Alms

Alms — voluntary giving to the poor — runs as a single thread through the whole canon, from Mosaic statute through wisdom and prophet, into the teaching of Jesus, and out into the apostolic collections for the Jerusalem saints. The pattern is consistent: an open hand to the brother in need, with the giver's posture (cheerful, unforced, undivided) treated as part of the gift. The poor are not an abstraction — they are present at the gate, in the field, on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho — and the obligation to them is repeatedly named as a test of whether the love of God remains in a person at all.

Open your hand to your poor brother

The Torah's foundational alms statute is in Deuteronomy. The sabbatical-year release does not abolish the duty to lend; it intensifies it. "If there is with you a poor man, one of your brothers, inside any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you will not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother" (De 15:7). The next verses press the point and forbid evasive arithmetic: "but you will surely open your hand to him, and will surely lend him sufficient for his need [in that] which he wants. You be careful not to base a thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and your eye is evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cries to Yahweh against you, and it is sin to you. You will surely give to him, and your heart will not be grieved when you give to him; because for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to. For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command you, saying, You will surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land" (De 15:8-11).

Leviticus continues the same rule for the brother whose strength has failed: "And if your brother is waxed poor, and his hand fails with you; then you will uphold him: [as] a stranger [who is a] sojourner he will live with you" (Le 25:35). And the released Hebrew slave is not to be sent away empty: "you will not let him go empty: you will furnish him liberally out of your flock, and out of your threshing-floor, and out of your wine press; as Yahweh your God has blessed you you will give to him" (De 15:12-14).

The triennial tithe and the protected poor

The third-year tithe is, by statute, alms. It is laid up "inside your gates" so that "the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are inside your gates, will come, and will eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do" (De 14:28-29). Deuteronomy returns to the same arrangement at the end of the tithing cycle: "When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you will give it to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat inside your gates, and be filled" (De 26:12).

The fatherless and the widow are the canonical recipients, named in pair after pair. "He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the sojourner, in giving him food and raiment" (De 10:18); "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation" (Ps 68:5); "Yahweh preserves the sojourners; He upholds the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked he turns upside down" (Ps 146:9). They are not to be afflicted: "You⁺ will not afflict any widow, or fatherless child" (Ex 22:22). Their pledges are not to be taken: "You will not wrest the justice [due] to the fatherless sojourner, nor take the widow's raiment for a pledge" (De 24:17). Their fields are not to be encroached: "Don't remove the ancient landmark; And don't enter into the fields of the fatherless" (Pr 23:10). What the rich do to them is registered as crime: "They pluck the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge of the poor" (Job 24:9). Ben Sira keeps the same posture and adds a reward — "Be as a father to the fatherless, And in the place of a husband to widows. And God will call you son, And will be gracious to you" (Sir 4:10) — and the same divine attention: "He does not ignore the cry of the orphan, Nor the widow when she pours out her complaint" (Sir 35:17).

The gleaning provision is the same statute under a different name. Boaz tells his young men, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and don't reproach her" (Ru 2:15) — agricultural alms by deliberate undermanagement of the harvest, with Ruth as its illustrative recipient.

The cry of the poor

The Psalter prays from the side of the poor and answers from the side of God. The poor man calls himself "poor and needy" and waits on Yahweh's deliverance: "But I am poor and needy; [Yet] the Lord thinks on me: You are my help and my deliverer; Make no tarrying, O my God" (Ps 40:17); "Bow down your ear, O Yahweh, and answer me; For I am poor and needy" (Ps 86:1). What the just king does is the alms-mandate set in royal form: "For he will deliver the needy when he cries, And the poor, who has no helper" (Ps 72:12). Yahweh himself is described in the same role: "Yahweh, who is like you, Who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him, Yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?" (Ps 35:10); "The helpless commits [himself] to you; You have been the helper of the fatherless" (Ps 10:14). The petition that follows is "Rescue the poor and needy: Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked" (Ps 82:4).

Ben Sira develops the same pattern at length. The cry of the poor is not a rhetorical figure; it has acoustic effect on heaven: "Supplication from the mouth of a poor man [reaches] to the ears of the Lord, And his vindication comes quickly" (Sir 21:5); "The cry of the poor passes through the clouds, And until it reaches [God] it does not rest; It will not cease until God visits" (Sir 35:21). The corresponding warning is steep: "[As] one who slays a son in the sight of his father, [So] is he who brings a sacrifice from the belongings of the poor. The bread of the needy is the life of the poor, He who deprives him of it is a man of blood" (Sir 34:24-25).

The wisdom of giving

Proverbs gives the giver-and-receiver economy in epigram. The bountiful eye is blessed: "He who has a bountiful eye will be blessed; For he gives of his bread to the poor" (Pr 22:9); "He who gives to the poor will not lack; But he who hides his eyes will have many a curse" (Pr 28:27); "The liberal soul will be made fat; And he who waters will be watered also himself" (Pr 11:25); "There is one who scatters, and increases yet more; And there is one who withholds more than is meet, but [tends] only to want" (Pr 11:24). The valiant woman is described by the same gesture: "She stretches out her hand to the poor; Yes, she reaches forth her hands to the needy" (Pr 31:20). The duty extends even to the enemy at one's gate: "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink: For you will heap coals of fire on his head, And Yahweh will reward you" (Pr 25:21-22). To shut the ear is to forfeit one's own audience: "Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, He also will cry, but will not be heard" (Pr 21:13). And almsgiving has a long horizon — "Cast your bread on the waters; for you will find it after many days" (Ec 11:1).

Ben Sira presses the same wisdom both in posture and in scale. The hand is to be open: "And likewise to the needy, hold out your hand; So that your blessing may be complete" (Sir 7:32); "Do not let your hand be stretched out to receive, And drawn back to return" (Sir 4:31). The discrimination is not against the poor but against the unworthy proud — "Give to good and withhold from evil; Treasure the poor and do not give to the proud" (Sir 12:7); and "If you do good, know to whom you are doing good; And there will be hope for your goodness" (Sir 12:1). Means dictate measure but do not abolish duty: "My son, do good to yourself if you have the means; And prosper according to the power of your hand" (Sir 14:11); "Before you die, do good to a friend; And give to him according to your means" (Sir 14:13). Storage of alms in heaven is named in nearly the same shape as Jesus' later saying: "Store up alms in your store-chambers, And it will deliver you from all affliction" (Sir 29:12). Alms function liturgically: "He who renders kindness offers fine flour, And he who gives alms sacrifices a thanksgiving offering" (Sir 35:3-4). And what is given is given with a good eye and according to means: "Give to God according to his gift to you, With a good eye and according as your hand has prospered" (Sir 35:12).

The bitter side is also catalogued. A gift can be spoiled by the giver: "My son, do not put a blemish on [your] good deeds, Nor [cause] grief through words in any gift" (Sir 18:15); "There is a gift that profits you nothing, And there is a gift that brings a double recompense" (Sir 20:10); "He gives little and criticizes much, And opens his mouth like a herald. Today he lends and tomorrow he asks it back, Hateful is such a one to God and man" (Sir 20:15). Some "gifts" are bribes — "Presents and gifts blind the eyes of the wise, And as a muzzle on the mouth turn away reproofs" (Sir 20:29). And the disposition of the rich toward the needy is rarely flattering — "The rich pastures on those who are needy" (Sir 13:19); "The rich speaks out and his helpers are many. ... The needy is tripped [saying], Reach out! Reach out! And lift me! And he spoke out wisely, but there is no place for him" (Sir 13:22).

The poor man is never to be despised: "My son, do not mock at the life of the poor, And do not grieve the eyes of him who is in bitterness of soul" (Sir 4:1); "Do not despise the requests of the needy" (Sir 4:4); "Incline your ear to the poor, And answer his [greeting of] Peace, with meekness" (Sir 4:8); "Do not mock at one who wears [only] a loincloth; And do not scorn at a bitter day" (Sir 11:4). The almsgiver is to be patient: "Nevertheless with the lowly man be longsuffering, And do not let him wait for alms. Help the poor for the commandment's sake, And do not grieve for the loss" (Sir 29:8-9). And the standing of the poor man is not measured by his coat: "There is the needy who is honored because of his understanding; And there is he who is honored because of his riches" (Sir 10:30).

The chosen fast

Isaiah recasts the whole arrangement as the fast Yahweh actually chooses. Religious exercise without alms is rejected: "Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you⁺ break every yoke?" (Is 58:6). The positive content follows immediately and is unmistakably alms: "Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you don't hide yourself from your own flesh?" (Is 58:7). With the consequence: "and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday" (Is 58:10). Earlier prophets carry the same charge in shorter form — "learn to do well; seek justice, correct oppression, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Is 1:17); "do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow" (Je 22:3) — and Daniel applies it as policy advice to a Gentile king: "break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of your tranquility" (Da 4:27).

Sell that which you have, and give alms

Jesus continues the line and sharpens it. The duty of giving is named in the imperative — "He who has two coats, let him impart to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise" (Lu 3:11) — and the promise of recompense is named in his own measure: "give, and it will be given to you⁺; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will give into your⁺ bosom. For with what measure you⁺ mete it will be measured to you⁺ again" (Lu 6:38). The teaching to the disciples puts treasure into the hands of the poor and away from the moth: "Sell that which you⁺ have, and give alms; make for yourselves wallets which do not wear out, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief draws near, neither moth destroys" (Lu 12:33). The same point is repeated to the rich ruler in concrete form — "One thing you lack yet: sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me" (Lu 18:22). The Pharisees, "lovers of money," scoff (Lu 16:14); the warning runs the other way: "Take heed, and keep yourselves from all greed: for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses" (Lu 12:15).

The widow's two lepta

The treasury scene is the canonical illustration of giving according to ability. "And there came a poor widow, and she cast in two lepta, which make a quadrans" (Mr 12:42); Luke has only "And he saw a certain poor widow casting in there two lepta" (Lu 21:2). Jesus' verdict: "Truly I say to you⁺, This poor widow cast in more than all those who are casting into the treasury" (Mr 12:43); and at length, "Of a truth I say to you⁺, This poor widow cast in more than all of them: for all these of their superfluity cast in to the gifts; but she of her want cast in all the living that she had" (Lu 21:1-4). The standard is not the size of the heap but the depth from which it is drawn.

Zacchaeus

Zacchaeus stands as the converted-rich counterpart. "And Zacchaeus stood, and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted anything of any man, I restore fourfold" (Lu 19:8). Half to alms, fourfold restitution for wrong — restitution and almsgiving as a single act of repentance.

The Samaritan, the priest, and pitilessness

The Samaritan parable specifies what alms looks like on the road. The priest "passed by on the other side" (Lu 10:32); the Samaritan, by contrast, "was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on [them] oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him" (Lu 10:33-34). Then the alms become contractual and ongoing: "And on the next day he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said, Take care of him; and whatever you spend more, I, when I come back again, will repay you" (Lu 10:34-35). Pitilessness has the opposite shape: "A needy [noble] man who oppresses the poor Is [like] a sweeping rain which leaves no food" (Pr 28:3).

The same pattern of the helped stranger appears in Chronicles: the men of Samaria "took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all who were naked among them, and arrayed them, and gave them sandals, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm-trees, to their brothers" (2Ch 28:15) — a direct OT precedent for the Samaritan's care. Job remembers when his life had this shape: "I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy" (Job 29:13); "Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?" (Job 30:25). The desert tribes in Tema do the same: "To him who was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread" (Is 21:14). The mark of true sympathy is to "Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; those who are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body" (Heb 13:3); and the addressees of Hebrews are commended because "you⁺ both had compassion on those who were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your⁺ possessions" (Heb 10:34). James names alms as itself the substance of religion: "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world" (Jas 1:27).

Beggars at the gate and on the way

The gospels know beggars by name. Bartimaeus sits "by the wayside" outside Jericho (Mr 10:46), and is rebuked by the crowd when he cries for mercy — "And many rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out the more a great deal, Son of David, have mercy on me" (Mr 10:48). The blind man healed by Jesus is identified by his neighbors as "he who sat and begged" (Jn 9:8). Lazarus is "a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores" (Lu 16:20). The Psalmist's confidence is "I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his seed begging bread" (Ps 37:25). Ben Sira, however, takes a sterner line on the beggar's life itself — the dignity of the poor is to be defended without romanticizing destitution: "My son, do not lead a beggar's life, Better is one dead than one who begs. A man who looks upon a stranger's table, His life is not accounted life" (Sir 40:28-29); and the moral edge cuts both ways — "In the mouth of a greedy man begging is sweet, But within him it burns like fire" (Sir 40:30); "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; Therefore he will beg in harvest, and have nothing" (Pr 20:4).

The disciples themselves get the rule wrong by reflex. They tell the crowd Jesus has been teaching to "send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves something to eat" (Mr 6:36); they rebuke the parents bringing children (Mr 10:13; Lu 18:15); they rebuke Bartimaeus (Mr 10:48). The dismissal of the needy is a recurring failure that Jesus reverses each time.

Remember the poor — the apostolic collections

The apostolic mandate is summarized in a single verb. At the Jerusalem meeting, "only [they wanted] that we should remember the poor; which very thing I was also zealous to do" (Ga 2:10). Paul's letters then show him doing it. The Corinthian instructions name the procedure: "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I gave order to the churches of Galatia, so you⁺ also do. On the first day of the week let each of you⁺ lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come" (1Co 16:1-2). Delivery and accountability are arranged: "And when I arrive, whomever you⁺ will approve, I will send them with letters to carry your⁺ bounty to Jerusalem: and if it is meet for me to go also, they will go with me" (1Co 16:3-4).

The Macedonian collection is described as grace already at work: "we make known to you⁺ the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia; how that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality" (2Co 8:1-2). The size relative to capacity is named: "For according to their power, I bear witness, yes and beyond their power, [they gave] of their own accord" (2Co 8:3). And the recipients of the grace ask, themselves, to be allowed to share it: "imploring us with much entreaty in regard of this grace and the fellowship in the service to the saints" (2Co 8:4). The ability-rule is general: "For if the readiness is there, [it is] acceptable according to as [a man] has, not according to as [he] has not" (2Co 8:12).

The same collection is described again at the close of Romans, with the Gentile-debtor logic spelled out: "but now, [I say,] I go to Jerusalem, serving the saints. For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem. Yes, it has been their good pleasure; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles shared in their spiritual things, they owe it [to them] also to minister to them in carnal things. When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by you⁺ to Spain" (Ro 15:25-28). And the second Corinthian letter calls it by name — "the service to the saints" — as something almost too well-known to need explaining: "For as concerning the service to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you⁺" (2Co 9:1). Paul pre-arranges its delivery: "I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers, that they would go before to you⁺, and make up beforehand your⁺ aforepromised bounty, that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not of extortion" (2Co 9:5). And Hebrews registers the same diaconal activity for divine memory: "for God is not unrighteous to forget your⁺ work and the love which you⁺ showed toward his name, in that you⁺ served the saints, and still do serve" (Heb 6:10).

The cheerful giver

Across the apostolic letters the disposition of the giver is treated as part of the gift. "He who sows sparingly will reap also sparingly; and he who sows bountifully will reap also bountifully" (2Co 9:6); "[Let] each [do] according to as he has purposed in his heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver" (2Co 9:7). Romans names liberality as the rule for the giver in a list of charisms: "he who gives, [let him do it] with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness" (Ro 12:8); and "sharing to the necessities of the saints; given to the love for strangers" (Ro 12:13). The pastoral epistles say the same to the rich: "that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to share" (1Ti 6:18); "But to do good and to share do not forget: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Heb 13:16). The duty extends beyond the household of faith but begins with it: "as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith" (Ga 6:10). Paul reminds the Philippians of their pattern — "even in Thessalonica you⁺ sent once and again to my need" (Php 4:16) — and warns that giving without love is empty: "if I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and if I deliver up my body that I may boast, but do not have love, it profits me nothing" (1Co 13:3). John names the test plainly: "But whoever has the world's goods, and looks at his brother in need, and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God stay in him?" (1Jn 3:17).

The negative type stands close to the positive in the same treasury scene. Of Judas the gospel says: "Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the bag took away what was put in it" (Jn 12:6). The mask of alms can be worn by greed; the test is whether the compassion is real.

Promises to the merciful

The reward formulae cluster. "He has dispersed, he has given to the needy; His righteousness endures forever: His horn will be exalted with honor" (Ps 112:9); "[The Speech of] Yahweh will support him on the couch of languishing: You make all his bed in his sickness" (Ps 41:3); "The merciful man does good to his own soul; But he who is cruel troubles his own flesh" (Pr 11:17); "He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker; But he who has mercy on the needy honors him" (Pr 14:31). And the Maccabean book remembers the same calculus on a royal scale, in retrospect: "And he feared that he should not have as formerly enough, for charges and gifts, which he had given before with a liberal hand: for he had abounded more than the kings who had been before him" (1Ma 3:30) — even great-handed liberality returns as expectation in the giver's own future.

The image of God who supplies

The Epistle to Diognetus draws the principle out into theological shape. The Christian poor enrich many — "They are poor, yet make many rich; are in want of all things, yet abound in all" (Gr 5:13) — and almsgiving is described as the imitation of God himself: "But he who takes his neighbor's burden on himself; he who, where he is superior, wishes to benefit another who is inferior; he who supplies to others in need those things which he has received from God, becomes as a god to those who receive. This man is the imitator of God" (Gr 10:6). The line returns the topic to where the Torah began: an open hand to the brother in need is the human echo of the divine hand that supplies.