(8) The idea of a ¢értéimah of the land being due to Jahweh as an acknowledgement that one owes the whole to Him, finds a further expression in the command to set apart 13 priestly and 35 Levitical cities, each with a piece of pasture-land round about it (Nu 35, Jos 21). The circumstance that these cities and the pasturage pertaining to them are intended for the use of man, does not exclude the possibility of looking upon them as a due paid to Jahweh. For in other instances as well (e.g. the thigh in meal-offerings) the ¢térdmdah falls to the priests. This whole enactment, however, is intended simply to embody one of those theories spoken of above, without regard to the possibility of carrying it into practice. This is sufficiently proved by the single fact that the territory of the twelve tribes, in each of which, in propor- tion to their size, a certain number of cities are to be set apart (Nu 35%), had long ceased to be under the control of the people, and that it cannot be proved that in the post-exilic period such a law was carried out even in the case of Judah, although priests and Levites may have fixed their abode by preference in those particular cities of Judah and Benjamin. In favour of the view that we are here dealing with a mere theory, there is, finally, the further circumstance that several of the cities enumerated were situated so near to one another that the pasture-lands attached to them (extend- ing each to a distance of 2000 cubits from the city wall) would in many instances have over- lapped. The late date, however, at which this theory was constructed is evident from the way in which the Priests’ Code proper repeatedly (Nu 182% 2652) insists that the tribe of Levi is to be compensated by the offerings of the people for having waived its claim to a share of the land: Jahweh is its portion.
(vy) A final embodiment of the idea of Jahweh as the sole owner of the land is found in a portion of the regulations about the Sabbatical year and the so-called great year of jubile (Lv 25). It is true that even the Book of the Covenant prescribes (Ex 231°) that the land is to be allowed to lie fallow once in seven years, for the good of the poor and the beasts of the field. The motive there, however, is a humanitarian, not a theocratic, one; and, moreover, the rule is certainly not meant to apply to all cultivated land in one and the same year. Deuteronomy prescribes (ch. 15) only a remission
* The opening part of Lv 16 contains, indeed, primarily only regulations-as to the precautions to be taken by Aaron to ensure his being able to enter the sanctuary without danger, and thus manifestly assumes the possibility of repeated entrances. This introductory, passage was afterwards amal- gamated with the ritual of the Day of Atonement. Nu 187, again, implies that all priests may officiate in the Holy of Holies.
718 RELIGION OF ISRAEL
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
of debts for the seventh year, again on humani- tarian grounds. On the other hand, Lv 25 re: quires that every seven years all land shall enjoy absolute rest. There is no more word of humani- tarian motives: the Sabbath of the land in the Sabbatical year denotes a consecration of the land just as the weekly Sabbath signifies the consecra- tion of a specified shorter period of time. But this consecration implies once more the solemn acknowledgment that the people have received the land only on revocable lease from Jahweh, the sole feudal owner.
We have the express testimony of the history of the Maccabeean wars to the fact that the prescrip- tions regarding the Sabbatical year were carried into practice. On the other hand, Jewish tradition itself admits that the so-called great year of jubile, which fell every fiftieth year (after the complete lapse of seven Sabbatical - year weeks), was only counted but not actually observed. As a matter of fact, the carrying out of the prescriptions of Ly 253, so far as this was possible at all, would have led to a total want of certainty as to all matters of property and_a consequent paralyzing of economic relations. But the consistent theory of P’s legislation is indifferent to’ questions of practicability, and even to such considerations as that the year of jubile immediately follows a Sabbatical year and thus implies a second fallow year. All this appears to P insignificant com- pared with the principle which here (v.™) finds its most notable and clearest expression: the land (like every other possession), being the property of Jahweh, may not be sold. On the contrary, one man can sell to another only a certain number of harvests; the price is to be proportioned to the number of years which have yet to elapse before the next jubile year, when the property spontane- ously falls back to the original usufructuary of it, the proper feudatory of Jahweh. It is significant that, according to v.2#, the houses in a walled city do not pass back in the year of jubile into the hands of the seller. They are the handiwork of man, and, as such, do not belong to the feudal property of which Jahweh gives a lease. On the other hand, the houses in villages are, according to v.*1, a part of the landed property ; hence they are redeemable at any time, and pass back in the year of jubile to their original owner.