ABSTRACT
While the year of jubilee has its roots in Jewish scriptures, Christians understand jubilee as Jesus’ message of the com ing reign of God in which the oppressed would be freed and the rightful order of creation would be restored. In the Hebrew Bible the year of jubilee requires that debts be canceled, slaves freed, property returned to its rightful owners, and general amnesty on indebtedness declared (Leviticus 25). In the New Testament Jesus announces the “year of the Lord’s favor” in which he proclaims release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4:18-19). Jubilee is therefore both ethical and eschatological, since social and economic injustice is eliminated by God’s rule on earth.
