Sabbatical and Jubilee Years 

Not Yet Fifty Years Old 

     The Jews then said to him, `You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?'   (John 8:57). 

The Jews used the number 50 because they kept track of time, not by centuries, but by the Sabbatical and 

Jubilee years (see also,  Anna, Daughter of Phanuel,  below). They meant that Jesus had not yet seen a 

Jubilee year in His adult life. Since He had not yet lived for even the length of one Jubilee period, they were 

asking him how he could have seen Abraham. 

    The Jews counted a person's age by how many Passovers had occurred since that person's birth (see chapter 

6). Similarly, they considered it a significant milestone in a man's life when he had lived for at least the length 

of time from one Jubilee year to the next (50 years inclusive). The liturgical calendar was an integral part of 

their lives. 

Anna, Daughter of Phanuel 

     And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age, 

having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, and as a widow till she was eighty four. She did 

not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.  (Lk 2:36 37) 

    Why does Sacred Scripture tell us the age of Anna and how many years she lived with her husband until she 

was widowed? Scripture does not usually tell us each person's age. And why would her age be generally 

known, so that her age and the years of certain events in her life would become a part of Luke's description of 

her? 

    Notice that her age, 84 years, is a multiple of 7 years. And she lived with her husband for 7 years from the 

time of her marriage to the time she became a widow at her husband's death. The Jews kept track of the 

passage of the years by Sabbatical and Jubilee years. Every 7th year is a Sabbatical year; every 50th year is a 

Jubilee year (but the length of time from one Jubilee to another is 49 years). If these events in her life her 

marriage, her husband's death, and her visit with the Christ child all occurred at the time of Sabbatical or 

Jubilee years, then the number of years would be generally remembered and associated with her. 

    Now Anna was constantly in the Temple of Jerusalem worshiping God.

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 The women who served God in 

the Temple of Jerusalem were the Temple virgins (who were young girls) and the women who taught and 

governed them. Whether any other women served God in the Temple, besides those who had charge of the 

Temple virgins, I do not know.

1209

 But, in any case, Blessed Anne Catherine tells us that Anna was indeed one 

of the women who took care of the Temple virgins and taught the Virgin Mary when she was a Temple 

Virgin.

1210

 According to Blessed Anne Catherine, the women who served at the Temple were generally from 

the Essenes, so Anna may well have been one of the Essenes also.

1211

    Anna, who taught in the Temple as a widow, was most likely a Temple virgin as a child. In ancient Israel, 

not many girls received an education, but the Temple virgins were well taught. So, then, which women would 

be best qualified to be teachers of the Temple virgins? women who had themselves been educated in the 

Temple when they were young girls. 

    When Anna's husband died, who would take her in? She could have returned to her family, or even been 

taken in by her late husband's family. Or, she returned to her religious family, where she was raised and 

educated, at the Temple of Jerusalem. I think, though, that there was likely a space of time between the death 

of her husband and her return to the Temple.

1212

    Now the Temple virgins, in general, were not vowed to be virgins their whole lives.  Upon reaching a 

certain age, they were given in marriage, for there was among the more enlightened Israelites the pious, 

though secret hope that from such a virgin dedicated to God, the Messiah would be born. 

1213

 (Cf. Isaiah 7:14). 

Blessed Anne Catherine also tells us that the Virgin Mary left the Temple to be given in marriage to Joseph at 

the age of 14 years.  When the Blessed Virgin had reached the age of fourteen and was to be dismissed from 

the Temple with seven other maidens to be married . 

1214

 Thus, the age of marriage for the Temple virgins 

was generally 14 years.

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