This article seeks to investigate the root causes of poverty in the early Christian community. The view that is put forward and argued in this article is that poverty was widespread in early Christianity with particular reference to the converted Jews in Palestine. This was the result of socio-historical factors, namely the Israelites’ contact with Canaanites during the conquest, and the implementation of the secular leadership paradigm derived from those pagan nations around Israel, which led to their subjugation under the oppressive and exploitative and economic structures of the Roman Empire. For that reason many believers, newly converted Jews, at that time were destitute and impoverished as they belonged to the lower classes in society. In spite of this state of affairs, the early Christians in Jerusalem seemed to have faced the challenges of poverty with a measure of success as can be attested by the statement ‘for there was no needy person amongst them …’ (Ac 4:34).
Historians have not yet reached consensus on the question as to when and how the early Christian community came into being hence views are divided on this matter. According to Lössl (
It is, however, certain that the early Christian community was born and evolved within the Greco-Roman society. From the beginning of the early Christian community, poverty was widespread and strategies were put into place to take care of the poor. Within this context the article aims to investigate some factors contributing to poverty in the early Christian community. The inquiry therefore intends to understand how the Israelites’ behaviour and the existing socio-economic system contributed to the rise of poverty in the early Christian community in the 1st century. The methodological framework of this article comprises a literature review.
Beforehand, it should be noted that all quotations from the Bible are taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible), except when stated otherwise.
The problem of poverty is not new; it is an ancient phenomenon from before the New Testament and for Jewish believers dates back to the period of the Hebrew Scriptures. To understand the situation of the poor and the underlining causes in early Christianity it is necessary to examine the background of this social factor in the Old Testament.
The Hebrew Old Testament uses the adjective עָניִ (
In the same vein, Botterweck, Ringgren and Fabry (
In this light Kittel and Friedrich (
Furthermore Botterweck et al. (
This view is supported by Gatumu (
This development took place at some point after the Israelites had occupied the Promised Land. The inhabitants were no longer content with their leadership structure, which was constituted by the council of elders and the prophet Samuel as the sole judge (1 Sm 8:4–5). This transition came when Samuel grew old. His two sons whom he appointed as judges were misbehaving and could not perform their duties loyally and ethically. The Israelites were frustrated with this state of affairs and demanded a king to rule over them as was the case with the neighbouring nations. This confirms the view of Kittel and Friedrich (
This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his ploughing and reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers … He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.
Samuel's speech intended to warn off the people from electing a usurper to lead them, seeing that such a ruler would oppress and exploit them (Longenecker
The narrative depicts Saul as the first king who did not ‘walk in the ways of God’, and the Lord is reported to have regretted making Saul king (1 Sm 15:35). During the reign of king David (recorded as ‘a man after God's heart’) the kingdom of Israel did take shape but it did not last longer. The third king, Solomon, was famous for his superior wisdom, but was reported to oppress his own people through forced labour (1 Ki 4:29–31; 5:12; 9:15–22). After Solomon, king Rehoboam implemented a flawed policy and caused the kingdom of Israel to divide into two separate kingdoms over the issues of tax increase and forced labour. These became known as the kingdoms of the north and of the south (1 Ki 11–14).
It is evident from the documentation how the exploitation, oppression, and injustice had been strengthened and how it impacted the daily existence of the population by causing an increase in the levels of poverty. Various examples of the relationship between injustice and poverty are documented from this period. Amongst these is the classic example of king Ahab who exploited his power by confiscating the labourer Naboth's vineyard when the latter was put to death after a mock trial (1 Ki 21).
Furthermore, the problem of landownership in Israel in the post-exilic era resulted in a systematic exploitation of the people. Some lost their land and became tenant farmers and others worked for the elites for a meagre wage. There were also workers who were fortunate enough to own land but the majority rented properties – sometimes acquired from absentee landlords at high costs (Longenecker
Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, we, our sons and our daughters, are many, therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live. And there were others who said, we are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and houses that we might get grain because of the famine. Also there were those who said, we have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. And now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children. Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.
It is the author's view that if Israel would not have rejected God's sovereignty and embraced the secular model of leadership, these socio-economic disasters would not have taken place. In other words, the biblical testimony shows that the leadership style, which the rulers of that period chose by imitating the neighbouring nations, was the cause of their misery and suffering. Thus, it becomes evident from the depiction in the biblical narratives that Israel's reported sin of rejecting God's sovereignty was to be considered as the fundamental cause of the people's poverty. As a result, Israel as a nation forfeited the kingship, and fell under the domination of the successive major powers that invaded the land, as indicated previously, from the Babylonians to the Romans. The political and economic system of these powers did leave traces of their reign and the conditions under which land was held in Israel and in the Mediterranean world.
The existing superpower in the 1st century was the Romans. Thus, the following is an overview of the Greco-Roman economy and social structure. This is crucial to understand the context in which the Early Church came to life, developed and expanded, and which factors contributed toward the worsening of poverty in this context.
The rise of Rome as an empire began in 27 bc when Augustus became the first emperor, and ended in approximately ad 476 when Romulus the last emperor was assassinated (Bauer
The Mediterranean world of the 1st century was driven by the Roman Empire's economic system. This system is often described as a
There was a significant number of people who formed part of the average economic groups in the Greco-Roman urbanism.
There also is a significant disparity between the strategies for survival and security of the middling groups at that time, and the stratified ‘middle class’ as it is known in modern society.
Scheidel et al. (
The socio-economic structure mentioned above is an important framework to understand poverty in Israel during the 1st century ad. During the Roman Empire's occupation of Israel, the issue of land took on another dimension. In all the territories which the Roman Empire conquered, it also repossessed land. This situation caused the indigenous people to lose control incrementally over their land and the most fertile and farmable land was gradually integrated into royal domains or upper-class properties (Gatumu
intensive exploitation of farmers;
concentration of land in the hands of a few;
non-elites carrying the burden of rents and taxes. (p. 77)
Longenecker (
After a critical analysis of the Roman Empire's economic structure and how it affected Israel during the Roman occupation, the following subsection focuses on the circumstances of the poor in the New Testament.
The situation of the poor in the New Testament entails a continuation of the Old Testament tradition. Before investigating the impact of this legacy from the Old Testament, a brief examination is needed of New Testament's conception of poverty.
From the outset it should be noted that the New Testament does not have a word for poverty but uses two Greek words πένης (
The most common term used in the New Testament to designate the poor is πτωχός. The word appears 31–35 times most commonly in the Gospels and ‘denotes the complete destitution which forces the poor to seek the help of others by begging’ (Kittel & Friedrich
In the 1st-century society there were two main groups of people in Israel, the rich and the poor, called ‘the people of the land’ (Reid
The rich comprised the Herodian family, the wealthy high-priestly clans, the remnants of the older Jewish aristocracy, and the prosperous merchants who had not yet joined the land-owning aristocracy (Reid
Firstly, it is worth mentioning that the wealth of the Herodian family came from various sources. Welch (
The collection of taxes from his subjects; the collection of tributes other people paid to Rome, of which he was also in charge. At times Herod's tax policies were oppressive, which is why, after his death, people reclaimed tax relief.
Customs duties that he extracted from his control over important routes and maritime commerce.
The rent from the vast expanses of land he owned and its agriculture production. According to Reid (
Secondly, as categorised by Reid (
Thirdly, another group of wealthy people in Israel were the remnant of old Jewish noblemen called aristocrats. Although most of their land was confiscated by Herod and his children, they accumulated their wealth through trade, farm taxes and similar levies (Reid
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garment moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and you will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold, the pay of the labourers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.
The last group of wealthy people in Israel were the prosperous merchants. This is in spite of the fact that they were not part of the land-owning aristocratic class, but still in control of the economy of the country (Reid
Reid does recognise the existence of a small middle class in Israel comprised by skilled artisans, land-owning medium-size farmers and merchants as well as the lower clergy – as was indicated previously. These were not considered part of the wealthier groups in society. Also, as a matter of interest: although tax collectors were financially better off, they were not considered amongst the higher classes (Reid
For the most, the second main group constituting the majority of the population was the poor referred to as ‘the people of the land’. These can also be classified in various subgroups, suggesting different levels of poverty in the 1st century in Israel. A common denominator is that in some way all of these groups experienced oppression and maltreatment by the wealthy groups in Israel (Rhee
the small landowners
the tenant farmers
people without land or artisans skill, hired labourers and beggars – the real poor (Reid
The lowest class of the poor in the 1st century society were slaves. Reid indicates that there were not many slaves in Israel for various reasons. First of all, slaves had to be cared for, therefore, landowners preferred to hire labourers instead. Glass (
Throughout the land a heavy burden was placed on the lower classes in Israel. In addition to working hard and producing food to supply their families, peasants for example, had the other obligation of paying taxes. Basically two types of taxes were imposed in the Roman Empire, namely direct and indirect taxes (Ferguson
In addition to paying land rent, the Jewish peasants were also obligated to pay tithes and tributes (Oakman
Reid (
To summarise this section it should be noted that four factors increased the socio-economic pressure in the 1st-century Palestine, namely natural disasters, overpopulation, the concentration of land ownership for the elites and oppressive tax systems.
Jesus Christ did not remain indifferent to the economic situation of his time. Although he did not speak out openly against the economic injustices, he did raise his concern through different parables that were recorded in the synoptic Gospels. For example the parable of the vine-growers (Mk 12:1–9) portrays the agrarian conflict prevailing in Palestine during Jesus’ time. This parable depicts the greedy and wicked tenant farmers who set out to confiscate the vineyard, and the landowners who utilise violence to collect the rent. Witherington (
According to Matthew 18:23–31, Jesus recounts another parable about a king who wanted to settle his account with his slaves. From this scenario it becomes evident that peasants in those days were in such debt that, in reality, they were unable to repay their taxes (Keener
Jesus’ response to the politics of oppression by the Roman Empire was not popular, nor spectacular. As corrective to the social order of the Roman rule he proclaimed the message of ‘liberation and compassion’ (Evans & Porter
As mentioned previously, the documented digressions of oppression, exploitation and injustice emerged in Palestine when the Israelites sinned by rejecting God's sovereignty, and adopted the secular model of leadership. Thus in accordance, the way towards liberation from the economy of exploitation and injustice requires the reinstatement of the reign of God in the land (Mt 6:10; Lk 12:22–31). This is why Jesus urged his disciples to pray, ‘let your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’ (NIV). In this sense, Jesus laid the foundation on which the early community of his followers forged a new economic order based on caring for others. To follow is the analysis of poverty in the early Christian community.
It is worth mentioning that a lack of accurate data makes it difficult to evaluate the extent of poverty in early Christianity. Yet it should be recognised that the early Christian community did not isolate itself from the Roman society. It was born and developed within the political, social and economic structures of the Roman Empire. Therefore it could not ‘be immune to the pressing realities of poverty that affected the majority in the imperial world’ (Longenecker
Beside the land policy that became an instrument of oppression leading to the impoverishment of many people, Rhee outlines other factors that contributed to the worsening of the socio-economic situation in Palestine. These include ‘overpopulation and over-cultivation of the land, natural disasters such as famine, and earth quakes, and increase in taxes, tributes, and tithes’. One can also mention drought, hurricanes and epidemics (Theissen
Martin and Davids (
This was particularly the case for the Jerusalem assembly that faced severe financial pressure, famine and impoverishment, as the Scriptures attest. For example Acts 11:28–30 records the great famine that struck worldwide, according to the prophecy of Agabus (Ac 11:28), during the reign of Claudius Emperor of Rome in ad 40 (Scott
In his analysis of the Pauline Scriptures at the time when the church moved beyond Jerusalem, Rhee reveals that the majority of the members were labourers, artisans, slaves and recent immigrants. Longenecker (
It has been noted above that poverty was widespread in the 1st century Mediterranean world; many people were poor in the early Christian community. From this perspective Holman (
In this letter the narrator condemns the Roman imperialism as the cause of poverty and injustice. His critique can well be understood within the context of two passages of Revelation, namely chapters 13 and 17–18. The opinions vary the imagery language of John in the two visions described in these passages. Yet many scholars have associated the beast from the sea with the Roman Empire (Mt 2013:193). Holman (
The second text under consideration that represents early Christianity's explanation of the factors contributing to poverty is the letter of Jacob, commonly called James. The letter is believed to have been written by Jacob, Jesus’ brother, in the 1st century. James was a prominent figure, an overseer of the Jerusalem assembly, as Acts 12:17 and Galatians 1:18–19 attest. Unlike John who condemns the Roman imperialism for its oppressive and exploitative system that is perpetuating poverty, James expresses a complete disapproval of the local economic system (e.g. Ja 5:1–6). Here James does not directly decry the Roman economic system, but he condemns the sin of oppression by criticising a fundamental feature of the Roman system of inequality, namely the exploitation of the peasant labourers by the wealthy landowners. As a corrective to such exploitation, James does not appeal to the Christian community to withdraw from the system; rather to resist the imperial exploitation (Holman
The third text Holman examines in regard to the early Christianity understanding of the causes of poverty is the Acts of the Apostles. Luke's historical narrative remains completely silent on the question of economic injustice that prevailed in the 1st century; institutional causes of poverty are not part of his investigation (Holman
The fourth selected text to explain the position of early Christianity on the factors leading to poverty and inequality is the
In summary, the four early Christian texts analysed above do not form a sequence of ideas on the sources and explanations of poverty; but rather provide ‘four appraisals of economic inequality’ (Holman
It is evident that poverty is a subject of much concern in the biblical tradition. Throughout the commentators have understood causes and responses of poverty in the history of Israel and Palestine differently. For example Sakenfeld (
In view of all this the question that arises is about the origin of poverty, the root cause of, or the circumstance that led up to poverty in the early Christian community in Palestine. As already mentioned the understanding of the causes out of which poverty arose greatly affected ideas and the nature of actions people took to address the problem. According to Abue (
The Israelites were sucked in by the lifestyle of the pagan nations they found best to implement in Israel. This situation led to the establishment of the monarchy in Israel, the monarchy in turn introduced oppression that culminated in the subjugation of the whole nation under successive foreign superpowers. These empires reinforced exploitation and the condition of poverty worsened in Israel. In the biblical narratives these two social factors are depicted as the genesis of poverty and misery in Israel. In such an environment early Christianity within Palestine was born and underwent the same economic pressures as other societal groups in the ancient Mediterranean world.
The aim of this article is to investigate socio-historical factors that contributed to poverty in the early Christian community amongst the newly converted Jews. Findings reveal that poverty was widespread in the ancient Mediterranean world, and early Christianity that was born and bred within that society did not escape its impact. Further evidence suggests that many believers in the 1st century were destitute. They came from the lower classes and were living at a subsistence level. Various other factors may have played a role in increasing the levels of poverty, such as war, drought or social issues. However, it was demonstrated that, for the most part, poverty in Israel should be considered as a structural issue with historical roots.
The situation of the poor in Palestine, finds its impact in two socio-historical factors: Israelites’ contact with the pagan nations around them during its establishment in the Canaan land and the imitation and implementation of a secular leadership style in the Promised Land. This led to the advent of the monarchy in Israel when, according to the biblical narrative, the Israelites rejected God's sovereignty to adopt a secular model of leadership. This also resulted in the subjugation of Israel to the superpowers, and ultimately the Roman Empire, as indicated. During that period the situation of poverty in Israel worsened due to oppression and exploitation brought about by the Roman governance system. It is in such an environment of socio-economic inequality that early Christianity in Palestine came into being.
Therefore poverty in the early Christian community can be seen as the continuation of the legacy of the Old Testament era. Certain socio-historic factors did influence the situation of poverty in Palestine during that time and within the socio-economic framework of Greco-Roman political economy. In other words, certain factors structurally entrenched and socio-economically aggravated the already existing poverty. This impacted the Jews as followers in Jesus’ time and also the early Jewish Christians, seeing that they were part of the lower classes and had to find strategies to cope within this socio-economic framework.
Jesus’ social critique had a spiritual focus. It renewed hearts and compassion in contributing to realise God's new world. This new, spiritual dispensation were said to bring an end to the system of oppression, exploitation and injustice that prevailed in the Roman Empire and inaugurate a new era of God's reign on earth through believers. The early Christian community's response to poverty was based on the virtue of the kingdom of God Jesus proclaimed, namely compassion. Within this context the early community practised economic redistribution, collection, hospitality and charity, in order to address the culture of poverty – and this way of life was successful.
The author believes that the subsistence farming with the family structures and city states with sectional leading figures (such as prophets and charismatic leaders) under a direct theocratic governance, would eradicate poverty automatically, since these are indicated as the causes for poverty in the 1st century – and even for the global poverty that we face.
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
Palestine or the land of Canaan (Ac 13:19) refers to the territory that God promised to give to the descendants of Abraham, and which they occupied after having left Egypt. It is also called the Holy Land or the Promised Land (Gn 10:15–19).
Collection was one of the strategies the early community utilised to alleviate poverty. This approach was mostly championed by Paul. The purpose was to make a contribution to the poor in the Jerusalem assembly and to back up Paul's efforts of evangelisation with material support to the Gentiles (Rm 15:25–27; 2 Cor 8–9).
Economic redistribution is the strategy for poverty alleviation used by the early community in the Jerusalem assembly. Believers shared their resources as common possessions, some even went as far as selling their possessions and shared it with everyone in need (Ac 2:42–45). Economic redistribution seemed to have been limited to the Jerusalem assembly. There is no evidence that this conduct was practised outside Jerusalem. The reason is unclear, yet it seemed to have alleviated poverty in the Jerusalem assembly, because the Scripture can testify that ‘there was no one in need …’ (Ac 4:34).