Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
The collection for Jerusalem
Paul gathered money from his mostly Gentile churches for the poor believers in Jerusalem, much as Jews everywhere sent the temple tax to the holy city.
Every church in the region took up an offering for the struggling mother church, and a few trusted people drove it there. Jews all over the world sent money to Jerusalem every year for the temple, carried by trusted messengers. Paul organized something like it among the churches he had founded. Gentile believers in Macedonia and Achaia gave money for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem, and Paul planned to take it there himself. For him it showed that Jewish and Gentile believers belonged to one family.
Sending money to Jerusalem was a common Jewish practice around the Mediterranean. Above all there was the annual temple tax, the half-shekel every Jewish man paid, carried to Jerusalem by trusted messengers. It expressed the solidarity of Jews everywhere with the holy city. Keener and his notes say the Gentile believers' offering expressed the same solidarity between Gentile and Jewish believers. Rome protected the Jewish practice. Josephus quotes a decree of Augustus that the Jews' "sacred money be not touched, but be sent to Jerusalem" and that anyone caught stealing it from a synagogue be treated as sacrilegious. In some Judean circles, Qumran especially, the poor had become a name for the devout. Jewish teachers treated the laws on caring for the poor as a test of whether a Gentile convert had truly accepted God's law. Wright thinks the Jerusalem church was poor because its members had pooled their property and then faced a famine and the hostility of their neighbors. Many Jews expected the nations to bring tribute to Jerusalem at the end (Isaiah 60:11-14). Some Jerusalem believers may have seen the gift that way, while Paul may have thought more broadly of unity. The risks were practical too. Before banknotes, Wright points out, Paul's party had to carry large sums by road and ship and stay at wayside inns. Refusing a gift declared enmity, so a refusal would be rare, though Wright thinks some Jewish believers may have found Gentile money tainted. Paul's sealing of the fruit recalls the seal on commercial goods that guaranteed their contents.
An analogy: churches in a prosperous new suburb sending relief to the struggling old congregation downtown that first sent them missionaries. The money helps, but the real message is that the two congregations belong to each other.
Because Jews everywhere sent money to Jerusalem, Paul's gift from Gentile churches in Romans 15:25-27 spoke the language of solidarity in a new way, Gentiles giving to Jewish believers. He urges it on the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 8-9 and mentions the alms he brought to his nation at his hearing in Acts 24:17.
Not relief between two branches of one people. The gift crossed the line between Gentile and Jew, which is why Paul asked for prayer that it would be welcomed. It also carried echoes a suburban gift does not: the temple tax every Jewish man sent, and the hope that the nations would one day bring tribute to Jerusalem.
How Jerusalem would see the gift. Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes suggest some may have seen it as the beginning of the nations' promised tribute to Zion, while Paul thought of unity. Wright thinks some Jewish believers may have found it hard to accept money from Gentile sources at all, which is why Paul asks for prayer that it be welcomed.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-15-25-33\/","n":"Romans 15:25-33, The gift for Jerusalem","s":"Before coming west Paul must take a gift from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia to the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. He asks for prayer that he will be kept safe and the gift accepted.","r":"Romans 15:25-33"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-16-1-24\/","n":"1 Corinthians 16:1-24, The collection and final greetings","s":"Paul arranges a weekly setting aside of money for the believers in Jerusalem, plans his travels, commends Timothy, Apollos and the household of Stephanas, and closes with greetings, a line in his own hand and the Aramaic prayer Marana tha.","r":"1 Corinthians 16:1-24"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-8-1-15\/","n":"2 Corinthians 8:1-15, The Macedonians' giving and the manna","s":"Paul holds up the generosity of the poor Macedonian churches, appeals to Christ who became poor, and asks the Corinthians to finish their gift so that there may be equality, as there was with the manna in the wilderness.","r":"2 Corinthians 8:1-15"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-8-16-9-15\/","n":"2 Corinthians 8:16-9:15, Envoys for the collection and the cheerful giver","s":"Paul commends Titus and two brothers appointed by the churches to carry the gift, takes care that no one can fault him in handling it, and urges the Corinthians to have their promised gift ready, since God loves a cheerful giver.","r":"2 Corinthians 8:16-9:15"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-12-11-18\/","n":"2 Corinthians 12:11-18, Not a burden: parents save for their children","s":"Paul says the Corinthians forced him to play the fool; the signs of an apostle were done among them, and his only fault was not to burden them, since parents save up for their children, not children for their parents.","r":"2 Corinthians 12:11-18"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-2-1-10\/","n":"Galatians 2:1-10, Titus, the pillars and the right hand of fellowship","s":"Fourteen years later Paul goes up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and the uncircumcised Titus; Titus is not made to be circumcised, and the leaders reputed to be pillars give Paul the right hand of fellowship, asking only that he remember the poor.","r":"Galatians 2:1-10"}
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 15:16, 15:25-26, 15:27 and 15:28
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Romans 15:16, 15:26, 15:27 and 15:31
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 16.6.2, trans. William Whiston
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Romans, Part Two, comment on Romans 15:25-33
