WEALTH.— 1. The Gospels differ from each
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otlier very considerably in their contributions to tlie subject of wealtii. The Gospel of Jn. con- tributes scarcely anything. Such words as TrXo^o-tos, rrXouTos, irXovrelv, 6r)(xavp6's, d-rjaavpii^eiv do not occur in it ; and tttc^xos is found only in 12^- ®- ^ and 13'^^. Mk. contributes little — only 4^** and a few charac- teristic touches in the narrative of the Rich Young Ruler and the discourse following upon it, as for instance 10-^. It is to Mt. and Lk. that we are indebted for practically all the teaching in the Gospels on tliis subject. And the material supplied by them is specially rich. But it is not uniform. There is a contrast between the teaching on wealth in Lk. and that in Mt. Lk. has preserved a series of utterances of our Lord, which on the face of them seem hostile to wealth and partial to poverty. These consist partly of sayings peculiar to Lk. and partly of sayings common to Lk. and Mt., but having in Lk.'s version a sense apparently less favourable to wealth. The following sayings re- garding wealth are peculiar to Lk. : P^ 3^' 4^* 624.25 1213-21 1412-14. 33 161-13. i9-3i_ The following are illus- trations of sayings common to Mt. and Lk., but with an apparent bias against wealth in Lk.'s version of them : Mt 5^ cf. Lk G^" ; Mt G'^-^i, cf. Lk 1233 . Mt 5^2^ cf. Lk 63» ; Mt 19-i, cf. Lk IS^^ ; in the parable of the Marriage Feast (Mt 22i-i*) it is the ' good and bad ' who are gathered in from the highways, in the parable of the Great Supper (Lk 14^^'^^) it is the ' poor and maimed and blind and lame.'
Because of these differences the Gospel of Lk. has been cliarged with Ebionism (wh. see). It has been said that it preaches the sinfulness of wealth and the merit of poverty. By some this characteristic is taken to be a faithful reproduction of the spirit and teaching of Jesus ; by others it is attributed to Lk. or to his sources, or to the influ- ence of the sub-Apostolic period to which, by them, this Gospel is assigned. But before the Gospel of Lk. is credited with a bias against wealth and in favour of poverty, certain facts, pointing to a different conclusion, have to be taken account of. In the first place, what might be con- strued as proofs of Ebionism are to be found in some of the other Gospels also. The strongest saying of Jesus against wealth, ' It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,' is recorded byMt. (192^) and Mk. (lO^s) as well as by Lk. (W). So also are the incidents of Peter and Andrew, of James and John, and of Matthew or Levi leaving all to follow Jesus (Mt 4}«--^ 9^, Mk ps-so 2" Lk 511. 27. 28)_ ]y[t. and Mk. tell of the Baptist's ascetic manner of life (Mt 3-', Mk P). It is to Mt. that we are indebted for the record of the sayings, ' Lay not up for yourselves ti'easures upon the earth ' (6^^), and ' The poor have good tidings preached to them ' (1 IS). In Mt I322 and Mk 4^^ Jesus is repre- sented as using the phrase 'the deceitfulness of riches,'— words not recorded by Lk. ; and it is Mt. and Mk. , not Lk. , who have preserved the saying of our Lord in which He speaks of the blessedness of Jeaving lands (dypo6s) for His sake (Mt 1929, Mk 102''). On the other hand, Lk. reports incidents and sayings the reverse of Ebionitic. In the par- able of the Rich Man and Lazarus recorded by him alone (16'^-"^), rich Abraham is in bliss as Avell as poor Lazarus. It is Lk. who tells of the women of position who ministered to Jesus of tlieir sub- stance (8-- ^). He alone records Jesus' injunction to His disciples, ' He that hath a purse, let him take it ' (2236). To him we owe the story of Zac- chseus, a ricli man who won Jesus' commendation even though he still retained half his wealth (19^'i''). And he, in common with the other Evan- gelists, speaks in terms of apju-oval of another rich man, Joseph of Arimathsea (23^'^-^^). At the same
time it can scarcely be doubted that the promi- nence accorded in Lk. to the contrast between poverty and wealth, and to sayings of our Lord which seem to favour the poor, indicates a deep interest on the part of the writer in the problem of wealth and poverty. See Poor and Poverty.
2. What, then, is the view of wealth presented in the Gospels ? What, in particular, is Jesus' view of wealth? (1) He assumes, though He nowhere explicitly declares, the lawftdness of the possession of wealth. This is implied in such parables as those of the Talents (Mt 25i4-3»), the Pounds (Lk 19^^-'"), and the Unjust Steward (Lk 16''*), all of which deal with the uses of money, without any disapproba- tion of its possession being indicated. It is im- plied in His parting injunctions to His disciples (Lk2235- 36)^ and in the saying, ' Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteous- ness ' (Lk 16*), which also involve the possession and use of money. It is implied even in the demand which He made of the Rich Young Ruler and others to part with wealth (Mt I921, Lk I822 12=»» 1433), and in the exhortation, ' Lay not up for your- selves treasures upon the earth' (Mt 6'^). In each of these cases Jesus appealed to men to forego what He did not deny was their right. ' He was pressing on them a moral choice, not establishing an economic law ' (Speer). The woes pronounced upon the rich and prosperous (Lk 62^"^") have par- allels in the OT (Is 10^, Am 2^ ' 8«), and are to be explained on the ground of the moral dangers of wealth as well as on the ground of the oppression of the pious poor by the rich. Nor is the fate of Dives (Lk 16'*"3') any proof that Jesus condemned the possession of wealth as such. See Dives.