There Shall be No Poor Among You

Hoppe opens his study of the biblical idea of the poor and poverty with the socioeconomic structures in ancient Israel and Roman Palestine, then proceeds systematically to examine the biblical evidence, including the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Apocrypha, and Rabbinic literature. In the Bible, poverty is sometimes a curse and sometimes a blessing. Poverty is portrayed in both physical and metaphorical terms. Hoppe describes the various ways the Bible deals with the poor and poverty, and his primary conclusion is that the Bible never idealizes the reality of material poverty and the oppression caused by the rich. Even when the Bible speaks of the "poverty of the spirit" as a positive religious metaphor, God requires humans to seek social justice. Just as poverty is not idealized in the Bible, the poor belong to the agenda of every community of faith. Ancient Israel, early Judaism, Jesus, and the first Christians did not forget the poor, and if believers today wish to be faithful to their biblical heritage, neither can they. This book provides the practical background for scholars and is a primer for a significant theological motif. It will be useful in the classroom (in college and seminary courses in biblical ethics and social justice), as well as serious Bible study. The book includes study questions and a reading list that will help readers and students further probe history, theology, and application.