I was recently asked by a development expert at a large non-profit about the view of “the poor” in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. This is a really excellent question, and the answer presents us all with a significant challenge.
For a text that is thousands of years old - and lacks the access to modern economic theory and data that we now have - the Bible actually presents a remarkably comprehensive picture of poverty. For instance, in the original Hebrew language, there was at least eight different words used to describe someone in poverty, from aniy (the afflicted and oppressed poor), to dal (the working lower class poor), ebyown (the landless poor) and the machcowr (the lazy poor), among others. There is also a strong recognition that groups of people enduring similar circumstances run the risk of facing poverty: the orphan, the widow and the foreigner were continually highlighted for special concern and provision (see Deuteronomy 10:18).
But importantly, the Old Testament often refers to the poor as ‘your brother’.
The term ‘brother’ is frequently coupled with ‘muwk’, (See Lev 25:25) which translates as ‘becomes poor’.
The Biblical idea here is twofold:
People experiencing poverty should be viewed as family. They are not to be “othered”: the poor are not someone else, but someone just like you and your family.
People “become poor” (just as they “become rich”). They are not “poor” as a permanent condition. It is a transitory state of being that anyone, given the right (or wrong) circumstances, can experience. Poverty is not who you are, it is what you’re experiencing.
(This is why I hate the term “the homeless”, it completely depersonalizes someone. They are people first, and experiencing homelessness second. We eradicated “the disabled” from our vocabulary years ago, replacing with a person-first ‘person with a disability’. When are we going to do the same with our brothers and sisters experiencing the loss of their homes?)
This Biblical viewpoint is challenging to all of us who wanted to positively engage with this human struggle. How do we view those experiencing poverty? Do we see them as a charity project, and someone to mercifully save with our generosity? If so, we’ll probably categorize them as “the poor”, and throw some money their way while remaining at a safe, comfortable distance.
However, if they are our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters - people just like us and our families, who happen to have fallen on hard times - then our approach must reflect this.
We must be prepared to meet one another on the level of fellow human beings.
We must be resolved to see our new friends as co-bearers of Imago Dei, who have their own skills, gifts and talents and capable of simultaneously supporting themselves and enriching the wider human community. We must be determined to see these men, women and children as self-determining individuals who already have their own personal goals, hopes, dreams and criteria for a successful life. We must enjoy sharing our common humanity, we must genuinely celebrate one another’s success, and we must swiftly forgive mistakes (and accept forgiveness for ours).
Given this, our challenge is to simply release whatever resource we have at hand to help bridge the gap between their current experiences and their future success.
This is how family treat each other, and this is how we’re instructed to treat “the poor”.
Dr Phillip Barnard is committed to helping more people engage practically, intelligently and compassionately with the issue of poverty in our world.