Table Of Contentalms
Charity, Reward, and Atonement
in Early Christianity
David J. Downs
Alms
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Alms
Charity, Reward, and Atonement
in Early Christianity
David J. Downs
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS
© 2016 by Baylor University Press
Waco, Texas 76798
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Downs, David J., 1977–
Alms : charity, reward, and atonement in early Christianity / David J. Downs.
350 pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60258-997-1 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Charity—History of doctrines. 2. Redemption—Christianity—History of
doctrines. 3. Atonement—History of doctrines. 4. Charity—Biblical teaching. 5.
Redemption—Biblical teaching. 6. Atonement—Biblical
teaching. I. Title.
BV4639.D69 2016
248.4’6—dc23
2015027496
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
What Can Wash Away My Sin?
1 Redeem Your Sins with Acts of Mercy 27
Charity and Reward in the Hebrew- Aramaic Bible and
Its Greek Translation
2 Merciful Deeds Deliver from Death 57
Charity and Reward in the Apocrypha
3 I Desire Mercy, Not Sacrifice 83
Cult Criticism and Atoning Almsgiving?
4 Give Alms with Respect to the Things Within 103
Charity and Reward in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts
5 Storing Up Treasure for a Good Foundation 143
Almsgiving and Reward in the Pauline Epistles
6 Love Covers a Multitude of Sins 175
Atoning Almsgiving in 1 Peter 4:8 and
Its Early Christian Reception
v
vi CONTENTS
7 Merciful Practice Is Good as Repentance for Sin 203
Resurrection, Atonement, and Care for the Poor in Second- Century
Christianity
8 By Alms and Faith Sins Are Purged Away 233
Almsgiving and Atonement in Early Christian Scriptural Exegesis
Conclusion 273
Bibliography 287
Index 325
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful for the support of many people who have encouraged me in the
writing of this book.
Serving as a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary is one of the great
joys of my life. Fuller’s School of Theology, led during the period of this
book’s composition by Dean Howard Loewen and Dean Joel Green, has gen-
erously assisted this project in several ways, including the provision of funds
to present at national and international conferences some of the ideas devel-
oped in this book and the granting of sabbaticals during the fall of 2009 and
spring of 2012. Much of this book was written in Mwanza, Tanzania, where
our family has lived for about six months a year since 2009. While there are
good things about life in Tanzania, the lack of physical access to a research
library makes academic writing difficult, and the completion of this book
would not have been possible without the outstanding research assistance of
Benjamin Lappenga, Brian Robinson, and Allison Quient, all of whom were
funded by Fuller’s Center for Advanced Theological Studies. Susan Wood
kindly helped with the indexing.
Numerous colleagues graciously read or engaged with material in
various parts of this book: Nathan Eubank, Steven Friesen and the other
organizers and participants of the 2011 COMCAR trip to Greece, Gregg
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gardner, John Goldingay, Christopher M. Hays, Micah Kiel, Benjamin
Lappenga, Bruce Longenecker, Oliver Crisp, Timothy Reardon, Helen
Rhee, and Marianne Meye Thompson. In addition to various presentations
at meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature, I am grateful to have had
the opportunity to test some of the ideas developed in this book at the Nai-
robi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in 2011 and at the Lausanne
Movement Global Consultation on Prosperity Theology in Atibaia, Brazil,
in 2014. I am also thankful for the comments from the anonymous read-
ers from Baylor University Press and for Carey Newman and his excellent
team at Baylor University Press for their preparation and publication of
this manuscript.
On this, our thirteenth wedding anniversary, I would like to thank my
wife and constant companion, Jennifer Alzos Downs, not only for encour-
aging me to write (and finish!) this book but also for modeling for me for
more than twenty years a life full of merciful deeds. Your commitment to
serving and working with the world’s poor and powerless is an inspiration
to me and to many. Our life together has always helped me to avoid the
fate of those fallen angels in Milton’s Paradise Lost, who “apart sat on a hill
retired, / In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high / Of providence,
foreknowledge, will and fate, / Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge abso-
lute, / And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.” With you I am never
“apart,” in life in general or in my theological studies in particular. If my
scholarship is less aimless and fruitless than the discourse of Milton’s fallen
angels, it is largely because of your influence, for life with you daily reminds
me of the real world of poverty and loss, justice and hope, to which all aca-
demic research is rightly directed.
This book is dedicated to our three beautiful children: Emily, Luke, and
Elijah. As you grow in faith, hope, and love, may you come to know the joy
of showing mercy to those in need, even as you joyfully receive when you are
in need, and may you pursue all the rewards associated with almsgiving. As a
wise father once instructed his child:
Do not turn your face away from any poor person, and the face of God
will not be turned away from you. When you have possessions, accord-
ing to the abundance practice the merciful act of almsgiving from the
possessions. If you have a little, do not be afraid to practice the merci-
ful act of almsgiving according to the little that you have. For you will
be storing up a good treasure for yourself against a day of necessity.
Therefore, the merciful act of almsgiving delivers from death and keeps
one from going into darkness. Indeed, the merciful act of almsgiving
is a good gift, for all who practice it, in the sight of the Most High. . . .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Give some of your bread to the hungry and some of your clothing to
the naked. Give whatever is an abundance for you as a merciful act of
almsgiving, and do not let your eye be envious when you practice the
merciful act of almsgiving. (Tob 4:7- 11, 16- 17)
May 11, 2015
