Reply #15: Jesus' economics

[noel711]

Too many myths about Jesus and econ...
Born in a manger because no room in the inn?

A myth; the Greek for inn ("...for there was no room in the inn...Luke 2:7) is a misrepresentation; 'katalyma' means room, not really inn. His family was probably staying with relatives, but the guest room (katalyma) was in use by Aunt Fanny, and since giving birth was ritually unclean,Mary gave birth in the stable beneath the house. Oh, I can hear the fundamentalists wailing now...

Joseph was a craftsman, not a professional. BUT since he was of the 'house and lineage of David,' (Luke 2:4), and had to go to Bethlehem for a census, thus, pay taxes, it means that somewhere along the familial line, his family owned property. Certainly not landed gentry, but not indigent.

AND, in Luke 2:22-24, Mary and Joseph brought the child to the temple for circumcision and her purification (there is this line in Leviticus were women, after childbirth, were impure and could not go to temple or church until the priest approved; this continues up until the late middle ages.... women who weren't purified after childbirth couldn't be buried in a churchyard if they died in childbirth); Mary and Jospeh brought a sacrifice of "two turtledoves, "(and you wondered where that line in the song came from). IF they had been a family of means, they would have brought a lamb to sacrifice.... Oh, wait a minute, they DID bring a lamb to sacrifice... just 33 years too early. Oh,sorry, I'm preachin' again.

Anyway, Jesus talked more about money than anything else besides faith and God and the like. He spoke more about man's preoccupation with money, and how it gets between him and his spiritual life and his relationship with others. Notice, Jesus never said nothin' about sexuality, (He did say to the woman caught in adultery: "Go and sin no more." ) Nope, Jesus never spoke out against gays. That was Old TEstamen stuff.... and the early church, Paul and the others, spoke out against sexual variation because it smacked of the Greek and Roman pagan rituals.

Frankly, Jesus may have not had his own home, but scripture reminds us that he frequented the home of Martha (the patron saint of Martha Stewart and her ilk) and Mary, and brother Lazarus in Bethany for meals, hospitality, and I'm sure, the spare bedroom.

Luke 8:2-3 tells us that there were a number of women who followed Jesus (translate: disciples, but the patriarchy who wrote the New TEstament wouldn't, couldn't,dare not declare women disciples.)
These women "provided for him out of their resources." Translated:
These followers cared for him financially. Cared for his needs.
Obviously, Jesus wasn't equipped with a charge card.

Poor? Maybe if we compare him to our lifestyle, but his needs were few, and those were met. And if he got hungry, well, think about the loaves and fishes....