Chapter 4: Oppression in the Old and New Testaments

Why do most secular Jews have a keener sense of social justice than do most theistic evangelicals? Why did secular Jews in large numbers (600 out of 1000) volunteer for the Freedom Summer (1964) in Mississippi while few white evangelical college students volunteered?

Thesis statement: Unless a person understands the horror of oppression, one is unlikely to develop a strong passion for justice.

Karen Lebacqz in her doctoral dissertation at Harvard essentially concluded that none of the great westerner scholars on justice really knew what they were talking about. This is a rather bold, brash assertion that provokes the question, Why? Because they did not begin with injustice, their conclusion about justice were flawed. See her book, Justice in an Unjust World.

But then Lebacqz makes the same mistake; she ignores the extensive biblical teaching on oppression. She does explore injustice experientialy---culturally and historically, but not biblically. Two of the best current Christian writers on justice, Timothy Keller and Ken Wytsma, are also flawed and incomplete because they essentially ignore the important biblical teaching on oppression; they too don't begin with injustice. The single best American Christian scholar on justice is Nicholas Wolterstorff; he was taught about injustice by black South Africans and Palestinians in searing face-to-face encounters. But though he is very thorough in his biblical analysis of justice, for some strange reason, Wolterstorff never did a similar thorough biblical analysis of oppression/injustice. All of the above scholars are white.

Strangely, the same thing may be said about some black Christians such as John Perkins. Living in Mississippi, Perkins had a thorough experiential understanding of oppression. But, to my knowledge, he never developed a theology of oppression based on the Scriptures. So his many disciples, some of whom never personally experienced oppression, never understand this extensive biblical teaching. In my opinion, this is one reason why many of his first generation disciples are justice light in their ministries. I am worried about the third generation disciples; will they lose the oppression/justice message as a priority?

Nothing of significance on oppression can be found in white American theology evangelical theology. Fortunately, some Latin American evangelical literature is available, but it has been largely ignored in American theological circles. In 1970, Thomas Hank's Latin American seminary students hounded him for biblical answers to the burning issues of poverty and oppression. None existed in the theological literature. Fortunately, Hanks was a Hebrew scholar so finally he decide to do his own original research which can be found in God So Loved the Third World. About the same time, his colleague Elsa Tamez wrote Bible of the Oppressed. Both books focus on the Old Testament. Combined with Perry Yoder's Shalom, these three books will quickly get the reader on a solid foundation.

But nothing similar exists for the New Testament. Bit and pieces here and there with a focus on Roman oppression, but little on internal Jewish oppression where, according to Jesus, the heart of the problem lay. According to Thomas Hanks, there are 555 references to oppression in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, the word oppression almost disappears with three or four references, depending on the English translation. If the Greek word thilpsis is translated oppression instead of afflicted, as Hanks asserts, the number of references would increase by a least a half a dozen. For example, in James 1:27, the Scriptures would read "the oppressed widows and orphans" not just the afflicted ones.

In the New Testament, the operative word is the rich or the religious rich, not oppression. The rich, far too often, the religious rich are identified as the oppressors (James 2:5). Once a person is sensitized to oppression in the Old Testament, she should bring this understanding of the concept of oppression and systems of oppression into the New Testament. Then a person will see that oppression is as widespread in the New Testament as it is in the Old Testament. Also one should become aware of the crucial need to rejusticize the New Testament.

Had the church always been up to speed on the extensive biblical teaching on oppression and justice, Karl Marx would never needed to be invented. After all, the Bible is far superior to Marx on oppression and justice. But, to the church's shame, God had to call an atheist with a Jewish background to highlight the nature and seriousness of oppression. The Word of Truth and the Spirit of Truth was already available, but sadly unused.

A small but significant example of how we still neglect oppression; the current, third edition of the IVP Bible Dictionary has no entry on oppression.

Twenty years or so ago I attended a conference on black evangelicals. One of the speakers was a black theology professor from Moody Bible Institute. He was frustrated because evangelical theology had no answers to the social problems of the urban community. Out of this deep frustration, he had turned to Marx for sociological answers. How could he not see that the very Bible he so deeply treasured and taught already had better answers than Marx did.

Bruce Fields in 2001 wrote Introducing Black Theology: Three Crucial Questions for the Evangelical Church. I was expecting some solid biblical answers to the questions black theology was legitimately raising; instead, I was disappointed, even angry. What could have and should have been a great book, a desperately needed book, a groundbreaking book for American evangelicalism, turned out to be incomplete, too theological, not biblical enough. Many theologians were quoted, but there was not much original biblical analysis.

There were some tantalizing statements which led me to believe that this would be great book because the author was aware of the crucial issues:

* "As a symbol of oppression, the concept of blackness allows for fruitful theological reflection." p. 13.

* "Second, I will address the need for the church to adopt a more prophetic stance on the specific matters of racism and the potential tolerance of systemic sin." p. 46.

* "The church, however, is not totally unlike its societal surroundings. We are still in days of racial tension and division, and it is sheer naivete to believe that a follower of Jesus Christ and ministering in this present setting is automatically and completely immune to such influences." p. 47.

* "Racism is a faith. It is a form of idolatry." p. 47.

These statements reveal the author's personal sensitivity to oppression/justice issues, but there a major omissions in his biblical analysis. Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in Divided by Faith (2000) had already documented the failure of evangelicals to engage racial oppression responsibly. So here was a golden opportunity for an Afro American evangelical to chart the biblical way to stop oppression and do justice. Fields toyed with the concepts/issues, but he essentially failed his assignment. What an enormous tragedy!!

Bruce Fields is a solid, card-carrying member of American evangelicalism who teaches at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is sound in doctrine and he is deeply concerned about racial oppression and social justice. But strangely though he raises experientially the issue of oppression and justice, he never grounds his discussion of oppression and justice in the Scriptures, except superficially. If oppression and justice are central concerns of black theology, and if oppression and justice are central failures in the white evangelical church, then a bible-believing evangelical must engage in depth the Scriptures at these points. Fields does not do so.

There are 555 references to oppression in the Hebrew Old Testament; around 125 references in an English translation of the Old Testament. Fields might have shown that God hates oppression almost as much as he does idolatry. Or that oppression is a biblical category that is missing from most evangelical theology.

Neither does Fields engage in a systematic discussion of what the Bible teaches about justice---a major biblical omission. Another major biblical theme that is ignored is the kingdom of God, especially the present and social nature of the kingdom here on earth.

So Fields engages black liberation theology largely from a rational American orthodoxy. He is more concerned about not watering down this type of orthodoxy than he is in seriously engaging black theology from a biblical perspective. He is better at orthodoxy than he is at orthopraxy; he fails to adequately relate the two.

The above ignorance of the biblical teaching on oppression highlights the desperate need for a serious look at the scriptural teaching.

Normally, to start your exploration of the biblical teaching on oppression, I would suggest that you begin by reading two Latin American books: God So Loved the Third World: The Biblical Vocabulary on Oppression; also Bible of the Oppressed by Elsa Tamez. These books have been ignored by North American evangelicals. If you are a typical arrogant, ethnocentric white American evangelical who refuses to learn from inferior non-American scholars, I suggest another approach; learn Hebrew; then identify the 20 Hebrew roots and 555 references to oppression and its synonyms; then analyze these 555 references in their context. Now you are ready to write your own book on oppression.
Now compare your scholarship with Hanks and Tamez.

There is a second possible approach. Use a NIV concordance to identify the 125 references to oppression in the English Bible. Analyze each verse in context. Now write your book on the Old Testament teaching on oppression. By the way, this book will be your own scholarship, because there are no such books in English. North American theologians must have cut out all such verses from their Bibles so they could easily ignore them. If you want to cheat a little bit, try reading the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia's article on oppression.

Tamez states that "There is an almost complete absence of the theme of oppression in European and North American biblical theology."
Hanks asserts:

"Anyone who has read much in the theological classics (Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Barth, Berkouwer et al.) will recognize that the theme of oppression has received little or no attention there. One might think that the Bible says little about oppression. Furthermore, one searches in vain for the theme in Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the like. However, when we strike the rock of a complete Bible concordance, to our great surprise we hit a gusher of texts and terms that deal with oppression! In short, we find a basic structural category of biblical theology."

After a thorough study of the Hebrew roots for oppression, Hanks concludes: "Oppression is a fundamental structural category of biblical theology, as is evidenced by the large number of Hebrew roots denoting it (10 basic roots; 20 in all); the frequency of their occurrence 555 times); the basic theological character of many texts that speak of it (Gen. 15; Exodus. 1-5; Ps. 72, 103, 146; Isa. 8-9, 42, 53, 58 etc.); and the significance of oppression in Israel's great creedal confession. (Deut. 26:5-9)."

From Hanks, I created this statement of what oppression does: "Oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves, and kills persons created in the image of God."

Next, a brief look at the New Testament teaching on oppression.

Again, there is very little theological literature on oppression in the New Testament; what little there is usually focuses on Roman oppression of the Jews. Jesus, however, said nothing much about Roman oppression; his emphasis was upon internal Jewish oppression of fellow Jews. The Temple, the dominant social institution in Palestine, was operated by a religio-politico-economic elite; Jesus described the Temple as "a den of robbers," or, to paraphrase it, a religiously legitimated system of oppression. In summary, the rich oppressed the poor.

Originally, God chose the people of Israel to be a servant people. Through them, God planned to bring the Messiah into the world to bless both Jew and Gentile. Somewhere along the way, the Jews strayed from their original high calling. They began to see themselves as a superior people and the heathen Gentiles as an inferior people. By New Testament times, the Jewish religio-politico-economic elite became ethnocentric and greedy. This was the basis of oppression in the New Testament. The gospel of Luke and the book of James describe the rich, usually the religious rich, as the primary oppressors along with a generous assist from the agricultural landlords. Read the following passages from the gospel of Luke and then write a paper on oppression in the New Testament:

Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. . . .
to release the oppressed [a phrase from Isa. 58:6]
to proclaim Jubilee justice for the poor" [Noble paraphrase].

Luke 6:20, 24 "Blessed are you who are poor. . . .
Woe to you who are rich."

Luke 11:39-42 "Pharisees . . . you are full of greed and wickedness. . . .
you neglect justice and the love of God."

Luke 16:13-14 "You cannot serve both God and Money.
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all of this and sneered at Jesus."

Luke 18:22-24 "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor. . . .
When he heard this, he became very sad,
because he was a man of great wealth. . . .
How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Luke 19:45-46 "Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling . . .
you have made my house a den of robbers."

Luke 19:8 "Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor."

See also Luke 1:53; 3:10-14; 8:14; 12:13-34.

In addition to its religious function, the Temple was also a economic institution, a treasury. A French scholar claimed that the Temple played the combined roles of the Federal Reserve System, Wall Street and the U.S. Treasury. Enormous amounts of tithes and offerings flowed into the Temple coffers, especially from the estimated 2,000,000 Jews scattered around the Roman Empire. There was so much gold in the Temple when the Romans sacked and destroyed it in 70 A.D. that the price of gold dropped 50 percent in nearby Syria as the Romans circulated the gold.

For background reading, I highly recommend Kraybill's The Upside-Down Kingdom.