Corpus-Paul

["Tim Gallant" <tim AT rabbisaul.com>]

Richard, thanks for your further expansion.

I gave a summary of your suggestion to another email list. Here's are some 
comments that are quite helpful, I think (which I am sharing with permission 
of the author):

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I have always understood the situation to be something like the following.

There were many poor in the Jerusalem church because of the large
number of widows. Widows in Israel came to Jerusalem to be taken
care of by the temple charity and since many of them believed on
Christ, the Jerusalem church had to take care of them. Acts 6 shows
us there were so many widows that it required a whole committee of
men to take care of their daily needs.

Add to this that Christians were being expelled from the temple (cf.
John 9), which would have social consequences. Some lost their jobs
and had to move, etc.. Paul refers to the suffering and persecution
that the early Hebrews had to endure and presumably Jewish Christians
in Jerusalem faced the most intense opposition.

"But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you
endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public
spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming
sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to
the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property,
knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a
lasting one." (Heb. 10:32-34)

The combination of many widows, persecution, loss of jobs, seizure of
property, etc. would have led to the kind of poverty that required
the help of other churches, especially since many of the poorest
would not be able to simply pack their bags and make a new start
somewhere else (though many of the persecuted Jews did that also,
which is what brought the Gospel to the Gentiles).

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tim
Pastor, Conrad Christian Reformed Church
Conrad, Montana