Thursday, March 25, 2010

Poverty and Justice Bible

When I was in seminary I took a course called Jesus and the Poor ( not sure about the exact title). In that course we did a survey of the verses in the Bible that spoke about God's concern for the poor and oppressed and what he wanted His People to do about it. I was blown away to discover there were over 2,000 verses on that theme, more than just about any other theme. In fact, 1 in every 16 verses in the New Testament relate to caring for the poor and the requirements of justice. In Luke's gospel, the gospel of the downtrodden, it is more like 1 in 7. So, I was interested to discover now that a new Bible is out that does all that hard work of research for you. The American Bible Society recently published the Poverty and Justice Bible (available through the Bible Society or amazon.com) which highlights every one of those 2000 verses that speak about God's heart for the poor and God's requirements for social justice. I am going to have to get one, and I should send one to Glenn Beck, too.