Don’t preach in our school, and we won’t think in your church.

The Poor Men, Jesus and Christianity 1

Page Tags: Ebionites, Ebionim, Poor Men, Poor Widow, Christ, Christian, Christians, Church, Essenes, God, Jesus, Kingdom, Rich Young Man, Wealth, Mark, Nazarenes

Christians cannot escape from the fact that, in Jesus’s parable of Dives and Lazarus, we are the rich man, clothed and fed in comfort, and also guilty of appalling negligence concerning the starving and sick man at our gate… We have ignored the insistent theme throughout the scriptures—that God has always been on the side of the poor.
Rev David C K Watson

Rich and Poor In the Jewish Scriptures
The Ebionites
A Poor Widow

Abstract

Origen classified the Ebionites as those who believed in the virgin birth and those who rejected it. Both the Jewish sabbath and the Christian Lord’s Day were holy to them, and they expected the establishment of a messianic kingdom in Jerusalem. Eusebius describes as Ebionites those who held the brother of Jesus, James the Just, in special regard. They had no regard at all for Paul, and Christ was not divine but a plain, naturally conceived man who achieved righteousness through his character. Can it be coincidence that “The Poor Ones” was a name of the followers of James in the Jerusalem Church in the New Testament? Paul claims the only condition James imposed upon him in his missions to the gentiles was to remember the poor. He is reminding him to send money not for any poor but for “The Poor”, the Nazarenes, who, after the defeated uprising, had a lot of widows to support.

Rich and Poor In the Jewish Scriptures

The Jewish scriptures, which Christians are sure that Jesus believed, have always been an integral part of the Christian bible, and even the Old Testament God identifies with the weak and destitute:

He who oppresses a poor man insults his Maker.
Prov 14:31

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto Yehouah and that which he hath given will He pay him again.
Prov 19:17

The law of Moses declares that no human being owns anything in perpetuity because everything belongs only to God!

Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Yehouah Elohim’s, the earth also, with all that therein is. �
Dt 10:14

The earth is Yehouah’s, and the fulness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein.
Ps 24:1

The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
Lev 25:23

Ownership was always for a limited period in the Old Testament. Those who had the use of what was properly God’s did so only so long as they were just and charitable to the poor. True enough, neither Jews nor Christians have taken any notice of this, but though they ignore what is inconvenient for them, they are directly opposing their own God’s Word.

The stern message of God’s retribution against the rich was already present in the Jewish scriptures, as exemplified by Isaiah, the greatly respected prophet of the Essenes and the early Christians:

Yehouah standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. Yehouah will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof, for ye have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord Yehouah of hosts.
Isaiah 3:13

Ebionites

Money has a dangerous way of putting scales on ones eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people’s hands, eyes, lips and hearts.
Dom Helder Camara

Judæa had historically been a poor country, but under Greek and Roman influence many Jews discovered a talent for commerce and developed a taste for wealth, especially the ruling class of Sadducees. So even before the “Abomination of Desolation” when the Greeks violated the Jewish temple with a statue of Zeus, Ben Sira could complain that the citizens of Jerusalem thought poverty disgraceful. Evidently the disgust of the Essenes for the Greek way of life included a disgust for the love of money and extortionate exploitation of the poor that was concomitant with it.

The Church Fathers spoke of early Christian sects (Ebionaioi) which still held on to some Jewish beliefs. In Hebrew, “ebyon” means “poor”. Irenaeus (AH 1:26:2), Origen (CC 2:1; DP 4:1:22) and Eusebius (HE 3:27) say Ebionites were called poor because of their “poor and mean opinions concerning Christ”. In fact, the name was used by the Essenes of themselves, as the Scrolls show plainly. Aramaic quite commonly uses as nouns adjectives like “poor”, “pious”, “holy”, “just”, “righteous”, “perfect” and “meek”. The Qumran literature often speaks of the community as “The Poor,” “The Meek” and “The Downtrodden” which, in the scrolls, seem to be used interchangeably. The scrolls have hymns to “The Poor”. This name the Essenes gave to themselves was a reaction to the cultural imperialism of the Greeks—Hellenization—which had led to the displacement of the original Persian Magi (“Hasidim”, The Holy Ones) from the temple, and the substitution of Hellenized priests. The Hasids who remained faithful to the original Persian traditions constantly opposed the new rulers in Jerusalem (the Scoffers), and were persecuted by them. Thus they remained poor but true to their traditional conception of Judaism.

“The Poor” are those who believed in the spiritual virtue of poverty, like Christ himself! That is the meaning of the phrase “poor in spirit”, used both by Christ and the Essene sectaries, and practised by the apostles and the Essenes. Can it be coincidence that “The Poor Ones” was a name of the followers of James in the Jerusalem Church (Gal 2:10 and Jas 2:3-5)? What the Greeks translating the words of the evangelists did not know was that the words they used when they said—“the poor”, “the holy” or “the righteous” meant the Essenes and not the poor, holy or righteous in general. Paul claims the only condition James imposed upon him in his missions to the gentiles was to remember “the poor”. He is reminding him to send money not for any poor but for “The Poor”, the Nazarenes, who, after the defeated uprising, had a lot of widows to support (Acts 6:1-6). Though there must be occasions in the New Testament when these words have been used in a general sense, perhaps by a later editor, in their original use they refer to the Essenes. Plainly, they were the orthodox Jewish Christians of Palestine who continued as Jews to observe the Mosaic Law. Isolated from the bulk of Christians from the time of the Jewish War they continued to practice the apostolic life, like the Essenes and Jesus, unpolluted by gentile adaptations until, the gentile Church Fathers declared them heretical. It was the gentile Church that was.

“The Meek” was also one of the community’s names for itself. Jesus said:

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,
Mt 5:5

an exact expression of the community’s beliefs about itself for, when God created His kingdom on earth, the elect would inherit it. In one scroll fragment (4Q521), the pious are glorified on the throne of the everlasting kingdom, and the righteous are promised resurrection. Adonai (Lord—God or the messiah?) visits “the meek”, calls the righteous by name, makes the blind see, raises up the downtrodden and resurrects the dead, and his spirit hovers over “the meek” announcing to them glad tidings. This astonishing little fragment alone ought to be sufficent to prove the relationship of early Christianity with the Essenes…

…the heavens and the earth will listen to His messiah, and none therein will stray from the commandments of the holy ones. Seekers of Adonai, strengthen yourselves in His service! All you hopeful in (your) heart, will you not find Adonai in this? For Adonai will seek the pious (hasidim) and call the righteous by name. Over the meek His spirit will hover and will renew the faithful with His power. And He will glorify the pious on the throne of the eternal Kingdom. He who liberates the captives, restores sight to the blind, straightens the bent, and forever I will cleave to the hopeful and in His mercy… And the fruit… will not be delayed for anyone. And Adonai will accomplish glorious things which have never been as… For He will heal the wounded, and revive the dead and bring good news to the poor… He will lead the uprooted and knowledge… and smoke…
G Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q521

J D Tabor, on his excellent website comments that this passage contains an exact verbal parallel with the passages in Matthew and Luke for identifying the times of the messiah. It appears in the “Q” source common to Matthew and Luke, thought to have been a pre-gospel collection of worthy sayings. Here we have a precise verbal formula, repeated in this fragment and in the source “Q”, showing some at least of its material was pre-Christian—not merely pre-gospels—because it was Essene. The early Christians, like the Essenes called “elect” or “saints”, were expecting to rule over the gentiles and even judge angels (1 Cor 6:1-4).

Joseph of Arimathea, who was likely to have been an Ebionite, was eventually described by Christians as a rich man to fulfil the “prophecy” of Isaiah 53 that the suffering servant would be buried in a rich man’s tomb! The suffering servant was actually a stage of the annual coronation of the king at Rosh Hashanah, a stage when the king was ritually stripped of all his finery and is struck on the face in a ceremonial demonstration of his humility. A king will normally end up in a rich man’s tomb!

A Poor Widow

In Mark 12:38-12:44, “the poor” feature again when Jesus comments on his observation of a poor widow making a contribution to the temple corban. In Mark 12:18 we had an audience of Sadducees but since then it was scribes. If this is a genuine sequence then Sadducees it would have been all along, because they were the caretakers of the temple which Jesus had occupied. Though that is not always obvious, it is here. The characteristics are more applicable to the priests than to the Pharisees. There were local priests in every village and it is they rather than the Pharisees who would behave in the way described. It would be unwise to argue that some Pharisees did not have an exaggerated idea of their own piety but many did not, despite the impression Mark tries to force upon his readers.

The families of priests took it in turns in serving in the temple and would have expected the men of the land to recognize and admire their close practical contact with God. The best clue, though, is the implication that they robbed widows. Pharisees could not be accused of so doing but the priesthood could. The priests were known to have been ready to turn to extortion to add to the temple’s coffers and it must be to this that Mark is alluding, widows then as now being particularly open to emotional pressure, especially religious pressure. As if to prove the point Mark moves on to the next part of the story.

The reference to scribes is shown now to mean Sadducees. The treasury was the temple treasury and because it was the feast of unleavened bread it was obligatory according to Deuteronomy 16:16-17 for everyone to give a sum to the temple. Originally it was only men but the law had been extended to both sexes.

Jesus has just said that those who devour widow’s houses will be damned meaning they will not be admitted into the kingdom of eternal life, God’s kingdom. Mark shows Jesus as demonstrating in reality what he means. They observe people casting their gifts into the temple treasury and it is the poor widow who puts in her entire livelihood. Widows were inclined to make gifts they could ill-afford in memory of their deceased husbands. The extension to women of the ordinance of Moses in Deuteronomy had made it almost an obligation. The beneficiaries were the already wealthy priesthood. The point of the demonstration is twofold:

a condemnation of the Sadducees who accept the last farthing from a poor woman
a further condemnation of the rich for whom an abundance meant little.

Jesus was one of the poor, an Essene. Jesus next leaves the temple but it is worth noting that, according to Eiseler, some fragments of an unknown gospel and of Josephus say that Jesus officiated as a priest, entering the holy place, implying both that Jesus had the role of an alternative priest and that he was in a position to play it because the temple had been captured. The only people who maintained a priestly tradition outside the temple priesthood were the community at Qumran, the Essene guardians of the Dead Sea Scrolls.