Leviticus 25

Leviticus 25:2

Augustine of Hippo: When you have entered the land that I am going to give you and the land that I am going to give you on the Lord’s sabbaths has rested, six years you shall sow your field and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit; but the seventh year will be Saturday: the earth will have its rest, Saturday for the Lord. How should we understand the phrase: When you have entered the land that I am going to give you and the earth has rested, “six years will you sow your field,” etc.? It seems as if they had been ordered to do that when the earth had rested, while the earth rests precisely because this is done. For the text refers to the rest of the earth in the seventh year, in which the Lord commanded that no one should work in it through agriculture. But, evidently, the long hyperbaton makes the meaning of the text obscure. It seems that the order of words would be as follows. When you have entered the land that I am going to give you and the land that I am going to give you has rested, it is the Sabbath of the Lord: you do not reap things that come from your field by yourself, and the grape of your sanctification does not you will harvest It will be the year of rest for the earth. And the Sabbath of the earth will be food for you and for your servant and your servant and for your hired servant and for your guest who resides with you. Also for your cattle and for your animals that are in your land, everything that springs from it will be eaten (Leviticus 25,5-7). To explain how the earth rests, he interposed the following words: Six years you will sow your field and six years you will prune your vineyard and gather its fruit; but the seventh year will be a sabbath: the earth will have its rest, the Sabbath of the Lord. You shall not sow your field and you shall not prune your vineyard. By saying: You will not prune, we must understand that all agriculture is prohibited that year. Because if you can not prune, you can not plow or hold with stakes or use anything else that serves agriculture. Now, as the part is usually taken for the whole, so also for the pruning all kinds of cultivation are indicated. And when mentioning the field and the vineyard, as it was forbidden to sow that field and prune this vineyard, we must understand that it is all sorts of fields. Because it is clear that you can not work in an olive grove or in any other field, which has not been mentioned. As for the phrase: And the Sabbath of the earth will be food for you and for your servant and for your servant, etc., it is clear that with it the owner of the field has not been prohibited from feeding on what the earth spontaneously produces. year without having been cultivated. But it is forbidden to collect the fruits. It is allowed, then, to take something from there to eat, as in passing, taking only what can be eaten immediately by eating it, not what is collected for use at other times. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 89 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Leviticus 25:4

Clement of Alexandria: So do we now understand how the law educates us in piety, sharing, justice and humanity? Well? Does it not enjoin that the land lie fallow through the seventh year and invites the poor not to be afraid to use any crops that grow by God’s grace, nature acting as farmer for any who will? — The Stromata Book 2

Leviticus 25:10

Basil of Caesarea: Seven weeks of years in ancient times produced the celebrated jubilee, in which the earth kept the sabbath, debts were canceled, slaves were set free and, as it were, a new life was established again, the old one in a certain way attaining its fulfillment in the number seven. These things are figures of this present age which revolves through the seven days and passes us by; an age in which the penalties for the lesser sins are paid according to the loving care of the good Lord, so that we may not be handed over for punishment in the age without end. — LETTER 260

Bede: In the law the fiftieth year was ordered to be called [the year] of jubilee, that is, “forgiving” or “changed.” During it the people were to remain at rest from all work, the debts of all were to be canceled, slaves were to go free [and] the year itself was to be more notable than other years because of its greater solemnities and divine praises. Therefore by this number is rightly indicated that tranquility of greatest peace when, as the apostle says, at the sound of the last trumpet “the dead will rise and we shall be changed” into glory. Then, when the labors and hardships of this age come to an end and our debts, [that is] all our faults, have been forgiven, the entire people of the elect will rejoice eternally in the sole contemplation of the divine vision. And that most longed-for command of our Lord and Savior will be fulfilled: “Be still, and see that I am God.” — Homilies on the Gospels 2.17

Bede: We read in the law that the fiftieth year was ordered to be designated as a jubilee (that is, a [year for] releasing or exchanging), in which the whole people should rest from all cultivation of the land and everyone’s debts should be canceled. And we know that in the New Testament the grace of the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost (that is, the fiftieth day of the Lord’s resurrection) and hallowed the beginnings of the church that was being brought into existence by its coming. It is agreed then that by this number can rightly be figured either the grace of the Holy Spirit or the joy of future blessedness, to which one is brought through the gift of the same Spirit and in the perception of which alone is true rest and joy. — On the Tabernacle 2.2

Cassiodorus: THE NUMBER OF THIS PSALM IS NOT WITHOUT REASON. IT HAS REFERENCE TO THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE, WHICH AMONG THE JEWS DISSOLVED OLD CONTRACTS AND OBLIGATIONS AND WHICH IN LEVITICUS THE LORD ORDERED ALL DWELLERS ON EARTH TO CALL THE YEAR OF REMISSION. THE NUMBER ALSO REFERS TO PENTECOST, WHEN AFTER THE LORD’S ASCENSION THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME ON THE APOSTLES, WORKING MIRACLES AND IMPARTING THE GIFT OF CHARISMS. SO TOO THIS PSALM, WHICH IS GIVEN THE NUMBER 50, if recited with a pure heart, looses sins, cancels the bond of our debt and, like the year of remission, frees us through the Lord’s kindness of the debts of our sins. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 50, CONCLUSION

Origen of Alexandria: Who is there who has grasped the mind of Christ so well that he knows the meaning of the seventh year of freedom of Hebrew slaves and the remission of debts and the intermission of the cultivation of the holy land? Over and above the feast of every seventh year is the feast called the jubilee. No one can ever come near divining its precise meaning or the true import of the prescriptions enjoined by it, except him who knows the Father’s will and his disposition for every age according to “his incomprehensible judgments and unsearchable ways.” — ON PRAYER 27.14

Leviticus 25:23

Augustine of Hippo: And the earth will not be sold for desecration. Other codices say: for confirmation. I think that the error occurred in one and the other, first in Greek because of the sound similarity of the word; because babylosis means “desecration” and bebayosis, “confirmation”. The sense of desecration is clear: And the land will not be sold for desecration, that is, that no one dares to sell the land that he received from God, to the profane, who use it for the impiety and worship of foreign gods and false. On the other hand, the meaning of: And the earth will not be sold for confirmation. I think we should understand it only in the sense that the sale should not be made firm, so that the seller does not receive it in the time established to be returned, as ordered. But what follows, can agree with both senses, and read: And the earth will not be sold for desecration, and read: for confirmation, because the text adds: Because the earth is mine, since you are for me as strangers and guests (Leviticus 25,23). — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 90 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Leviticus 25:24

Augustine of Hippo: And throughout the land of your possession you will give the reward (mercedem) to the earth. Other codices have: You will give ransom (redemptionem) to the earth. The meaning is this: The land will not be sold for profanation, that is, it will not be sold to those who use it as an injury to the Breeder, or for confirmation, that is, for the buyer to possess it perpetually and not return it to the seller in the time established according to the precept of God. And the reason is: Because the earth is mine, therefore, you must use it according to my precept. And to demonstrate that the earth is theirs and not theirs and to say what they are on earth, the text adds below: Since you are for me as strangers and guests. That is to say, although for you outsiders are those who join your people from among foreigners, and although they are guests, that is, they inhabit their own land, nevertheless, all of you are also before me as strangers and guests. God says this, not only to the Israelites, because he gave them the land of the other people that he expelled, but to any man, because before God, who remains eternally and who fills heaven and earth with his own presence, as is written, every man is a stranger at birth and a guest when living, because he is driven to emigrate with death. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 91 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Augustine of Hippo: Then add the following: And throughout the land of your possession you will give the reward to the land, as tenants, or the ransom. If I am not mistaken, here it refers to what they returned from the earth in a certain way when they interrupted their cultivation every seven and every fifty years (Cf Leviticus 25,8), something that the Scripture calls the year of remission. So the rest of the earth, as a reward for the room, or the rescue out of that of whom the earth is, that is, of God its creator. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 92 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)