Our bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Jubilees all provide us information on the cycles of the Jubilees. On this page I will review the biblical law and the cycles of the Jubilees.
The Jubilee Law
Our bible provides the laws that explain how the Jubilees work:
“And thou shalt reckon to thyself seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and they shall be to thee seven weeks of years, nine and forty years. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall make a proclamation with the sound of a trumpet in all your land; on the day of atonement ye shall make a proclamation with a trumpet in all your land. And ye shall sanctify the year, the fiftieth year, and ye shall proclaim a release upon the land to all that inhabit it; it shall be given a year of release, a jubilee for you; and each one shall depart to his possession, and ye shall go each to his family. This is a jubilee of release, the year shall be to you the fiftieth year: ye shall not sow, nor reap the produce that comes of itself from the land, neither shall ye gather its dedicated fruits. For it is a jubilee of release; it shall be holy to you, ye shall eat its fruits off the fields. In the year of the release even the jubilee of it, shall each one return to his possession. And if thou shouldest sell a possession to thy neighbour, or if thou shouldest buy of thy neighbour, let not a man oppress his neighbour. According to the number of years after the jubilee shalt thou buy of thy neighbour, according to the number of years of the fruits shall he sell to thee. According as there may be a greater number of years he shall increase the value of his possession, and according as there may be a less number of years he shall lessen the value of his possession; for according to the number of his crops, so shall he sell to thee. Let not a man oppress his neighbour, and thou shalt fear the Lord thy God: I am the Lord thy God. And ye shall keep all my ordinances, and all my judgments; and do ye observe them, and ye shall keep them, and dwell securely in the land. And the land shall yield her increase, and ye shall eat to fullness, and shall dwell securely in it. And if ye should say, What shall we eat in this seventh year, if we do not sow nor gather in our fruits? Then will I send my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and the land shall produce its fruits for three years. And ye shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old fruits till the ninth year: until its fruit come, ye shall eat old fruits of the old.” Sep Lev 25:8-22
The Dead Sea Scrolls – Jubilees & Priestly Courses
The Dead Sea Scrolls provides us information about how the Temple Calendar worked which included the Jubilee cycles. With this information we are able to clearly see exactly what the bible is describing.
The first Jubilee (shown below) had a full moon on the first day of the year, therefore it is highlighted in yellow. Gamul’s priestly course was in progress. On the first day of the second and third years there is not a full moon on the first day of the first month; therefore those years are not highlighted in yellow. So each year, highlighted in yellow, indicates that a full moon occurred on the first day of the first month and this is considered a ‘Heavenly Sign. On day four of creation week, which today we call Wednesday, the sun and the moon were created and the moon was full. The first Jubilee cycle includes 17 heavenly signs since there are 17 full moons on the first day of the first month during this cycle.
Reflected below is the second Jubilee cycle. Year 50 is the Jubilee year and Jedaiah’s priestly course is in progress. The second Jubilee cycle only has 16 heavenly signs since a full moon only occurs on the first day of the month 16 times.
Reflected below is the third Jubilee cycle. Year 99 is the Jubilee year and Mijamin’s priestly course is in progress. The third Jubilee cycle only has 16 heavenly signs since a full moon only occurs on the first day of the month 16 times.
Reflected below is the fourth Jubilee cycle. Year 148 is the Jubilee year and Shecaniah’s priestly course is in progress. The fourth Jubilee cycle has 17 heavenly signs since a full moon occurs on the first day of the month 17 times.
Reflected below is the fifth Jubilee cycle. Year 197 is the Jubilee year and Jeshelbead’s priestly course is in progress. The second Jubilee cycle only has 16 heavenly signs since a full moon only occurs on the first day of the month 16 times.
Reflected below is the sixth Jubilee cycle. Year 246 is the Jubilee year and Jedaiah’s priestly course is in progress. The sixth Jubilee cycle only has 16 heavenly signs since a full moon only occurs on the first day of the month 16 times.
After the 6th Jubilee ends, the cycle of the 1st Jubilee begins again with a full moon and Gamul’s priestly cycle in progress.
For more information about the monthly full moon cycles and priestly courses, please see this page.
I only provided some of the Dead Sea Scroll text regarding the Jubilee cycles, you can read the full text here.
The Jubilees Cycles
I made a spreadsheet of the Jubilee cycles all the way to 7644 AM. I used it as a reference for studying the Book of Jubilees. I put comments in the cells that had events mentioned in the Book of Jubilees and plus a few extra that I will explain later below. Cells with comments are outlined in blue.
Here is a spreadsheet version of the Jubilee cycles where the comments can be viewed here.
Here is a PDF version of the Jubilee cycles where the comments cannot be seen; just the cycles here.
A partial view of the spreadsheet is shown below. There are three cycles of heavenly signs, within the Jubilees cycles, that repeat very third Jubilee since there are three lunar cycles. In other words; each year that begins with a full moon (heavenly sign, the moon’s creation position) is shown in yellow.
You see that each Jubilee has 7 weeks of years. In the bible the word week can mean either seven days or seven years like in this verse in Daniel.
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [ἑβδομάς • (hebdomás); A group of seven, especially a week of seven days or a group of seven years.]; : and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Sep Dan 9:27
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week [ebdomas; the number seven from the ancient Greek word above]: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fall: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end.” DR Dan 9:27
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [H7620 shabua; a period of seven (days, years), heptad, week]: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” KJV Dan 9:27
The Book of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees tells us the jubilee, week and year of many events. I have made comments regarding many of these events in the spreadsheet version of the Jubilee cycles. As stated above, each comment has a blue outline if there is a comment. Below is just a sample of the comments.
The Book of Jubilees Timeline Comparison
Reflected below is a comparison of the King James and the Doury Rheims to the Book of Jubilees timeline. I used red text to indicate where the timelines do not agree with each other.
The bible timeline and the Book of Jubilees timeline are pretty close to each other, the differences are as follows:
- The Flood – 348 year difference
- Abraham moved to Canaan – 70 year difference
- Jacob moved to Egypt – 166 year difference
- Israel left Egypt – 258 year difference
- Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness ends – 258 year difference
Another way to show the difference in bible time line is to compare life events. Below is a comparison of Adam’s and Noah’s life events.
For more information about comparing bible timelines and to see the Septuagint timeline I used, please see this page.
An interesting fact is that the Israelites went back to Canaan, the ‘promised land’ during the week of release according to the Jubilees timeline.
The Year 2022 Calendar
The 2022 Dead Sea Scrolls calendar began with a full moon on the first day of the month. And if you use the Book of Jubilees timeline or the Latin Vulgate or Masoretic text timeline the Jubilees cycle shows that the year 2022 does began with the ‘heavenly sign’.
According to the Bible timelines (using the Latin Vulgate or Masoretic text) it is the year 5974 AM. We are in the 122 Jubilee, 7th week of release, third year. This was calculated by adding the before Jesus Christ timeline years of 3952 to the current year of 2022 (seetimeline here). If this calendar is true, it would mean that the Jubilee year is 2027. Let’s pray this is true so that we can have our land back in five years or at least hope it is close.
According to the Book of Jubilees, I assume the year is 5716 AM. It would mean we are in the 117 Jubilee, week 5, forth year. The Book of Jubilees does not give dates for events after the Israelites entered Canaan; therefore I can only assume the current date. Since the Book of Jubilees is 258 less years from the bible, I just subtracted 258 years. If this timeline is correct the next Jubilee year is 2040.
According to the Greek Septuagint timeline, we are in the 151 Jubilee, the first week, second year which is the year 7352 AM. The year 7352 does not show that it is a year starting with the ‘heavenly sign’; therefore it reflects an error in the Greek Septuagint timeline (see timeline here). If it was correct, we would have to wait 49 years for the next Jubilee year since the last Jubilee would have been the year 2020.
Conclusion
I do hope this information was helpful and you have a full understanding about the Jubilees cycles. Many blessing to you all!