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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.
==Sabbatical years (shemitot) in the Second Temple period==
The first modern treatise devoted to the Sabbatical (and Jubilee) cycles was that of Benedict Zuckermann.〔Benedict Zuckermann, ''Treatise on the Sabbatical Cycle and the Jubilee'', trans. A Löwy; (New York: Hermon, 1974); originally published as "Ueber Sabbatjahrcyclus und Jobelperiode," in ''Jahresbericht des jüdisch-theologischen Seminars "Fraenckelscher Stiftung"'' (Breslau, 1857).〕 Zuckermann insisted that for Sabbatical years after the exile "it is necessary to assume the commencement of a new starting-point, since the laws of Sabbatical years and Jubilees fell into disuse during the Babylonian captivity, when a foreign nation held possession of the land of Canaan . . . We therefore cannot agree with chronologists who assume an unbroken continuity of septennial Sabbaths and Jubilees."〔Zuckermann, ''Treatise''., 31.〕 The Seder Olam (ch. 30) is explicit that this was the case, i.e. that the returned exiles had a renewed start of tithes, Sabbatical years, and Jubilee years. The first instance of a Sabbatical year treated by Zuckermann was Herod the Great's siege of Jerusalem, as described by Josephus.〔''Ant''.14.16.2/470-76, 15.1.2/7.〕 Zuckermann assigned this to 38/37 BCE, i.e. he considered that a Sabbatical year started in Tishri of 38 BCE. Next, he considered John Hyrcanus's siege of Ptolemy in the fortress of Dagon, which is described both in Josephus (''Ant''. 13.8.1/235; ''Wars of the Jews'' 1.2.4/59-60) and 1 Maccabees (16:14-16), and during which a Sabbatical year started; from the chronological information provided in these texts, Zuckermann concluded that 136/135 BCE was a Sabbatical year. The next event to be treated was Antiochus Eupator's siege of the fortress Beth-zur (''Ant''. 12.9.5/378, 1 Maccabees 6:53), dated by Zuckermann to 163/162 BCE. However, he also remarked on the difficulties presented to this figure by the text in 1 Maccabees, which would seem to date the siege one year later, and so he decided to leave it out of consideration.〔Zuckermann, ''Treatise'' 47-48.〕 The final text considered by Zuckermann was a passage in the Seder Olam that relates the destruction of the Second Temple to a Sabbatical year, an event that is known from secular history to have happened in the summer of 70 CE. Zuckermann interpreted the Seder Olam text as stating that this happened in a year after a Sabbatical year, thus placing a Sabbatical in 68/69 CE.
All these dates as calculated by Zuckermann are separated by an integral multiple of seven years, except for the date associated with the siege of Beth-zur. Furthermore, his chronology is consistent with that accepted by the ''geonim'' (medieval Jewish scholars) and the calendar of Sabbatical years used in present-day Israel. All of this would seem to be strong evidence in favor of Zuckermann's scheme. Nevertheless, some problems have been recognized, beyond just the question of the siege of Beth-zur, which was one year too late for Zuckermann's calendar. A consistent problem has been the ambiguity alleged in some of the passages, notably of Josephus, where it has been questioned, for example, when Josephus started the regnal years of Herod. In a study the chronology of all Herod’s reign, Andrew Steinmann presents arguments in favor of dating Herod’s capture of Jerusalem in 10 Tishre of 37 BCE, i.e. just after the Sabbatical year of 38/37, based on references to the activities of Mark Antony and Sossius, Herod’s helpers, in Cassius Dio (49.23.1–2) and also on other considerations.〔Andrew E. Steinmann, “When Did Herod the Great Reign?” ''Novum Testamentum'' 51 (2009) 8–11.().〕 This date is in agreement with Wacholder’s chronology. Therefore, many modern scholars have adopted a Sabbatical-year calendar for the Second Temple period that is one year later, though there are many prominent scholars who still maintain a cycle consistent with Zuckermann's conclusion of a 38/37 BCE Sabbatical year.
Among those who have advocated an adjustment to Zuckermann's chronology, the most extensive studies in its favor have been those of Ben Zion Wacholder.〔Ben Zion Wacholder, "The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period," ''HUCA'' 44 (1973) 53-196; "Chronomessianism: The Timing of Messianic Movements and the Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles," ''HUCA'' 46 (1975) 201-218; "The Calendar of Sabbath Years during the Second Temple Era: A Response," ''HUCA'' 54 (1983) 123-133.〕 Wacholder had access to legal documents from the time of the Bar Kosiba revolt that were not available to Zuckermann. The arguments of Wacholder and others to support the calendar one year later than that of Zuckermann are rather technical and will not be presented here, except for two items to which Zuckermann, Wacholder, and other scholars have given great weight: 1) the date of Herod’s capture of Jerusalem from Antigonus, and 2) the testimony of the Seder Olam relating the destruction of the Second Temple to a Sabbatical year (see below). Wacholder gives the dates of post-exilic Sabbatical years in the following table:〔Ben Zion Wacholder, ''Essays on Jewish Chronology and Chronography'' (New York: Ktav, 1976) 6–32.〕
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