Today is blog action day and the theme is poverty. I would like to abbreviate it BAD: Poverty. I thought it might be interesting to look at an excerpt from the book I am currently reading, The Jesus Movement by Stegemann and Stegemann, that addresses poverty in the ancient world. Here is their reflection on the “relatively poor” (penētes) in Greco-Roman society:

Martial (12.32) states that the poor are thin from hunger and cold. And for the satirist Lucian of Samosata, the living conditions of these poor were defined by high levies and debts, freezing in winter, and illness, as well as the experience of being beaten by the powerful (Cat. 15). It is this very aspect of violence–even the violent appropriation of property–that shows the poor’s lack of power and rights. Assaults of powerful, rich people against their poor neighbors appear as stereotypical complaints in ancient texts, whether it is the rich occupying the property of an orphan (Philostratus Heroikos 285) or a rich man acquiring the cottage of a poor man (Apuleius Metamorphoses 9:35ff.). The poverty of fishermen was proverbial, and Lucian of Samosata (Fug. 13, 17) says that out of hard work artisans, “bent over their work from early morning to evening, cannot earn a living from such endeavors, in spite of their effort and exertion.” The Bible confirms this perception, for the itinerent “tent maker” Paul worked longer than usual–from sunrise to sunset–but he still needed the support of others in order to maintain a minimal existence. The situation of artisan families became dramatic when the husband and father died. Here again, Lucian describes the sad conditions for us rather precisely (Hetaera Dialogues 6). After the death of a coppersmith in Piraeus, his family experienced a drastic social decline. First, the widow had to sell the work tools and then try to secure a living for the family through spinning, weaving, and sewing: finally, however, the only course left was for the daughter to contribute to the family income as a hetaera [a sophisticated sort of prostitute]. [p. 91]

That gives us a little bit of an “on the ground” picture of poverty in the Greco-Roman world. The poor struggled to make ends meet and the rich took advantage of them. Not unfamiliar.

Interestingly, I never thought much of Paul as “poor” before. He seems to stand out. Though Paul is not a philosopher and his letters are situational, he certainly engages in the sort of thought and writing that is normally reserved for the wealthy. Most poor people struggled to merely provide for themselves and would have no time or resources to engage in theological discourse. Paul worked in his trade but was also supported by churches so that he could pursue his theological mission. With that in mind, Paul seems even more extraordinary.