Year

The Hebrew word for year, shanah ("repetition" or "revolution"), points to the cyclic character of time as created by God. Ancient Israel used two interlocking calendar systems: a sacred year beginning in the spring month of Nisan (the month of the Exodus and Passover, Exodus 12:2), and a civil year beginning in the autumn month of Tishri (marked by the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement). The Hebrew year was lunisolar: twelve months of approximately twenty-nine to thirty days each, totaling 354 days, with a thirteenth intercalary month added roughly every three years to keep the calendar aligned with the agricultural seasons. The year thus embodied both lunar rhythm and solar anchoring.

The biblical year was rich with sabbatical theology. Every seventh year was a Sabbath year (shemittah), in which the land rested, debts were released, and slaves were freed (Leviticus 25:4). After seven sabbatical cycles came the fiftieth Jubilee year, in which ancestral lands reverted to their families (Leviticus 25:10). These institutions embedded God's sovereignty over time and property into the social fabric of Israel. In prophetic usage, "the acceptable year of the LORD" (Isaiah 61:2), cited by Jesus at Nazareth (Luke 4:19), drew on Jubilee imagery to announce the age of messianic liberation.