‘Enterprise Values’ in the New Testament and Antecedent Works

Abstract

This paper contributes to the debate about religion and enterprise by analysing proto-Christianity's theology of enterprise values. It shows that the Galilean Jesus Movement (from around AD 24–30) exhibited considerable hostility to the pursuit of wealth, and that this stance became more pronounced still for the post-crucifixion Jerusalem Love Community (around AD 27–66), which also rejected individual property holding and labour. The Pauline school, which commenced with Paul's missionary journeys to Asia Minor in the late AD 40s, began the process of sanctifying labour. Nevertheless, a pronounced suspicion of the profit motive, and of a concern for trade, can be seen throughout the New Testament, in common with many of the antecedent Ancient Greek and Old Testament works by which it is influenced.