Do the Beatitudes teach that Christian believers must be poor to get into Heaven?
One of the most common misunderstandings about what the Bible says about money is the idea that Jesus advocated poverty for believers, based on the words "blessed are the poor."
One of the most common misunderstandings about what the Bible says about money is the idea that Jesus advocated poverty for believers, based on the words "blessed are the poor."
The statement, "blessed are the poor," occurs in the Beatitudes in both Matthew in "the Sermon on the Mount" and in Luke in "the Sermon on the Plain." The statement by Jesus, "blessed are the poor," is a much more radical statement than most of us have ever realized.
In the original Greek, both Matthew and Luke use the word "ptochos." English Bibles translate the Greek word "ptochos" as "poor." Greek has another word for "poor," "penes." Penes referred to people who had to work hard for a living, often struggling to make ends meet. In contrast, a "ptochos" was someone who was utterly destitute and cut off from all family and social ties. In other words, a "ptochos" was a beggar.
In the advanced agrarian society in which Jesus lived, the "penes" were the peasant farmers and artisans struggling to earn a living in an unjust and oppressive system. The "ptochos" were the degraded and expendable people living at the very lowest levels of the society. The "ptochos" were unwanted, displaced, and rejected.
Both Matthew and Luke use the word "ptochos" to claim that the Kingdom of God belongs to the beggars, the destitute, and the expendables.
As soon as the phrase, "blessed are the poor," is disconnected from the vision of the Kingdom of God, it becomes a prime target for a makeover into the idea that Jesus was advocating poverty.
When I think back to my own Sunday school education about Jesus and money, I am both amazed and appalled by how often we were told that Jesus taught that God wanted us to be poor. If being rich was going to keep us out of Heaven, being poor was our best guarantee to get in.
The biggest mistake my Sunday School made is the most typical Christian misunderstanding of the Beatitudes. It confused description with prescription. We didn't understand that Jesus was describing his vision of life under the Kingdom of God. We thought that we had to be poor in order to be blessed. We missed that Jesus was saying that even the poorest of the poor would receive God's blessing. That is the radical statement. We thought he was prescribing required behavior to get into Heaven. We thought God wanted us to be poor. In fact, Jesus was describing his vision of life on Earth without poverty.
Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D. What if most of what you believe about Jesus and money is not true? Don't let Bible study lessons based on mistranslations and biblical urban legends fill you with guilt and confusion about money. I have written a book about 8 sayings of Jesus, Going Broke With Jesus:How Heroic Stories Intended To Liberate The Poor Become Biblical Urban Legends About The Evils Of Money to show how often Christian teaching misunderstands the true intentions of what Jesus said about money. Get your copy at www.GoingBrokeWithJesus.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kalinda_Rose_Stevenson,_PhD |
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