“The Poor Man in Dirty Clothes Will Also Enter”: the Problem of Wealth and Poverty in the Epistle of James

Abstract

The article is devoted to the socio-economic issues outlined in the biblical Epistle of James. The main attention is paid to the possibility of reconstructing, on the basis of the New Testament text, groups of the population that are conventionally called “rich” and “poor”, which makes it possible to analyze to what extent it should be understood as traditional Old Testament righteousness in poverty and how it correlated with social realities of the 1st century. The author’s attention is drawn to the time of the composition of the epistle, to cultural and social profile of its audience, and to regional specifics. Some Old Testament quotations addressed to the judges, the arguments like “didn’t God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom” helps reconstructing the audience of the text, filled with eschatological expectations, that correspondingly had not yet survived the upheavals of the Jewish War, guided by traditional Jewish context. The condemnation of ill-gotten wealth forms the idea of “charitable” poverty. The source of wealth in the Pentateuch is God, He grants material well-being to the righteous for their obedience: wealth is God’s gift to the righteous, and poverty is a consequence of disobedience. However, one should not be puffed up because of one’s wealth, for a poor righteous man is better than a rich rascal. Therefore, the turbulent economic processes in Palestine in the 1st century contributed to the rapid enrichment of some categories of the population, but also caused not only social, but also religious irritation in other ones. In this sense, the Epistle of James is a unique biblical text, where such contradictions are most clearly presented.