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'Poor' and 'Poverty':

Theological Study Series...

"The Message of the Bible provides glimpses of emancipation through the teachings on 'poor' and 'poverty', and such a message of comfort brings impulses for a relevant theology that works 'here' and 'now'."

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18, 19)

The Term 'Poor'

The roots of the term 'Dalit' even go back to pre-biblical Hebrew and pre-classical Sanskrit era. Its ancient form is found in East Semitic group of languages collectively known as Akkadian. In Akkadian, the root is dalalu (be weak or humble). In Hebrew, the root is very close to Sanskrit dal (means, to crack, open, split, scatter, crush, destroy, and like), that which is dall (i.e., poor, below, be reduced, hepless). The poor, although they are often forgotten in our classical literatures, play a large role in the Bible. The concrete Hebrew vocabulary of that time permits us to call forth the pitiful cortege of terms: ras "indigent", dal "frugal" or "meager", ebyon "unfilled mendicant", ani and anaw (in the plural anawim), the "degraded and afflicted one". But the poverty Bible speaks about is not only an economic and social condition, but it can also be an interior disposition, a spiritual attitude. The Old Testament reveals to us the spiritual riches of poverty, and the New Testament sees the truly poor as the privileged heirs of the Kingdom of God.

The Hebrew term dall is used in perfect verb form, dalote, in Ps. 116:6 and 142:7; imperfect verb form, y-dal, in Is. 17:4. In the Bible, it has been used more often as adjective in order to denote the state of certain groups of people. The basic adjective form is dal and masculine plural is dalem and feminine plural dalot or dalat. Examples of these forms are found in Gen. 41:9; Ex. 23:3; Ruth 3:10; 2Sam. 13:4; Job 5:15; Ps. 41:1; Pro. 10:15; Is. 11:4; Jer. 40:7; and Amos 2:7. The collective name used for a community we find in 2 Kings 24:14; Jer. 52:15-16, translated in the RSV and the NRSV, as 'the poorest people of the land' and 'the poorest of the people'. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible helps in knowing the deeper meaning of the Hebrew title dalot in these words: "these are those whose prosperity and social status have been reduced. In this respect they are the opposite of the rich. In physical strength and in psychological ability, they are impaired and helpless".

In classical Greek, ptochos signifies utter dependence on society. As an adjective it means begging, poor, dependent on the help of strangers; as a noun it means beggar. In early Greek thought poverty was not considered having religious value. Charity, especially by the propertied classes to those impoverished by the blows of fate, was considered a virtue because it was useful to society, but it was not regarded as a religious or ethical act. In those days there was no public care for the poor. In later Greek philosophy, poverty was regarded by some as a favorable precondition for virtue. In the Septuagint, ptochos generally translates one of five different Hebrew words. In most cases it is synonymous with penes, another Greek usage for poor.

Jewish Understanding of Poor/Poverty

There were numbers of poor people in Israel at every stage of the nation's history. Their poverty might have been caused through natural disasters leading to bad harvests, through enemy invasion, through oppression by powerful neighbors, and through extortionate usury. There was an obligation on the wealthier members of the community to support their poorer brethren (Deut. 15:1-11). Those who were most likely to suffer poverty were the fatherless and the widows and the landless aliens (gerim). They were often the victims of oppression (Jer. 7:6; Amos 2:6-7a), but Yahweh was their vindicator (Deut. 10: 17-19; Ps. 68:5-6). The law commanded that provisions should be made for them (Dt. 24:19-20) because they had no holding of land.

We identify two types of poor in the Bible, and both come under the concern of God. First, who may be designated as the "natural poor" or those who are reduced to poverty due to physical (biological) or natural (earthquake, drought, etc.) or historical (war, ethnic conflicts, etc.) reasons. There are the differently abled, widows, strangers and foreigners (refugees). These are the poor, who, according to Deut. 15:11 and according to Jesus (cf. Matt. 26:11; Mark 14:7), will always be present in any given society and these poor are entrusted (by Law) to the care of the society. The second category of poor are the victims of injustice, oppression, and exploitation and such poor should not be present in any just society. This is perhaps what is meant when in Deut. 15:4, it is said, "there will be no poor among you". In a society where all people to God's will, justice prevails, and all live happily enjoying God's blessings equally. There is Shalom; no more poverty.

In the first century Palestinian world, the main classes were, a relatively small wealthy class and large poor, peasants and artisan class, in some contexts referred to as "the people of the land". Means, there were essentially two major groups of people, the rich and the poor. The rich included especially the wealthy high-priestly clans. Another wealthy group was the Herodian family and retinue, whose political power was easily translated into wealthy. The third group of wealthy people were the remnants of the older Jewish aristocracy and individuals who had become rich through trade, tax, farming or the like. The final group of wealthy people was prosperous merchants, who had not yet joined the land owning aristocracy, although like them they controlled much of the economic life of the country. Although there was a small middle class of some of the skilled artisans, land-owning medium-sized farmers and merchants, the second major social group was the poor, the peasants, the "people of the land" (am ha ares). The best off were the small landowners, who tended to lead a precarious life which depended on the harvest. The tenant farmers were next best off, although they had to pay their landlord his due before providing for their own families. Worst of were those without land (and without the skills of artisans), the hired laborers and the beggars. They were the truly poor.

Cultural differences existed among the "people of the land" in that some were urban-dwellers and thus closer to the life and values of the urban elite, while the rest (i.e., ninety per cent of the people) were villagers, a step removed from the urban centers. The first response of Judaism to the poor was to encourage the voluntary sharing of wealth, for outside of assistance from a person's extended family, charity or almsgiving was the only form of social assistance available. Governments of that day only intervened, if at all, when mass starvation was threatened. The giving of alms was therefore viewed by Judaism in general as a very important righteous work in the eyes of God. In fact, in Rabbinic Judaism only meditation on Torah (Law) could have outranked charity as a righteous deed. In Jewish circle, except Rabbinic Judaism, the giving of alms was viewed as a means of changing a person's social status. But, Rabbinic Judaism viewed, it as a means of rescuing her/him from the misfortune into which they had fallen and restoring them to their former station in life.

'Poor'/'Poverty' in New Testament

The question of Jesus and the poor had no prominent place in the New Testament research to the early 1970s. The existentialist trend set by Rudolf Bultmann and his school did not give priority to the social background of the New Testament and the socio-ethical dimension of its message. This was changed with the new awareness of the world situation in the seventies. In recent years many biblical studies have been devoted to the question of the social setting and the ethical implications of the New Testament, and many authors have published studies relating to the question of Jesus and the poor.

The New Testament presents Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God of the poor and he comes with the proclamation of the Gospel (Good News) to the poor (Lk. 4:18). His identification with the poor was total and complete. In identifying with the poor and the marginalised, God in Jesus emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7). In His earthly ministry, Jesus was often found in the company of the nameless crowd (ochlos), in the company of the ill-reputed people of the society, the lepers, the harlots, and the tax collectors--people who are condemned and marginalised as sinners. The biting criticism of Jesus in Mark's Gospel against the purity system, which proved to be detrimental to the interests of the poor, the suffering and the outcastes, present before us a corrective to the popular picture of a soft and sweet Jesus. His actions beckon us to actively oppose oppression and injustice in our society and work towards open Kingdom communities, characterized by sharing, service, humility and equality.

The Synoptic Gospels depict Jesus' way of life as one of self-chosen poverty. His reply to a would-be disciple: "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head" (Matt. 8:20). The disciples left all in order to follow Jesus (Matt. 4:18-22; Jn. 1:35-51). Jesus demanded that the rich young ruler sell his possessions and pursue a life of discipleship in poverty as the precondition of eternal life (Matt. 19:16-22; LK. 18:18-24). When Jesus sent out His disciples, they were to go without possessions and provisions (Matt. 10:1-16; Lk. 19:1-6). Jesus told the rich man who wanted to inherit eternal life: "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor" (Mk. 10:21; cf. Lk. 18:22). In Mark 12: 41-44 (cf. Lk. 21:1-4) Jesus says that the apparently negligible gift of the poor woman, entitled to support is far greater than those of the rich.

Luke's Gospel is popularly known as "the Gospel of the underdog" or the "Gospel of the poor". No wonder then that liberation theologies have tended to dwell much on Luke. God's concern for the poor is a reccuring theme in Luke, which liberation theologies have captured. This concern is perhaps best expressed in the Nazareth Manifesto, which is recorded in Lk. 4:18-20. Luke alone narrates the parable of the rich man and the Lazarus (16:19-31). Luke, in his version of the beatitudes, leaves little room for doubt as to the privilege the poor enjoy in the Kingdom of God when he records the words of Jesus thus: "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the KIngdom of God" (6:20). The enlarged form that Matthew uses ("the poor in Spirit") brings out the true nuance, based on Old Testament and Jewish background, that people in affliction have confidence only in God. Luke indicates that the poverty of the beatitudes is a poverty caused by discipleship: those who believe in the Son find all that God's promises for the poor, the miserable, a nd the humble (example, Is. 57:15; 61:1) are fulfilled in Him.

There were heavy taxes of various kinds imposed on the Jews in New Testament times. Probably many were in severe economic straits, while others made considerable profits from collaboration with the Romans. The worldly-minded Sadducees were generally wealthy, as were the tax collectors. In the teachings of Jesus material possessions are not regarded as evil, but as dangerous. The poor must be shown hospitality (Lk. 14:12-14), and given alms (LK. 18:22), though charity was to be secondary to worship (Jn. 12:1-8). The early church made an experiment in the communal holding of wealth (Acts 2:41-42; 4:32). This led at first to the elimination of poverty (Acts 4:34-35). The most systematic exposition about poverty and wealth in the Epistles is found in 2 Cor. 8-9, where Paul sets the idea of Christian charity in the context of the gifts of God and especially that of His Son who 'though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich'. Thus, Jesus' way of life was a conscious identification with the poor. In itself this was an act of loving compassion. At the same time it was a life that deliberately chose to cast itself on the care of Father God.

A Message to Today's Church

The church's solidarity with the poor presupposes the faith commitment or a theological commitment on the part of the church and the part of every member of the church, and on the part of every Christian. A profit oriented, accumulative, consumeristic and competitive economic system pushes aside the powerless and the week and the poor are thus marginalised. Such profit-oriented rich can talk only of charity to the poor, but not of solidarity with the poor, because solidarity with the poor involves sharing the riches with the poor. Solidarity with the poor demands of us a basic faith commitment to a kenotic theology, a self-emptying commitment to the cause of the poor. In practical terms it means a need-based life style, not a want-based consumeristic life style. Only if we are able to limit our wants may there be something to share with the poor. Solidarity with the poor means stepping in for the poor, identifying totally with the poor, accepting the poor and being accepted by the poor, giving for the poor and received by the poor, participating in the joys and sorrows of the poor, sharing in the shame and glory of the poor. Thus Church's solidarity with the poor should become a real living, everyday experience for every Christian.

At the heart of Christian Gospel is the reality of the cross. The theology of the cross seems to have a particular relevance for the poor and oppressed people. The new order inaugurated by Jesus in Nazareth is a paradigm for the contemporary global context. In the present context, the evangelization of the poor will come about only through the combined efforts of competent people who share the vision of Jesus. The liberation of Jesus was not confined within the national limits; but it was liberation for all, promising a freedom b not yet experienced on earth

(This article is an abridged form of the research article of Johnson Thomaskutty, entitled, "Biblical Perspectives on 'Poor' and 'Poverty': Implications in the Dalit Context of India" (Published in the journals, Vidyajyoti: A Journal of Theological Reflections, and Indian Journal of Theology)