Alms
VIEW:23 DATA:01-04-2020
From Greek eleemosyne. The Hebrew "righteousness" in Old Testament and the Greek in many manuscripts of Mat_6:1, stands for ALMS. So Dan_4:27, "Break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor." The poor were entitled to leavings from the produce of the field, the vineyard, and the olive yard (Lev_19:9-10; Lev_23:22; Deu_15:11; Deu_24:19; Deu_26:2-13), the third year's tithing for the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, the widow.
Compare Job_31:17; Job_29:16; "I was a father to the poor." Neh_8:10; Pro_10:2; Pro_11:4; Est_9:22; Psa_41:1; Psa_112:9. Dorcas (Act_9:36). Cornelius (Act_10:2). God prefers such neighborly love to fasting (Isa_58:7). Thirteen receptacles for free offerings were in the women's court of the temple (Mar_12:41-44). Begging was a practice only known after the captivity. In every city there were three collectors who distributed alms of two kinds:
1. Of money collected in the synagogue chest every sabbath for the poor of the city, "the alms of the chest."
2. Of food and money received in a dish, "alms of the dish." The Pharisees gave much alms, but with ostentation, figuratively blowing the trumpet before them (the figure being from the trumpet blowing in religious feasts): Mat_6:1-2. The duty was recognized among Christians as a leading one (Luk_14:13; Rom_15:25-27; Gal_2:10). A laying by for alms in proportion to one's means on every Lord's day is recommended (1Co_16:1-4; Act_11:29-30; Act_20:35). Jesus and the twelve, out of their common purse, set the pattern (Joh_13:29). Not the costliness, but the love and self denial, and the proportion the gift bears to one's means, are what God prizes (Mar_12:42-44). Such "come up as a memorial before God" (Act_9:36; Act_10:2; Act_10:4). The giving was not imposed as a matter of constraint, but of bounty, on Christians (Act_5:4).
The individual was not merged in the community, as in socialism; each freely gave, and distribution was made, not to the lazy who would not work, but to the needy (Act_2:45; 2Th_3:10). A mendicant order is the very opposite of the Christian system. The Jewish tithe was not imposed, but the principle of proportionate giving having been laid down, the definite proportion is left to each one's faith and love to fix (2Co_9:5-7). Love will hardly give less than legalism. An ecclesiastical order of widowhood attended to charitable ministrations in the early church (1Ti_5:10). The deacons were appointed primarily for the distribution of alms (Acts 6). Alms are "righteousness," not that they justify a man (which Romans 3; 4; 5 prove they do not), but they are the doing that which is right and which our neighbor has a rightful claim upon us for, in the court of God's equity, though not of human law. God gives us means for this very end (Eph_4:28).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Alms. The duty of alms-giving, especially in kind, consisting chiefly in portions to be left designedly from produce of the field, the vineyard and the oliveyard, Lev_19:9-10; Lev_23:22; Lev_15:11; Lev_24:19; Lev_26:2-13; Rth_2:2, is strictly enjoined by the law. Every third year also, Deu_14:28 each proprietor was directed to share the tithe of his produce with "the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow." The theological estimate of alms-giving among the Jews is indicated in the following passages:
1. Job_31:17; Pro_10:2; Pro_11:4; Est_9:22; Psa_112:9; Act_9:36 : the case of Dorcas;
2. Act_10:2 of Cornelius; to which may be added Tob_4:10-11; Tob_14:10-11, and Sir_3:30; Sir_40:24.
The Pharisees were zealous in almsgiving, but too ostentatious their mode of performance, for which our Lord finds fault with them. Mat_6:2. The duty of relieving the poor was not neglected by the Christians. Mat_6:1-4; Luk_14:13; Act_20:35; Gal_2:10. Regular proportionate giving was expected. Act_11:30; Rom_15:25-27; 1Co_16:1-4.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
The regulations of the Mosaic law respecting property, and its benign spirit towards the poor, went far to prevent the existence of penury as a permanent condition in society, and, consequently, by precluding beggary, to render the need of almsgiving unnecessary. Poverty, however, considered as a state of comparative want, Moses seems to have contemplated as a probable event in the social frame which he had established; and accordingly, by the appointment of specific regulations, and the enjoining of a general spirit of tender-heartedness, he sought to prevent destitution and its evil consequences (Lev_25:35; Deu_15:7, etc.). The great antiquity of the practice of benevolence towards the poor is shown in the very beautiful passage which is found in Job_29:13 et seq. How high the esteem was in which this virtue continued to be held in the time of the Hebrew monarchy may be learned from Psa_41:1; see also Psa_112:9; Pro_14:31. The progress of social corruption, however, led to the oppression of the poor, which the prophets, after their manner, faithfully reprobated (Isa_58:7); where, among other neglected duties, the Israelites are required to deal their bread to the hungry, and to bring the outcast poor to their house. See also Isa_10:2; Amo_2:7; Jer_5:28; Eze_22:29.
However favorable to the poor the Mosaic institutions were, they do not appear to have wholly prevented beggary; for the imprecation found in Psa_109:10, 'Let his children be vagabonds and beg,' implies the existence of beggary as a known social condition. Begging naturally led to almsgiving, though the language of the Bible does not present us with a term for 'alms' till the period of the Babylonish captivity, during the calamities attendant on which the need probably introduced the practice. From Dan_4:27 it would appear that almsgiving had come to be regarded as a means of conciliating God's favor and of warding off evil. At a still later period this idea took a firm seat in the national mind, and alms-deeds were regarded as a mark of distinguished virtue. That begging was customary in the time of the Savior is clear from Mar_10:46. And that it was usual for the worshippers, as they entered the temple, to give relief, appears from the context, and particularly from the fine answer to the lame man's entreaty, made by the apostle Peter. The general spirit of Christianity, in regard to succoring the needy, is nowhere better seen than in 1Jn_3:17 : 'Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?' With the faithful and conscientious observance of the 'royal law' of love, particular manifestations of mercy to the poor seem to be left by Christianity to be determined by time, place, and circumstances; and it cannot be supposed that a religion, one of whose principles is 'that, if any would not work, neither should he eat' (2Th_3:10), can give any sanction to indiscriminate almsgiving, or intend to encourage the crowd of wandering, idle beggars with which some parts of the world are still infested. The emphatic language employed by the Lord Jesus Christ and others (Luk_3:11; Luk_6:30; Luk_11:41; Luk_12:33; Mat_6:1; Act_9:36; Act_10:2; Act_10:4) is designed to enforce the general duty of a merciful and practical regard to the distresses of the indigent; while the absence of ostentation, and even secrecy, which the Savior enjoined in connection with almsgiving, was intended to correct actual abuses, and bring the practice into harmony with the spirit of the Gospel. In the remarkable reflections of Jesus on the widow's mite (Mar_12:42) is found a principle of great value, to the effect that the magnitude of men's offerings to God is to be measured by the disposition of mind whence they proceed; a principle which cuts up by the very roots the idea that merit attaches itself to almsgiving as such, and increases in proportion to the number and costliness of our alms-deeds.
One of the earliest effects of the working of Christianity in the hearts of its professors was the care which it led them to take of the poor and indigent in the 'household of faith.' Neglected and despised by the world, cut off from its sympathies, and denied any succor it might have given, the members of the early churches were careful not only to make provision in each case for its own poor, but to contribute to the necessities of other though distant communities (Act_11:29; Act_24:17; 2Co_9:12). This commendable practice seems to have had its Christian origin in the deeply interesting fact (which appears from Joh_13:29) that the Savior and his attendants were wont, notwithstanding their own comparative poverty, to contribute out of their small resources something for the relief of the needy.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Mat_6:1 (b) The word is used in a general sense here. It represents good deeds done for the blessing and benefit of others, regardless of who they were, but particularly for the poor. The lesson is that we should not be advertising our good deeds expecting that men will give us rewards. If we do tell what we do for GOD, then the plaudits that we receive from man is all the reward we shall have. If, however, we do these good deeds for the glory of GOD, then He will give us the reward in due time.
Act_10:4 (b) In this place the word is used in regard to gifts of money given particularly for GOD's work and GOD's people. The angel carries the gift up to Heaven, presents it before the Lord, and before the rest of the heavenly group so that all will know that the money placed in the collection and the money sent to missions and the money given to assist otherwise in GOD's work represents your interest in it.
Act_24:17 (b) These alms refer to the sacrifices, the money, the gifts and the dues which belong to the priestly service of Israel. It may represent also those gifts which are given to preachers, missionaries and others engaged in Christian work, which is for their personal use. It may also refer to any gifts given to GOD's people for their relief and blessing.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
Alms
(ἐλεημοσύνη, mercifulness, i e. an act of charity, Mat_6:1-4; Luk_11:41; Luk_12:23; Act_3:2-3; Act_3:10; Act_10:2; Act_10:4; Act_10:31; Act_24:17; "almsdeeds," Act_9:36), beneficence toward the poor, from Anglo-Sax. oelmesse, probably, as well as Germ. almosen, from the corresponding Greek word ἐλεημοσύνη; Vulg. eleemosyna (but see Bosworth, Anglo-Saxon Dict.). The word "alms" is not found in our version of the canonical books of the O.T., but it occurs repeatedly in the N.T., and in the Apocryphal books of Tobit and Ecclesiasticus. The Hebrew צְדָקָה, tsedakah', righteousness, the usual equivalent for alms in the O.T., is rendered by the Sept. in Deu_24:13, and elsewhere, ἐλεημοσύνη, while the best MSS., with the Vulg. and Rhem. Test., read in Matthew 6, δικαιοσύνη, righteousness. SEE POOR.
I. Jewish Alms-giving. The regulations of the Mosaic law respecting property, and the enjoining of a general spirit of tender-heartedness, sought to prevent destitution and its evil consequences. The law in this matter is found in Lev_25:35 : "And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen into decay with thee, then shalt thou relieve him;" and it is liberally added, "yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with thee." The consideration by which this merciful enactment is recommended has peculiar force: I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God." The spirit of the Hebrew legislator on this point is forcibly exhibited in Deu_15:7 sq.: "If there be among you a poor man thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him . Beware that thine eye be not evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him naught; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works." The great antiquity of the practice of benevolence toward the poor is shown in Job_29:13 sq. How high the esteem was in which this virtue continued to be held in the time of the Hebrew monarchy may be learnt from Psa_41:1 : "Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will remember him in time of trouble" (comp. Psa_112:9; Pro_14:31). The progress of social corruption, however, led to the oppression of the poor, which the prophets, after their manner, faithfully reprobated (Isa_58:3); where, among other neglected duties, the Israelites are required to deal their bread to the hungry, and to bring the outcast poor to their house (comp. Isa_10:2; Amo_2:7; Jer_5:28; Eze_22:29). However favorable to the poor the Mosaic institutions were, they do not appear to have wholly prevented beggary; for the imprecation found in Psa_109:10, Let his children be vagabonds and beg," implies the existence of beggary as a known social condition (comp. generally Carpzov, Eleemosynoe Judreor. ex antiquitate Jud. delineatoe, Lips. 1728). Begging naturally led to almsgiving, though the language of the Bible does not present us with a term for "alms" till the period of the Babylonish captivity, during the calamities attendant on which the need probably introduced the practice (Gesenius, Carm. Samar. p. 63). In Dan_4:24, we find the Chald. word צִדְקָה (tsidkah'; lit. righteousness), rendered ἐλεημοσύναι in the Sept., and the ensuing: member of the sentence puts the meaning beyond a question: O king, break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." A new idea is here presented, namely, that of merit and purchase. Alms-giving had come to be regarded as a means of conciliating God's favor and of warding off evil. At a still later period this idea took a firm seat in the national mind, and almsdeeds were regarded as a mark of distinguished virtue (Tob_2:14; Tob_4:11). That begging was customary in the time of the Savior is clear from Mar_10:46," Blind Bartimaeus sat by the wayside begging;" and Act_3:2, A lame man was laid daily at the gate of the temple called Beautiful to ask alms" (comp. Act_3:10). And that it was usual for the worshippers, as they entered the temple, to give relief, appears from the context, and particularly from the fine answer to the lame man's entreaty made by the Apostle Peter. SEE BEGGAR.
Charity toward the poor and indigent that is alms-giving was probably among the later Jews a highly-honored act of piety (see Buxtorf, Florileg. Heb. p. 88 sq.; Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 196 sq.), and hence is named even in connection with prayer and fasting (Tob_12:9). It was regarded as especially agreeable to God (comp. Act_10:4; Act_10:31; Hebrew 13:16; Thilo, Apocr. p. 324), as meritorious in the divine sight (Pro_10:2; Pro_11:4; Tob_2:14), even availing to blot out sins (Tob_4:10; Sir_29:10-13; comp. Dan_4:24), in short, as a fulfillment of the whole law (Talm. Jerus. Peah, 1). Children were early trained up to it (Tob_14:11), and among the encomiums of pious persons their charitableness was almost always enumerated (Sir_31:11; Act_9:36; Act_10:2). Exhortations to this virtue are especially frequent in the Proverbs of Solomon (3, 27 sq.; 22:9; 28:27), and in the book of Sirach (3, 23 sq.; 7:36), and the latter gives practical hints for the performance of this duty (12, 1 sq.; 18:14; 20:13 sq.). Accordingly, there were arrangements in the synagogues for the collection of alms on the Sabbath (Mat_6:2; comp. Vitringa, Synag. p. 811), and in the temple was a chamber (לִשְׁכִּת חֲשָׁץִים) where alms not specially designated for the poor Jews (עֲנַיִּים בְּטֵי טוֹבִים) were deposited (Mishna, Shek. v. 6); on the other hand, the trumpet-shaped vessels (שׁוֹפָרוֹת, to which some have erroneously referred the term σαλπίζω in Mat_6:2) served for the reception of those that individuals contributed for the support of divine worship. SEE TEMPLE. In the community, according to Maimonides, eleemosynary contributions were so arranged that almoners (גִּבָּאִין, collectors, fully גִּבָּאֵי צְדָקָה, Talm. Jerus. Demay, fol. 23:2) sometimes took up collections of money in a box (קוּפָה) on the Sabbath, and sometimes received daily from house-to-house voluntary offerings, consisting of victuals, in a vessel (תִּמְחוּי) carried for that purpose (see, [Eck or] Werner, De fisco et paropside pauperum duab. specieb. eleemosynar. vet. Ebroeor. Jen. 1725). By far the foremost in alms-giving were the Pharisees, but they did it mostly in an ostentatious manner. The charge laid against them in Mat_6:2, has not yet been fully explained, on account of the obscurity of the expression "do not sound a trumpet before thee" (μὴ σαλπίσῃς ἔμπροσθέν σου), which can hardly refer to the modern Oriental practice (Niebuhr, Reisen, 1, 181) of beggars (as in some parts of Switzerland) demanding charity by making music, since in that case the "trumpeting" would not proceed from the donor, nor would he be at all in fault. The language conveys the idea that the Pharisees assembled the poor in the synagogues and streets by the sound of a trumpet, which naturally attracted also spectators thither; but this custom would be too ceremonious to be probable, because it would require these individuals to have an attendant with a trumpet, as they could not well have blown it themselves. By the term "synagogues" here could not be meant the audience-room, at least during divine service, but only the porch or immediate vicinity of the edifice. On the whole, the expression "sound a trumpet" may more easily be interpreted metaphorically (with the Church fathers, also Grotius, Fritzsche, Tholuck, and others), q. d., don't make a flourish of music in front of you, i e. do not proclaim your liberality in a noisy manner. See generally Aster, De Eleemosynis Judicorum (Lips. 1728); Maimonides, De Jure Pauperis, 7, 10; 9:1, 6; Jahn, Arch. Bibl. 4, 371; Lightfoot, Horoe Hebr. on Mat_6:2, and Descr. Templi. 19; and comp. Smith's Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Tuba. SEE OFFERINGS; SEE TITHES; SEE TEMPLE.
II. Apostolical. The general spirit of Christianity, in regard to succoring the needy, is nowhere better seen than in 1Jn_3:17 : Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" With the faithful and conscientious observance of the royal law" of love, particular manifestations of mercy to the poor seem to be left by Christianity to be determined by time, place, and circumstances; and it cannot be supposed that a religion, one of whose principles is that, if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2Th_3:10), can give any sanction to indiscriminate alms-giving, or intend to encourage the crowd of wandering, idle beggars with which some parts of the world are still infested. The emphatic language employed by the Lord Jesus Christ and others (Luk_3:11; Luk_6:30; Luk_11:41 [see the treatise on this text by Somnel, Lond. and Goth. 1787]; Luk_12:33; Mat_6:1; Act_9:37; Act_10:2; Act_10:4) is designed to enforce the general duty of a merciful and practical regard to the distresses of the indigent a duty which all history shows men have been lamentably prone to neglect; while the absence of ostentation and even secrecy, which the Savior enjoined in connection with alms-giving, was intended to correct actual abuses, and bring the practice into harmony with the spirit of the Gospel. In the inimitable reflections of Jesus on the widow's mite (Mar_12:42) is found a principle of great value, to the effect that the magnitude of men's offerings to God is to be measured by the disposition of mind whence they proceed; a principle which cuts up by the very roots the idea that merit attaches itself to alms-giving as such, and increases in proportion to the number and costliness of our almsdeeds.
Accordingly, we find that the duty of relieving the poor was not neglected by the early Christians (Luk_14:13; Act_20:35; Gal_2:10). Every individual was exhorted to lay by on the Sunday in each week some portion of his profits, to be applied to the wants of the needy (Act_11:30; Rom_15:25-27; 1Co_16:1-4). It was also considered a duty specially incumbent on widows to devote themselves to such ministrations (1Ti_5:10). One of the earliest effects of the working of Christianity in the hearts of its professors was the care which it led them to take of the poor and indigent in the "household of faith." Neglected and despised by the world, cut off from its sympathies, and denied any succor it might have given, the members of the early churches were careful not only to make provision in each case for its own poor, but to contribute to the necessities of other though distant communities (Act_11:29; Act_24:17; 2Co_9:12). This commendable practice seems to have had its Christian origin in the deeply interesting fact (which appears from Joh_13:29) that the Savior and his attendants were wont, notwithstanding their own comparative poverty, to contribute out of their small resources something for the relief of the needy. See generally Gude, Eleemosynoe Eccles. Apostolicoe ex Antiquitate Sacra (Lauban. 1728).
III. Ecclesiastical Alms-giving. In the early ages of Christianity alms were divided in some provinces into four portions; one of which was allotted to the bishops, another to the priests, a third to the deacons and sub-deacons, which made their whole subsistence, and a fourth part was employed in relieving the poor and in repairing churches. These alms were given to the poor at their entrance into the church. The reasons assigned for this practice by Chrysostom indicate on his part a very defective view of Gospel truth. He says, "For this reason our forefathers appointed the poor to stand before the door of our churches, that the sight of them might provoke the most backward and inhuman soul to compassion. And as, by law and custom, we have fountains before our oratories, that they who go in to worship God may first wash their hands, and so lift them up in prayer, so our ancestors, instead of fountains and cisterns, placed the poor before the door of the church, that, as we wash our hands in water, we should cleanse our souls by beneficence and charity first, and then go and offer up our prayers. For water is not more adapted to wash away the spots of the body than the power of almsdeeds is to cleanse the soul. As, therefore, you dare not go in to pray with unwashen hands, though this be but a small offense, so neither should you without alms ever enter the church for prayer" (Hom. 25, de verb. Apost.). The period of Lent was particularly fruitful in alms. During the last week Chrysostom enjoins a more liberal distribution than usual of alms to the poor, and the exercise of all kinds of charity. The reason he assigns is, the nearer men approach to the passion and resurrection of Christ, by which all the blessings of the world were poured forth on men, the more they should feel themselves obliged to show all manner of acts of mercy and kindness toward their brethren (Bingham, bk. 21, ch. 1, § 25). At the time of marriage, as a substitute for the old Roman practice of throwing about nuts, the early Christians were accustomed to distribute alms to the poor and to children. The distribution of alms at funerals was associated with the unscriptural practice of praying for the dead. In one of Chrysostom's "Homilies," he says, If many barbarous nations burn their goods together with their dead, how much more reasonable is it for you to give your child his goods when he is dead! Not to reduce them to ashes, but to make him the more glorious; if he be a sinner, to procure him pardon; if righteous, to add to his reward and retribution." In several of the fathers alms-giving is recommended as meritorious; and the germ of Romish teaching on the subject of salvation by the merit of good works may be clearly found in them. Bingham, Orig. Eccl. 13, 8, § 14; Coleman, Anc. Christianity, ch. 4, § 3; Hofling, Lehre d. alt. Kirche v. Opfer. SEE ALMONER.
The order in the Church of England is, that alms should be collected at that part of the communion service which is called the offertory, while the sentences are reading which follow the place appointed for the sermon.
In the Methodist Episcopal Church alms are collected at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and at the love-feasts.
On the Christian duty of alms-giving see Taylor, Holy Living and Dying, ch. 4, § 8; Saurin, Sermons (Serm. 9); Barrow's Sermon on Bounty to the Poor (Works, 2, 69); Wayland's Moral Science, p. 376 sq. SEE CHARITY, and SEE POOR.
IV. Civil. The poor-laws of modern times have brought up anew the whole question of alms-giving in its relation to Christian ethics, and it requires a thorough investigation. Chalmers on the Scottish Poor-laws (Ed. Rev. 41, 228). SEE HOSPITALS; SEE PAUPER.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
Compare Job_31:17; Job_29:16; "I was a father to the poor." Neh_8:10; Pro_10:2; Pro_11:4; Est_9:22; Psa_41:1; Psa_112:9. Dorcas (Act_9:36). Cornelius (Act_10:2). God prefers such neighborly love to fasting (Isa_58:7). Thirteen receptacles for free offerings were in the women's court of the temple (Mar_12:41-44). Begging was a practice only known after the captivity. In every city there were three collectors who distributed alms of two kinds:
1. Of money collected in the synagogue chest every sabbath for the poor of the city, "the alms of the chest."
2. Of food and money received in a dish, "alms of the dish." The Pharisees gave much alms, but with ostentation, figuratively blowing the trumpet before them (the figure being from the trumpet blowing in religious feasts): Mat_6:1-2. The duty was recognized among Christians as a leading one (Luk_14:13; Rom_15:25-27; Gal_2:10). A laying by for alms in proportion to one's means on every Lord's day is recommended (1Co_16:1-4; Act_11:29-30; Act_20:35). Jesus and the twelve, out of their common purse, set the pattern (Joh_13:29). Not the costliness, but the love and self denial, and the proportion the gift bears to one's means, are what God prizes (Mar_12:42-44). Such "come up as a memorial before God" (Act_9:36; Act_10:2; Act_10:4). The giving was not imposed as a matter of constraint, but of bounty, on Christians (Act_5:4).
The individual was not merged in the community, as in socialism; each freely gave, and distribution was made, not to the lazy who would not work, but to the needy (Act_2:45; 2Th_3:10). A mendicant order is the very opposite of the Christian system. The Jewish tithe was not imposed, but the principle of proportionate giving having been laid down, the definite proportion is left to each one's faith and love to fix (2Co_9:5-7). Love will hardly give less than legalism. An ecclesiastical order of widowhood attended to charitable ministrations in the early church (1Ti_5:10). The deacons were appointed primarily for the distribution of alms (Acts 6). Alms are "righteousness," not that they justify a man (which Romans 3; 4; 5 prove they do not), but they are the doing that which is right and which our neighbor has a rightful claim upon us for, in the court of God's equity, though not of human law. God gives us means for this very end (Eph_4:28).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Alms. The duty of alms-giving, especially in kind, consisting chiefly in portions to be left designedly from produce of the field, the vineyard and the oliveyard, Lev_19:9-10; Lev_23:22; Lev_15:11; Lev_24:19; Lev_26:2-13; Rth_2:2, is strictly enjoined by the law. Every third year also, Deu_14:28 each proprietor was directed to share the tithe of his produce with "the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow." The theological estimate of alms-giving among the Jews is indicated in the following passages:
1. Job_31:17; Pro_10:2; Pro_11:4; Est_9:22; Psa_112:9; Act_9:36 : the case of Dorcas;
2. Act_10:2 of Cornelius; to which may be added Tob_4:10-11; Tob_14:10-11, and Sir_3:30; Sir_40:24.
The Pharisees were zealous in almsgiving, but too ostentatious their mode of performance, for which our Lord finds fault with them. Mat_6:2. The duty of relieving the poor was not neglected by the Christians. Mat_6:1-4; Luk_14:13; Act_20:35; Gal_2:10. Regular proportionate giving was expected. Act_11:30; Rom_15:25-27; 1Co_16:1-4.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
The regulations of the Mosaic law respecting property, and its benign spirit towards the poor, went far to prevent the existence of penury as a permanent condition in society, and, consequently, by precluding beggary, to render the need of almsgiving unnecessary. Poverty, however, considered as a state of comparative want, Moses seems to have contemplated as a probable event in the social frame which he had established; and accordingly, by the appointment of specific regulations, and the enjoining of a general spirit of tender-heartedness, he sought to prevent destitution and its evil consequences (Lev_25:35; Deu_15:7, etc.). The great antiquity of the practice of benevolence towards the poor is shown in the very beautiful passage which is found in Job_29:13 et seq. How high the esteem was in which this virtue continued to be held in the time of the Hebrew monarchy may be learned from Psa_41:1; see also Psa_112:9; Pro_14:31. The progress of social corruption, however, led to the oppression of the poor, which the prophets, after their manner, faithfully reprobated (Isa_58:7); where, among other neglected duties, the Israelites are required to deal their bread to the hungry, and to bring the outcast poor to their house. See also Isa_10:2; Amo_2:7; Jer_5:28; Eze_22:29.
However favorable to the poor the Mosaic institutions were, they do not appear to have wholly prevented beggary; for the imprecation found in Psa_109:10, 'Let his children be vagabonds and beg,' implies the existence of beggary as a known social condition. Begging naturally led to almsgiving, though the language of the Bible does not present us with a term for 'alms' till the period of the Babylonish captivity, during the calamities attendant on which the need probably introduced the practice. From Dan_4:27 it would appear that almsgiving had come to be regarded as a means of conciliating God's favor and of warding off evil. At a still later period this idea took a firm seat in the national mind, and alms-deeds were regarded as a mark of distinguished virtue. That begging was customary in the time of the Savior is clear from Mar_10:46. And that it was usual for the worshippers, as they entered the temple, to give relief, appears from the context, and particularly from the fine answer to the lame man's entreaty, made by the apostle Peter. The general spirit of Christianity, in regard to succoring the needy, is nowhere better seen than in 1Jn_3:17 : 'Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?' With the faithful and conscientious observance of the 'royal law' of love, particular manifestations of mercy to the poor seem to be left by Christianity to be determined by time, place, and circumstances; and it cannot be supposed that a religion, one of whose principles is 'that, if any would not work, neither should he eat' (2Th_3:10), can give any sanction to indiscriminate almsgiving, or intend to encourage the crowd of wandering, idle beggars with which some parts of the world are still infested. The emphatic language employed by the Lord Jesus Christ and others (Luk_3:11; Luk_6:30; Luk_11:41; Luk_12:33; Mat_6:1; Act_9:36; Act_10:2; Act_10:4) is designed to enforce the general duty of a merciful and practical regard to the distresses of the indigent; while the absence of ostentation, and even secrecy, which the Savior enjoined in connection with almsgiving, was intended to correct actual abuses, and bring the practice into harmony with the spirit of the Gospel. In the remarkable reflections of Jesus on the widow's mite (Mar_12:42) is found a principle of great value, to the effect that the magnitude of men's offerings to God is to be measured by the disposition of mind whence they proceed; a principle which cuts up by the very roots the idea that merit attaches itself to almsgiving as such, and increases in proportion to the number and costliness of our alms-deeds.
One of the earliest effects of the working of Christianity in the hearts of its professors was the care which it led them to take of the poor and indigent in the 'household of faith.' Neglected and despised by the world, cut off from its sympathies, and denied any succor it might have given, the members of the early churches were careful not only to make provision in each case for its own poor, but to contribute to the necessities of other though distant communities (Act_11:29; Act_24:17; 2Co_9:12). This commendable practice seems to have had its Christian origin in the deeply interesting fact (which appears from Joh_13:29) that the Savior and his attendants were wont, notwithstanding their own comparative poverty, to contribute out of their small resources something for the relief of the needy.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Mat_6:1 (b) The word is used in a general sense here. It represents good deeds done for the blessing and benefit of others, regardless of who they were, but particularly for the poor. The lesson is that we should not be advertising our good deeds expecting that men will give us rewards. If we do tell what we do for GOD, then the plaudits that we receive from man is all the reward we shall have. If, however, we do these good deeds for the glory of GOD, then He will give us the reward in due time.
Act_10:4 (b) In this place the word is used in regard to gifts of money given particularly for GOD's work and GOD's people. The angel carries the gift up to Heaven, presents it before the Lord, and before the rest of the heavenly group so that all will know that the money placed in the collection and the money sent to missions and the money given to assist otherwise in GOD's work represents your interest in it.
Act_24:17 (b) These alms refer to the sacrifices, the money, the gifts and the dues which belong to the priestly service of Israel. It may represent also those gifts which are given to preachers, missionaries and others engaged in Christian work, which is for their personal use. It may also refer to any gifts given to GOD's people for their relief and blessing.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
Alms
(ἐλεημοσύνη, mercifulness, i e. an act of charity, Mat_6:1-4; Luk_11:41; Luk_12:23; Act_3:2-3; Act_3:10; Act_10:2; Act_10:4; Act_10:31; Act_24:17; "almsdeeds," Act_9:36), beneficence toward the poor, from Anglo-Sax. oelmesse, probably, as well as Germ. almosen, from the corresponding Greek word ἐλεημοσύνη; Vulg. eleemosyna (but see Bosworth, Anglo-Saxon Dict.). The word "alms" is not found in our version of the canonical books of the O.T., but it occurs repeatedly in the N.T., and in the Apocryphal books of Tobit and Ecclesiasticus. The Hebrew צְדָקָה, tsedakah', righteousness, the usual equivalent for alms in the O.T., is rendered by the Sept. in Deu_24:13, and elsewhere, ἐλεημοσύνη, while the best MSS., with the Vulg. and Rhem. Test., read in Matthew 6, δικαιοσύνη, righteousness. SEE POOR.
I. Jewish Alms-giving. The regulations of the Mosaic law respecting property, and the enjoining of a general spirit of tender-heartedness, sought to prevent destitution and its evil consequences. The law in this matter is found in Lev_25:35 : "And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen into decay with thee, then shalt thou relieve him;" and it is liberally added, "yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with thee." The consideration by which this merciful enactment is recommended has peculiar force: I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God." The spirit of the Hebrew legislator on this point is forcibly exhibited in Deu_15:7 sq.: "If there be among you a poor man thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him . Beware that thine eye be not evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him naught; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works." The great antiquity of the practice of benevolence toward the poor is shown in Job_29:13 sq. How high the esteem was in which this virtue continued to be held in the time of the Hebrew monarchy may be learnt from Psa_41:1 : "Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will remember him in time of trouble" (comp. Psa_112:9; Pro_14:31). The progress of social corruption, however, led to the oppression of the poor, which the prophets, after their manner, faithfully reprobated (Isa_58:3); where, among other neglected duties, the Israelites are required to deal their bread to the hungry, and to bring the outcast poor to their house (comp. Isa_10:2; Amo_2:7; Jer_5:28; Eze_22:29). However favorable to the poor the Mosaic institutions were, they do not appear to have wholly prevented beggary; for the imprecation found in Psa_109:10, Let his children be vagabonds and beg," implies the existence of beggary as a known social condition (comp. generally Carpzov, Eleemosynoe Judreor. ex antiquitate Jud. delineatoe, Lips. 1728). Begging naturally led to almsgiving, though the language of the Bible does not present us with a term for "alms" till the period of the Babylonish captivity, during the calamities attendant on which the need probably introduced the practice (Gesenius, Carm. Samar. p. 63). In Dan_4:24, we find the Chald. word צִדְקָה (tsidkah'; lit. righteousness), rendered ἐλεημοσύναι in the Sept., and the ensuing: member of the sentence puts the meaning beyond a question: O king, break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." A new idea is here presented, namely, that of merit and purchase. Alms-giving had come to be regarded as a means of conciliating God's favor and of warding off evil. At a still later period this idea took a firm seat in the national mind, and almsdeeds were regarded as a mark of distinguished virtue (Tob_2:14; Tob_4:11). That begging was customary in the time of the Savior is clear from Mar_10:46," Blind Bartimaeus sat by the wayside begging;" and Act_3:2, A lame man was laid daily at the gate of the temple called Beautiful to ask alms" (comp. Act_3:10). And that it was usual for the worshippers, as they entered the temple, to give relief, appears from the context, and particularly from the fine answer to the lame man's entreaty made by the Apostle Peter. SEE BEGGAR.
Charity toward the poor and indigent that is alms-giving was probably among the later Jews a highly-honored act of piety (see Buxtorf, Florileg. Heb. p. 88 sq.; Otho, Lex. Rabb. p. 196 sq.), and hence is named even in connection with prayer and fasting (Tob_12:9). It was regarded as especially agreeable to God (comp. Act_10:4; Act_10:31; Hebrew 13:16; Thilo, Apocr. p. 324), as meritorious in the divine sight (Pro_10:2; Pro_11:4; Tob_2:14), even availing to blot out sins (Tob_4:10; Sir_29:10-13; comp. Dan_4:24), in short, as a fulfillment of the whole law (Talm. Jerus. Peah, 1). Children were early trained up to it (Tob_14:11), and among the encomiums of pious persons their charitableness was almost always enumerated (Sir_31:11; Act_9:36; Act_10:2). Exhortations to this virtue are especially frequent in the Proverbs of Solomon (3, 27 sq.; 22:9; 28:27), and in the book of Sirach (3, 23 sq.; 7:36), and the latter gives practical hints for the performance of this duty (12, 1 sq.; 18:14; 20:13 sq.). Accordingly, there were arrangements in the synagogues for the collection of alms on the Sabbath (Mat_6:2; comp. Vitringa, Synag. p. 811), and in the temple was a chamber (לִשְׁכִּת חֲשָׁץִים) where alms not specially designated for the poor Jews (עֲנַיִּים בְּטֵי טוֹבִים) were deposited (Mishna, Shek. v. 6); on the other hand, the trumpet-shaped vessels (שׁוֹפָרוֹת, to which some have erroneously referred the term σαλπίζω in Mat_6:2) served for the reception of those that individuals contributed for the support of divine worship. SEE TEMPLE. In the community, according to Maimonides, eleemosynary contributions were so arranged that almoners (גִּבָּאִין, collectors, fully גִּבָּאֵי צְדָקָה, Talm. Jerus. Demay, fol. 23:2) sometimes took up collections of money in a box (קוּפָה) on the Sabbath, and sometimes received daily from house-to-house voluntary offerings, consisting of victuals, in a vessel (תִּמְחוּי) carried for that purpose (see, [Eck or] Werner, De fisco et paropside pauperum duab. specieb. eleemosynar. vet. Ebroeor. Jen. 1725). By far the foremost in alms-giving were the Pharisees, but they did it mostly in an ostentatious manner. The charge laid against them in Mat_6:2, has not yet been fully explained, on account of the obscurity of the expression "do not sound a trumpet before thee" (μὴ σαλπίσῃς ἔμπροσθέν σου), which can hardly refer to the modern Oriental practice (Niebuhr, Reisen, 1, 181) of beggars (as in some parts of Switzerland) demanding charity by making music, since in that case the "trumpeting" would not proceed from the donor, nor would he be at all in fault. The language conveys the idea that the Pharisees assembled the poor in the synagogues and streets by the sound of a trumpet, which naturally attracted also spectators thither; but this custom would be too ceremonious to be probable, because it would require these individuals to have an attendant with a trumpet, as they could not well have blown it themselves. By the term "synagogues" here could not be meant the audience-room, at least during divine service, but only the porch or immediate vicinity of the edifice. On the whole, the expression "sound a trumpet" may more easily be interpreted metaphorically (with the Church fathers, also Grotius, Fritzsche, Tholuck, and others), q. d., don't make a flourish of music in front of you, i e. do not proclaim your liberality in a noisy manner. See generally Aster, De Eleemosynis Judicorum (Lips. 1728); Maimonides, De Jure Pauperis, 7, 10; 9:1, 6; Jahn, Arch. Bibl. 4, 371; Lightfoot, Horoe Hebr. on Mat_6:2, and Descr. Templi. 19; and comp. Smith's Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Tuba. SEE OFFERINGS; SEE TITHES; SEE TEMPLE.
II. Apostolical. The general spirit of Christianity, in regard to succoring the needy, is nowhere better seen than in 1Jn_3:17 : Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" With the faithful and conscientious observance of the royal law" of love, particular manifestations of mercy to the poor seem to be left by Christianity to be determined by time, place, and circumstances; and it cannot be supposed that a religion, one of whose principles is that, if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2Th_3:10), can give any sanction to indiscriminate alms-giving, or intend to encourage the crowd of wandering, idle beggars with which some parts of the world are still infested. The emphatic language employed by the Lord Jesus Christ and others (Luk_3:11; Luk_6:30; Luk_11:41 [see the treatise on this text by Somnel, Lond. and Goth. 1787]; Luk_12:33; Mat_6:1; Act_9:37; Act_10:2; Act_10:4) is designed to enforce the general duty of a merciful and practical regard to the distresses of the indigent a duty which all history shows men have been lamentably prone to neglect; while the absence of ostentation and even secrecy, which the Savior enjoined in connection with alms-giving, was intended to correct actual abuses, and bring the practice into harmony with the spirit of the Gospel. In the inimitable reflections of Jesus on the widow's mite (Mar_12:42) is found a principle of great value, to the effect that the magnitude of men's offerings to God is to be measured by the disposition of mind whence they proceed; a principle which cuts up by the very roots the idea that merit attaches itself to alms-giving as such, and increases in proportion to the number and costliness of our almsdeeds.
Accordingly, we find that the duty of relieving the poor was not neglected by the early Christians (Luk_14:13; Act_20:35; Gal_2:10). Every individual was exhorted to lay by on the Sunday in each week some portion of his profits, to be applied to the wants of the needy (Act_11:30; Rom_15:25-27; 1Co_16:1-4). It was also considered a duty specially incumbent on widows to devote themselves to such ministrations (1Ti_5:10). One of the earliest effects of the working of Christianity in the hearts of its professors was the care which it led them to take of the poor and indigent in the "household of faith." Neglected and despised by the world, cut off from its sympathies, and denied any succor it might have given, the members of the early churches were careful not only to make provision in each case for its own poor, but to contribute to the necessities of other though distant communities (Act_11:29; Act_24:17; 2Co_9:12). This commendable practice seems to have had its Christian origin in the deeply interesting fact (which appears from Joh_13:29) that the Savior and his attendants were wont, notwithstanding their own comparative poverty, to contribute out of their small resources something for the relief of the needy. See generally Gude, Eleemosynoe Eccles. Apostolicoe ex Antiquitate Sacra (Lauban. 1728).
III. Ecclesiastical Alms-giving. In the early ages of Christianity alms were divided in some provinces into four portions; one of which was allotted to the bishops, another to the priests, a third to the deacons and sub-deacons, which made their whole subsistence, and a fourth part was employed in relieving the poor and in repairing churches. These alms were given to the poor at their entrance into the church. The reasons assigned for this practice by Chrysostom indicate on his part a very defective view of Gospel truth. He says, "For this reason our forefathers appointed the poor to stand before the door of our churches, that the sight of them might provoke the most backward and inhuman soul to compassion. And as, by law and custom, we have fountains before our oratories, that they who go in to worship God may first wash their hands, and so lift them up in prayer, so our ancestors, instead of fountains and cisterns, placed the poor before the door of the church, that, as we wash our hands in water, we should cleanse our souls by beneficence and charity first, and then go and offer up our prayers. For water is not more adapted to wash away the spots of the body than the power of almsdeeds is to cleanse the soul. As, therefore, you dare not go in to pray with unwashen hands, though this be but a small offense, so neither should you without alms ever enter the church for prayer" (Hom. 25, de verb. Apost.). The period of Lent was particularly fruitful in alms. During the last week Chrysostom enjoins a more liberal distribution than usual of alms to the poor, and the exercise of all kinds of charity. The reason he assigns is, the nearer men approach to the passion and resurrection of Christ, by which all the blessings of the world were poured forth on men, the more they should feel themselves obliged to show all manner of acts of mercy and kindness toward their brethren (Bingham, bk. 21, ch. 1, § 25). At the time of marriage, as a substitute for the old Roman practice of throwing about nuts, the early Christians were accustomed to distribute alms to the poor and to children. The distribution of alms at funerals was associated with the unscriptural practice of praying for the dead. In one of Chrysostom's "Homilies," he says, If many barbarous nations burn their goods together with their dead, how much more reasonable is it for you to give your child his goods when he is dead! Not to reduce them to ashes, but to make him the more glorious; if he be a sinner, to procure him pardon; if righteous, to add to his reward and retribution." In several of the fathers alms-giving is recommended as meritorious; and the germ of Romish teaching on the subject of salvation by the merit of good works may be clearly found in them. Bingham, Orig. Eccl. 13, 8, § 14; Coleman, Anc. Christianity, ch. 4, § 3; Hofling, Lehre d. alt. Kirche v. Opfer. SEE ALMONER.
The order in the Church of England is, that alms should be collected at that part of the communion service which is called the offertory, while the sentences are reading which follow the place appointed for the sermon.
In the Methodist Episcopal Church alms are collected at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and at the love-feasts.
On the Christian duty of alms-giving see Taylor, Holy Living and Dying, ch. 4, § 8; Saurin, Sermons (Serm. 9); Barrow's Sermon on Bounty to the Poor (Works, 2, 69); Wayland's Moral Science, p. 376 sq. SEE CHARITY, and SEE POOR.
IV. Civil. The poor-laws of modern times have brought up anew the whole question of alms-giving in its relation to Christian ethics, and it requires a thorough investigation. Chalmers on the Scottish Poor-laws (Ed. Rev. 41, 228). SEE HOSPITALS; SEE PAUPER.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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