Historical Sabbatical Years

It has often been remarked that chronology is the backbone of history. In historical reconstructions where there is controversy over rival possible chronologies, the system of Jubilee and Sabbatical (Shmita) years provide a useful check in deciding between competing reconstructions of the histories of the First Temple period and earlier and, separately, the history of the Second Temple period and later. These two periods will be considered separately, due to evidence that the counting of the Sabbatical years was interrupted during the exile (see below). The Second Temple period will be considered first. This is the more easily dealt with, since there are explicit mentions of a Sabbatical year found in Josephus, 1 Maccabees, and in various legal contracts from the time of Simon Bar Kosiba. In contrast, no direct statements that a certain year was a Sabbatical year have survived from First Temple times and earlier. For this period, whether a certain year was a Sabbatical year must be inferred from statements about activities normally associated with a Shmita.