Mark Leuchter, Hebrew College
The Manumission Laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy: The Jeremiah Connection

Abstract:

Many scholars have suggested that the slave manumission episode in Jeremiah 34:8-22 is a late text drawing from both the Deuteronomic and Holiness Code slave manumission laws (Deut 15:12-18 and Leviticus 25:39-46) at a time when they had obtained equally authoritative positions in the Pentateuch. This paper will support the view that Jeremiah 34 is based upon Deuteronomy 15, but will propose that it functions as a source for the Holiness author of Leviticus 25. Yet whereas the author of Jeremiah 34 attempted to amplify the Deuteronomic law, the Holiness author attempted to contradict it, and relied on a specific exegetical accretion in Jeremiah 34 to do so. This accretion – the miqqetz shevvah shannim formula in Jer 34:14 – was initially employed to qualify Jeremiah’s recitation of the Deuteronomic manumission law as a Levitical exhortation (cf. Deut 31:10). The Holiness author re-applies the exegesis in Jeremiah 34 for his own purposes, subordinating the Deuteronomic legislation to the Zadokite sacral calendar. This not only reinforces recent studies that place the development of the Holiness Code subsequent to the Deuteronomic legislation, but also provides some indication of the polemical culture of the exilic period. The sequence of composition suggests a specific relationship between prophetic collections and the developing Torah traditions fostered by these different ideological groups.