Leviticus 1-19
Part of an ongoing series looking at all the many passages in the Bible that deal with wealth and poverty issues. You can see the links to the other passages in the series under the heading "The Bible and Economics" below.
Today, I'm looking at Leviticus, which has a LOT to say about Stuff. Of course, Leviticus contains many of the Laws given by God to Israel, and as such, there are many passages about how to resolve Stuff disputes (ie, what to do when someone steals or harms something belonging to another) and labor disputes and disputes about slaves, etc. Let's look at a sampling of these, at least...
When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the LORD a female lamb or goat...
If he cannot afford a lamb, he is to bring two doves or two young pigeons to the LORD as a penalty for his sin...
If, however, he cannot afford two doves or two young pigeons, he is to bring as an offering for his sin a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering.
~Lev 5:5-11
[Here, we have an instance of making allowances for the poor. If you sinned, you were to bring a lamb as an offering. However, if you couldn't afford a lamb, you were to bring two doves OR, if you couldn't afford that, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour. The point appears to be that we ought to make allowances for the poor and recognize that not everyone can afford everything equally and, it seems to me, justice therefore demands that we make allowances. While this theme is repeated often in the Bible, it does seem to be a bit in contrast to the spirit of "equal payment, regardless" we saw in an earlier look at Genesis - "Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the LORD. The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the LORD".]
Carrying on in Leviticus...
The LORD said to Moses: "If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbor about something entrusted to him or left in his care or stolen, or if he cheats him, or if he finds lost property and lies about it, or if he swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do - when he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, or whatever it was he swore falsely about.
He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering. ~Lev 6:1-5
Straightforward enough, if you steal or defraud, you must make amends AND THEN SOME. An interesting note is that there are no jails in Israel. Just punishment for crimes and "sin offerings," on top of restitution. Of course, when the laws were written they would have been a nomadic people, so it would be hard to have a jail. Still, I wonder how that would fly today? Hmmm... Jumping ahead, then... [and I won't quote it, but I always chuckle when I read in Lev 14 about the "Cleansing from Mildew," I don't know why, it just seems funny in the Bible.]
"Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him."
"Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight."
"Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD."
"Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly."
"Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD."
"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
"Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt."
~Lev 19:13-15; 30; 33-35
I'll end there for now. There is still more in Leviticus, including the Sabbath laws, which I think are EXTREMELY pertinent to what the Bible has to say about wealth and poverty, so I'll come back to that later. Thoughts on all this?
11 comments:
It would appear that the Bible strongly affirms property rights.
I don't know so much that the text affirms that explicitly. Maybe. It certainly affirms not taking what doesn't belong to you, can we extrapolate an affirmation for property rights from that? Perhaps.
I tend to think there are at least some property rights-type inclinations in the Bible. But I also think it is a limited property right. We are frequently reminded, for instance, that everything belongs to God, all the earth and everything therein. We are but caretenders.
Also, as we'll see later in Leviticus, with the property rights come some basic responsibilities and there are "poverty rights" that come in to play. When the farmer gleans his field, he is to leave the edges and corners for the poor. That does not "belong" to the owner but to the poor, I believe is a fair way of expressing it - keeping always in mind that it all belongs to God and we are to set aside part of what we "own" for the poor and foreigners, for that "belongs" to them, provision from God.
Ya think?
I think that it's best described as a landlord-tenant-outsider system. The ultimate landlord is God, who leases out his property to renters, who own the property in a sense, but not in the ultimate sense. The renter may, however, restrict outsiders from interfering with his property.
It's also clear that the God of the Bible has little tolerance for those who are not charitable to the poor. This emphasis grows only stronger as one proceeds chronologically.
Those of us in the peace/justice movement are fond of pointing out the difference between justice and charity. The way the Bible is written, it's not "charity" to set aside the portion of the field for the poor and foreigner - it's justice.
Charity implies a hierarchy - the Big Good Helper assisting the Poor/needy, and the problem with that is that it puts the poor in a position of servility, of being obliged to be grateful.
On the other hand, when they are just getting what God has said is theirs, the gratitude is to God. The landowner has done nothing other than "allow" the poor to take what God says is owed to them.
The advantage to approaching it like this is that then the landowner and poor are not in a patriarchal, me over you system, but a more of a family with all members on equal footing.
I am not sure I'm putting that in exactly the right words for what I'm getting across, but I'm tired. Maybe it makes sense.
Would this mean that if a wealthy person is not generous, the poor have a right to take a portion of his wealth by force?
Hey!
Are you guys keeping safe and dry?
glub, glub...
No, John, I don't think that's what it would mean. I assume you don't think so, either, correct?
So, what are we to do with passages/themes that command God's people to share with the poor - not in a sense of the Big Charitable Rich Guy helping out the Lowly, Miserable Poor Gal, but in the sense of economic justice - just setting aside for them what God says is rightfully theirs?
I suggest that Christians obey such commands, but not force others to obey them.
Agreed.
Sorry to interrupt, Dan, but I've made a quick request here, in our discussion at Craig's.
If you could reply to it there, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Otherwise, carry on.
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