Timothy J. Sandoval Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University Fort Worth, Texas

Transcription

1 RBL 02/2014 Robert Wafawanaka Am I Still My Brother s Keeper? Biblical Perspectives on Poverty Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, Pp. xxii Paper. $ ISBN Timothy J. Sandoval Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University Fort Worth, Texas Dr. Robert Wafawanaka, assistant professor Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Virginia Union University s Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, has written an important book that addresses what is arguably the most urgent ethical issue of our day: the persistence of widespread, brutal, global poverty in which the vast majority of people on earth who live in the developing world survive on one to two dollars a day (xx). Wafawanaka seeks to explore biblical traditions that speak of poverty in order to present these to people of faith as an ethical resource for developing a response to poverty today. For those who might tend to dwell on the complexity of global economic systems and the intransigency of key institutions and actors in the world political economy, Wafawanaka s thesis is, in moral terms, simple, perhaps startling simple: ancient Israel failed in meeting its obligation to the poor, and the privileged of the contemporary global village have, too. The book is clearly organized and includes a preface and a brief introduction that state the author s thesis and the plan for his study. This is followed by a chapter that also lays out in introductory fashion The Biblical Mandate regarding poverty as Wafawanaka understands this. Three chapters, following the structure of Tanak (Torah, Prophets and Writings), then examine biblical references to the poor and poverty (and related

2 terminology) throughout the biblical traditions. A conclusion reiterates earlier findings and offers some implications and recommendations for ethical responses to poverty today. The volume also includes a bibliography as well as indices of authors, subjects, and scripture references. Because Wafawanaka s book seeks to explore perspectives on poverty across the canon, his discussions necessarily take the form of overviews of the biblical materials, and he often relies on the scholarly discussions of others rather than present extended exegetical arguments. To understand contemporary poverty and the nature of the poverty biblical texts describe, Wafawanaka also draws on John Iliffe s study of African poverty (The African Poor: A History). Iliffe distinguishes between structural and conjunctural poverty. The former is long-term poverty of individuals due to their personal social circumstances. The latter is the temporary poverty into which ordinarily self-sufficient people may be thrown by crisis (11). After the book s preface and introduction present the main thesis that ancient Israel failed in its obligation to the poor chapter 1 explains Wafawanaka s understanding of the essence of the biblical mandate regarding the poor and poverty. Central to Wafawanaka s thinking is Deut 15:4 5: There will, however, be no one in need among you if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment. Since Torah legislated taking care of poor and needy members among the Israelites, the persistence of poverty in ancient Israel, as witnessed by the Bible s wide-ranging attempts to address poverty, is for Wafawanaka evidence of the failure to follow Torah (5). Wafawanaka understands the biblical vision of economic justice as part of a larger ancient Near Eastern royal ideology for which it was the particular duty of the good ruler or king to provide for the welfare of the poor and powerless by ensuring that justice prevailed in the land (4). Likewise he insists that in the contemporary global village those members of the society who are economically better off are mandated to help those who are poor and disenfranchised (8), since ancient measures to relieve the suffering of the poor are still relevant now as they were then (10). For Wafawanaka, the institution of the extended family as well as a communal spirit and a sense of social solidarity undergird the biblical mandates to care for the poor and marginalized and are essential to recover today in order to combat widespread poverty (10). In chapter 2 Wafawanaka offers an overview of biblical perspectives on certain classes of marginalized people slaves, resident aliens, widows and the fatherless and the different designations of the poor as these emerge in the Covenant Code of Exodus, Deuteronomy, and the Holiness Code of Leviticus. Wafawanaka understands the law codes, especially Deuteronomy, to exhibit a strong social concern (11) for the poor and marginalized. They also reveal certain coping mechanisms (11) for the poor, by which

3 Wafawanaka means first measures to be taken on behalf of the poor: legal provisions such as the mandating of sabbatical and Jubilee years, prohibitions on charging interests to Israelites, the protection of pledges given as collateral for loans, insistence on just weights and measures, the prompt payment of wages, equity in legal proceedings, as well as direct provisions for the poor via tithing and gleaning (63). Besides noting these legal provisions, Wafawanaka also draws an apt analogy between the role extended family plays in helping the poor themselves cope with their situation in traditional African society and the poor in the biblical texts (61 62). Wafawanaka examines prophetic texts that speak of the poor and poverty in chapter 3. He understands the rise of the monarchy and oppression by royal elites as a major cause of poverty as far as the Deuteronomic History narratives about prophets go (84). He concludes, however, that the Former Prophets are not primarily interested in the question of poverty per se but deploy the terminology of poverty occasionally to express political weakness (87). Wafawanaka subsequently offers overviews of the way the texts of select Latter Prophets treat the poor and poverty. He identifies Amos and Micah as the two eighth-century BCE prophets most concerned with the plight of the poor and oppressed, although Micah does not use the traditional word for poverty like Amos and other prophets (100). Wafawanaka notes that, although Isaiah is clearly a composite work, it is also a literary unity, and he treats it as such. Like Amos and Micah, Isaiah is intimately concerned with the oppression of the poor and oppressed, revealed, for instance, in the prophet s condemnation of the practice of latifundia or land accumulation in the hands of a few rich owners at the expense of the peasantry (102; see Isa 5:8 10). Although some scholars believe social justice and concern with the poor is not a main theme of Jeremiah, Wafawanaka points to several passages that demonstrate it is a significant theme (109). Wafawanaka suggests that the prophet s passion for justice appear to have shaped the social consciousness in some of the Law Codes (109). For Wafawanaka, the prophetic texts he reviews indicate that poverty is not something that defies explanation (110). Rather, it is something caused by humans. Greed, exploitation, dishonest and unethical business practices, as well as other forms of injustice, all contribute to the problem (110). Wafawanaka next reviews the manner in which poverty is presented in the Writings, particularly the wisdom books (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) and Psalms. For Wafawanaka, what these texts say suggests that the problem of poverty had not yet been solved by ancient Israel (127). Although at this point Wafawanaka s choice of words suggests he is offering a chronological analysis, his argument seems rather to be canonical-literary, that the problem is not solved by the time a reader arrives at the writings. Put otherwise, the evidence of the writings confirm for Wafawanaka his thesis that poverty was a perennial issue in ancient Israel, something that was not eliminated as one might expect if the

4 divine mandate that there should be no poor among you (as revealed especially in Deut 15) had been followed. For Wafawanaka, Job shares much with the social-justice traditions of the Bible and the ancient Near East. Job the patriarch, for instance, is depicted as the great protector of the poor and marginalized in Job Indeed, Job has a prophetic character and is the personification of a true arbiter of justice to the poor and oppressed (132). When turning to Qoheleth, Wafawanaka aligns himself with those who regard the book as essentially pessimistic or cynical (e.g., Crenshaw) rather than a text that promotes an ethic of joy (e.g., Whybray, Lee). For Wafawanaka, Qoheleth is a wealthy man (137), and he is apparently regarded as having been a real person and the book s author (rather than a created persona), though Wafawanaka does not say so explicitly. Wafawanaka identifies Qoheleth s unique use of the term miskēn in 9:15 16 to signify poor but does not discuss the word much, which Seow and others have suggested primarily designates class or social status rather than economic status (C.-L. Seow, Ecclesiastes: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary). For Wafawanaka, Qoheleth implies that poverty with wisdom is better than strength (137), while Qoheleth s observation of the oppression of the poor in 5:8 indicates that the ancient sage betrays a sense of social justice by his criticism of the powerful and corrupt government officials who worsen the condition of the poor through unjust practices (138). In contrast to especially Job, for Wafawanaka (as for many) Proverbs offers ambiguous perspectives regarding the poor and poverty. Here the limits of Wafawanaka s overview approach and the inevitable reliance on secondary sources that such approach entails is especially clear. He notes that the familiar words for the poor and a couple of new ones are evident in Proverbs, and he identifies a host of verses that suggest that Proverbs view of poverty and its vision of social justice is consonant with other biblical and ancient Near Eastern views. Nonetheless, he finds evidence that Proverbs offers distinct, and seemingly more problematic, views of poverty when compared with the justice impulse of the texts he has reviewed to this point. For example, Wafawanaka states that Prov 10:15 ( The wealth of the rich is their fortress; the poverty of the poor is their ruin ; NRSV) is quite a departure from our previous understandings of poverty. Here wealth is being glorified and poverty derided (132). Yet the notion that wealth provides social protection and poverty is socially detrimental is hardly a glorification of one or a derision of the other. The proverb rather is a kind of straightforward observation of social reality. Along with 10:15, Wafawanaka is likewise puzzled by 19:4 ( Wealth brings many friends, but the poor are left friendless ; NRSV). He writes: According to these verses, wealth is something more desirable than poverty (132). Elsewhere in relation to 14:20 and 19:7 he states that another glaring perspective is

5 that poverty is an undesirable condition (134). Yet the suggestion that wealth is more desirable than poverty is again in and of itself hardly a controversial assertion. Indeed, later Wafawanaka proclaims Poverty is in no way desirable (162). A saying such as 19:4 is in any case surely ironic. Wealth attracts friends who may be fair-weather friends whose attachments are not strong. When wealth disappears, so do the friends. Wealth s value in providing social security is thus called into question. It does not truly or securely provide what it seems to provide. Poverty, by contrast, is undesirable because it often severs foundational social relationships, which ought to be surer forms of security than what wealth provides. Related to this line of interpretation is Wafawanaka s ambiguous evaluation of certain wealth and poverty better-than sayings that he believes describe poverty as the more preferable of two conditions (135, emphasis added). But this does not quite capture the logic of sayings such as 19:1, 22 and 28:6, to which he alludes. The proverbs actually understand poverty to be undesirable and wealth to be desirable in order to describe the worth of virtue and the worthlessness of vice. The sayings work because hearers or readers know that in and of itself poverty is not preferable to wealth. Indeed, Wafawanaka himself approaches this understanding when he notes that the sayings intimate that it is better to be a good poor person than a perverse fool or rich person (135, emphasis original). Wafawanaka also regards a number of other sayings in Proverbs (e.g., 6:6 11; 10:4; 20:4, 13; 30:25) as remarkable statements that poverty is something people bring upon themselves (134). He understands these as simple, literal statements about the causes of poverty offered by a privileged scribal class. However, it is quite possible to understand the proverbs less literally as motivating the pursuit of virtue and/or to recognize that such sayings take on a different valence when imagined as performed in a folk or peasant agricultural environment rather than a scribal context. All this is to say that, even if offered through a distinct rhetoric, Proverbs is quite consonant with and not nearly as distinct from the views of poverty and justice Wafawanaka identifies elsewhere in the canon. When considering the Psalter Wafawanaka observes that the terminology of poverty occurs across the major genres of psalms (laments, hymns of praise, etc.). Often the poor are portrayed as victims of the wicked who devise evil plans against them, though the psalms articulate a hope that Yahweh will deliver the poor from their oppressors and defend the cause of the marginalized (138). Wafawanaka rejects the notion that the ănāwîm in the Psalter are to be understood as the religiously humble or pious; rather, their poverty, too, is to be regarded as primarily material. The Psalter also promotes the

6 protection of other traditionally marginalized groups the widow, fatherless, and sojourner who are also often victims of oppression and exploitation (141). Wafawanaka concludes that the evidence of the Writings supports his contention that poverty was an ongoing problem in ancient Israel whose persistence was due primarily to the failure to enact the divine mandate of Deut 15 that there were to be no poor among you (142). In the Writings the poor cope with poverty through the generosity of the rich and also survive through God s compassionate caring. Likewise, as Wafawanaka understands Proverbs to counsel, the poor can cope by abandoning indolent habits, having a good work ethic and planning carefully, while also avoiding strong drink and excessive pleasure (143). In a final chapter Wafawanaka reiterates the findings of earlier chapters and articulates a number of implications and recommendations for engaging the problem of poverty today that emerge from his study. He regards charity as one contemporary strategy to combat poverty and also identifies the need for ongoing prophetic witness that is prepared to fight for social justice by unmasking oppression, exploitation, and confronting authority when necessary (163). Because the extended family was central in supporting the poor in the biblical texts and in traditional African societies, which for Wafawanaka formed an important point of comparison with the biblical texts, this institution should be protected and strengthened. Put otherwise, Wafawanaka is essentially suggesting that clear and strong features of social membership so evident in family structures ought to be extended to broader social circles, ultimately encompassing, it would seem, all of humanity as a global family. Finally, Wafawanaka recognizes that the deep systemic nature of poverty and oppression will require that the powerful of rich nations undo and remake economic and social systems on behalf of the poor. Some of the inevitable disagreements among scholars about specific texts have been noted above. One further area where this work might have been strengthened, however, is through a full discussion of how social-economic relations in ancient Israel, which the Bible witnesses to, may have been structured through a patronage system, as Walter Houston, among others, has suggested (Contending for Justice: Ideologies and Theologies of Social Justice in the Old Testament). Wafawanaka s book, of course, also reveals how the biblical understanding of poverty and vision for justice is essentially patriarchal and paternalistic. However, he does not precisely name it as such or problematize it much. His recommendations for addressing the problem of poverty today likewise in part mirrors this paternalistic vision, although it seems that he is also motivated by more egalitarian and radical views of justice, as when he quotes approvingly Karen Lebacqz, who asserts that social programs designed for the poor must be judged and assessed from the perspective of the poor. Similarly they must be designed by and for the poor (159; from

7 Justice in an Unjust World: Foundations for a Christian Approach to Justice, 107; emphasis original to Lebacqz). Wafawanaka s study discusses a broad range of biblical material that addresses questions of poverty. In doing so it presents significant scholarly views about this material. As such Wafawanaka s book can serve as a helpful starting point for scholars who wish to pursue their own studies of one or more of the Bible s poverty texts. For the same reasons Wafawanaka s book likewise might serve as a useful textbook for classes or study groups that seek to understand how the Bible might inform contemporary responses to poverty (161). As Wafawanaka reminds his readers, combating and eliminating persistent global poverty deserves our utmost attention, cooperation, and resourcefulness (161). In a prophetic vein, this book asks those who regard the Bible as significant to their moral formation and reflection to join this effort.