiefly required of old, and was diligently observed, so that [it] might be altogether most perspicuous of what tribe and family [was] that excellent promised Seed of Abraham — CHRIST, I say, the Lord; and so [that] the truth of the divine promises and sacred Prophecies might be known and accepted by all. Nevertheless the Jews are wont, even in this time, in their [dealings], sometimes to note the series of the Sabbatical years. For in the Calendar of the Palestinians there were, in this year 1575, [these] words: “And this year is the first of the Schemitah, or of the current week of years, according to the opinion of Rambam [Maimonides] (whose memory [be] in blessing), and of the excellent Masters, and according to the usage of the sons of the land of Israel” — that is, of those Jews who now inhabit Judaea. And therefore, from that year 1575, the Sabbatical was [in] 1581, 1588, 1595, 1602; and will be [in] 1609, 1616; and so onward. But they note this not because they now keep those years [as] holidays, and hold [them] sacred, but that they may show what the course of those [years] is — if indeed they still ought to be observed — and that they may retain the division of the years by 7. And for a like cause they sometimes count the Sabbaticals from the beginning of the world — although, as [was] handed down in the foregoing question, the first Sabbaticals were [only] after the land [was] divided, possessed, and cultivated. And the cause is altogether the same why some fetch the beginning of the Jubilees from the same creation of the world (concerning whom [in] the same foregoing question): namely, that the division of the ages by fifties might be observed — just as some count the indictions too from the time of Christ; and they could, if indeed they wished, [count them] from the first origin of all things, dividing all the years by 15.
But when the two kinds of years began to be omitted can be thus established. I. In the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, which was brought by Vespasian and Titus. For so great then was the plundering and devastation of all faculties and possessions, so great the slaughter of all the Jews, [their] captivity, and abstraction from [their] ancestral seats, that no place remained for either the Sabbatical or Jubilee years and their duties. And Mercator embraces this terminus of those years. II. Yet the Jews gathered themselves again in the times of Trajan and Hadrian — so much [so] that Dion of Nicaea writes [that], in the regions of Palestine, 580 thousand [men] were slain by the sword, and by famine and flame and disease so great a multitude, that almost all Judaea was scattered. And [that people] — if perhaps not before — was without doubt prostrated [from] the whole hebdomadic ceremony of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. III. In the Jerusalem destruction which Nabuchodonosor brought, and during the whole time of the Babylonian captivity, those same years ceased; but Mercator affirms [that] both were resumed in the seventh year of the liberty restored by Cyrus; and of the hebdomadic [Sabbaticals] it can be proved from 1 Macc. ch. 6, and Josephus (places cited before). But of the Jubilees not likewise — especially since not all the tribes returned to the fatherland, as I showed at the beginning of [my commentary on] Ezra. Yet because those [tribes] which had returned had again estates and homes, and guarded among themselves the distinction of families — especially the tribe of Juda — [that] both the Jubilees and the Sabbaticals [were] numbered and observed by the Jews up to the times of CHRIST the Lord, and beyond, as far as the last calamities of the Jewish people under Titus and Hadrian, I do not deny. But in Mercator I wonder [that] the Sabbaticals are drawn down as far as these [times], but not the Jubilees; nay, [that] from the Babylonian return only eight Jubilees — which consist of 56 Sabbaticals — are counted, since so many Sabbaticals are still reckoned afterward. For why do these [Sabbaticals] proceed and persist in him [Mercator], [but] those [Jubilees do not]? Scaliger (bk. 7) draws out those ancient Jubilees down to our own times, just as (bk. 5) [he does] the Sabbaticals.