[Peace-discuss] Re: Unreal estate

[John W.]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 9:17 PM, Ron Szoke <r-szoke at illinois.edu> wrote:

My Bible states in a note to Lev. 25:23 that the Land was considered to
> belong
> to the Lord.  It could not be private property, "to be bought and sold
> speculatively."
>
> "Although there is no evidence that the jubilee program was ever carried
> out,
> the law opposed foreign conceptions of property that resulted in the
> swallowing up of ancestral holdings," mentioning also 1 Kings 21:3 & Isa.
> 5:8.
> (_New Oxford Annotated Bible_, NRSV, ed. Metzger & Murphy, p. 158 OT.)
>
> It seems that the notion of private property in land was as foreign to the
> ancient Israelites as it was to "Native Americans:  in, say, 1490.
>
> Prof. Eric Freyfogle of our law school has some interesting things to say
> about
> related matters.


I studied Property law for a year under Prof. Freyfogle.  He does indeed
have some interesting perspectives on the stewardship of land.  But I don't
recall him ever mentioning Leviticus.  :-)

Your quote above from the New Oxford Annotated Bible could also be used to
justify the property rights of English feudal lords, could it not?  Aren't
those "ancestral holdings"?

John Wason
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