{"id":1082,"date":"2010-05-24T14:22:01","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T14:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/05\/the-story-of-sin--a-dark-tale-part-nine.html"},"modified":"2010-05-24T14:22:01","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T14:22:01","slug":"the-story-of-sin-a-dark-tale-part-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/05\/the-story-of-sin-a-dark-tale-part-nine.html","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Sin— A Dark Tale Part Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sin.jpg\"<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the 9th<\/sup> chapter of
\nGary Anderson’s book on sin,  <\/span>having
\nestablished that sin could be viewed as a debt in Biblical times and
\nthereafter,  <\/span>he points out that the natural
\nantinomy to such commercial language for sin was of course credit, which in
\nturn led to a concept of a treasury of merit, not only in rabbinic Judaism but
\nin Christianity as well.  <\/span>In terms of the
\nhistory of these two religions, there is no gainsaying this conclusion.  <\/span>It’s just a historical fact.  <\/span>The real issue is whether the Bible itself
\nincludes or supports the idea of building up credit with God, which could be
\nused to offset some debt or debit. <\/p>\n

  
<\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/span>The first
\nBiblical port of call for Anderson
\nto make his point is Dan. 4.27, recording Daniel’s advice to King Nebuchadnezzar
\nwho has just been told he will be judged by God for his hubris, and the King
\nthen asks what he can do about.  <\/span>Daniel
\nsays “Therefore O King, may my advice be acceptable to you: Redeem your sins by
\nalmsgiving and your iniquity by generosity to the poor; then your serenity
\n(i.e. rule) may be extended.” Since the meaning of the verbal root  <\/span>SIDQA has been debated (the word translated
\nalmsgiving above), Anderson goes through an extended treatment of the term, and
\npoints out that in any case we have typical Hebrew parallel construction in
\nthis verse— the second half is just a different way of saying the same thing,
\nand it clearly speaks of generosity to the poor.  <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>Now the
\nroot SDQ is of course the standard one for righteousness, and so some have
\nexpressed surprised that this root is also the basis for the word almsgiving.
\nBut as Anderson
\npoints out, righteousness is normally associated with equity, fairness, not a
\npreferential treatment of the poor. 
\n<\/span>Indeed, Lev. 19.15 instructs us not to show preference towards the poor
\nor suck up to the rich. The answer is that “righteousness (in the OT) does not
\nmean a blind application of equity toward all, but rather the specific act of
\nredressing economic injustice. For this reason Isaiah 11.4, a text about the
\ncoming of the ideal Davidic ruler, links the justice of the king with his
\ncompassion for the poor.” (p. 142).   <\/span>If
\nwe think back to Dan. 4.27 once more the logic seems to be as follows— a person
\nhas a terrible debt of sin.  <\/span>How can the
\ndebt be paid down?  <\/span>Answer, righteous
\ndeeds like almsgiving or helping the poor. Interestingly in Christian writers
\nlike Cyprian, this mechanism was seen as the way to deal with post-baptismal
\nsins, namely you pay them off by almsgiving and helping the poor. <\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>This then
\nbrings us to a phrase we find on the lips of Jesus–‘treasures in heaven’  <\/span>which we are supposed to store up.  <\/span>But how?  
\n<\/span>Anderson
\nexplains this on the basis of several proverbs found in the book of the same
\nname and Tobit4.5-11 which includes the words “so you will lay up a good
\ntreasure for yourself against the day of necessity [by almsgiving to the poor].
\nFor almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you from entering darkness; and
\nfor all who practice it, almsgiving is an excellent offering in the presence of
\nthe Most High”.  <\/span>Anderson links this to proverbs like Prov.
\n10.2 and 11.4–in which he concludes that the term righteousness (sediqah)
\nrefers to almsgiving.  <\/span>For example, in
\nthe first proverb the treasuries of the wicked (i.e. the hoarding up of money)
\nare of no avail,  <\/span>but righteousness (i.e.
\nalmsgiving) saves from death. In other words, almsgiving not only helps the
\npoor, it stores up treasure in heaven for the giver. Mt. 19. 16-30 and Jesus’
\nadvice to the rich young man to give all to the poor and so store up a treasury
\nin heaven, is used as an illustration. Sir. 29.9-13 says— ‘store up
\nalmsgiving in your treasury and it will rescue you from affliction’.   <\/span>Indeed to judge from Sir. 3.14-15 almsgiving
\nor generosity to those in need can stand in lieu of a literal sin offering— “for
\nkindness to a father will not be forgotten and will be credited to you against
\nyour sins’.  <\/span>In 2 Clement 16.4, a
\nChristian document we hear— ‘almsgiving is therefore good as repentance from
\nsin…for almsgiving lightens sin’.<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>But why is
\nit that almsgiving, of all possible virtuous activities, serves to pay down one’s
\nsin debt?   <\/span>Anderson answers this by pointing to Prov.
\n19.17— ‘he who is generous to the down trodden makes a loan to the Lord; He
\nwill repay him his due.”  <\/span>In other
\nwords,  <\/span>the only time you can put God in
\nyour debt, is by helping the poor he cares so much about.  <\/span>As compensation, God will discount your sin
\ndebt.   <\/span>All of this kind of talk of
\ncourse makes many Christians very nervous— aren’t we talking about salvation
\nby human good works here?  <\/span>Or if not, why
\nnot?   <\/span>Anderson turns to this issue in the next
\nchapter.  <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 9th chapter of Gary Anderson’s book on sin,  having established that sin could be viewed as a debt in Biblical times and thereafter,  he points out that the natural antinomy to such commercial language for sin was of course credit, which in turn led to a concept of a treasury of merit, not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Story of Sin- A Dark Tale Part Nine - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/05\/the-story-of-sin-a-dark-tale-part-nine.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Story of Sin- A Dark Tale Part Nine - 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}