How the Poor become Blessed

How the poor became blessed

Pieter van der Horst

Much of what has been presented here is about theory, about how it should be, which is not necessarily as it was in reality. We have to distinguish between what Bolkestein called ‘preached ethics’ and ‘lived ethics’. And unfortunately we know much more about the ‘preached’ theory than about the ‘lived’ practice. This implies that, as far as poor relief is concerned, the practice might have been worse, much worse, than the theory. When we see how often and how vehemently the Hebrew prophets fulminated against oppression and exploitation of the poor, it is clear that the theory was frequently not brought into practice. On the other hand, it is also possible that in Greco-Roman societies, in spite of the indifference towards the poor that one finds so often expressed, in actual practice there was much more compassion for them and much more genuine humanitarian concern than one would expect. But we simply do not know.

However, a line from a letter written by an emperor should be remembered. In 362 CE, Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of the Roman Empire, wrote in a letter to a priest in Asia Minor that lots of corn should be distributed to the inhabitants of Galatia; one-fifth of it should be given to the poor, and the rest to strangers and beggars. Notably, he then adds: ‘For it is a shame that, when no Jew ever has to beg and the impious Galilaeans [Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us.’

So in spite of any relativising observations, it remains an indisputable fact that organised charity in the sense of a communal obligation towards the needy, which was by and large unknown in Greco-Roman culture, was created by the Jews and adopted by the Christians. And one can hardly deny that these developments were inspired by the sincere conviction that humankind should imitate God’s special concern for the most vulnerable among humans – the poor.

Not sure how much of ancient history can be considered an "indisputable fact" but the article is definitely interesting.