The concept of the Jubilee, or the collective forgiveness of all debts and debtor/slaves, had its origins in the Ancient Near East where it was a secular practice of kings. It came into the Bible originally also as a secular practice of kings but then became the province of priests and a calendar observance to be celebrated every 50 years. It was finally understood in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament to rest in the hands of God alone, an eschatological concept of the forgiveness of all debts/sins and the redemption of all human sins, or debts to God, that became the very basis of the theological history of Luke/Acts.
Bergsma, John Sietze. 2007. The Jubilee from Leviticus to Qumran: A History of Interpretation (VetusTestamentumSup 115. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill. Bergsma concludes that the figure of Melchizedek takes on the roles of the “anointed of the spirit” (Isa. 61:1–2), “anointed prince” (Dan. 9:25–26), and “messenger” (Isa. 52:7) whereas Luke presents Jesus as that figure instead of Melchizedek.
2.
Blosser, Donald W.1979. “Jesus and the Jubilee (Luke 4:16–30): The Year of Jubilee and Its Significance in the Gospel of Luke,”Ph.D. dissertation, St. Andrew’s University, 1979.
3.
Hudson, Michael. 1999. “ ‘Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land’: The Economic Roots of the Jubilee.”Bible Review15/1: 26–33, 44.
4.
Joseph, Simon. 2014. The Non-Violent Messiah: Jesus, Q, and the Enochic Tradition. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press,
5.
Ringe, Sharon H.1981. “The Jubilee Proclamation in the Ministry and Teachings of Jesus: A Tradition-Critical Study in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts”Uunpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Union Theological Seminary, 1985. Jesus, Liberation, and Biblical Jubilee. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press.
6.
Sanders, James A.2019. “Sins, Debts, and Jubilee Release.” Pp. 97–104 in Scripture in Its Historical Contexts, edited by Craig A. Evans. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr-Siebeck.
7.
Sanders, James A.1992. “Sins, Debts and Jubilee Release.” Pp. 273–81 in Text as Pretext: Essays in Honour of Robert Davidson, edited by Robert P.Carroll. JSOTS 138. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press.
8.
Sanders, James A.1982. “Isaiah in Luke,”Interpretation36: 144–55; reprinted in Interpreting the Prophets, edited by J. L.Mays & P. J.Achte-meier (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1987), 75–85.
9.
Sanders, James A.1975. “From Isaiah 61 to Luke 4.” Pp. 75–106 in Christianity, Judaism and Other Greco-Roman Cults. Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty, Part I, edited by JacobNeusner. Leiden, The Nethelands: E. J. Brill.
