A Perennial Battle

 

As I have probably noted a couple of times I have been reading Plutarch’s Lives Volume 2 for a little while now. One thing that I have noted while going through Plutarch’s writing is that there were two main concerns for the great leaders of Rome and Greece. Those two main concerns were debt and war. They were always seeking to either extend their people’s boundaries through war, or secure their people’s safety through war. But also when they were not at war, many of the great leaders were seeking to address inequities in the city states and nations of the Mediterranean. This was an ongoing battle.

The more well-read Christians will know that the Jubilee was central to the theology of the Bible. But even many well-read Christians are not aware that the issue of debt forgiveness was a central and ongoing concern in the ancient world. Many nations in the classical era had notable periods and notable leaders where society wide debt forgiveness had been enacted. For the Greeks and Romans the greatest leaders were those who could subdue their enemies, and who could set their people at liberty, and by liberty I mean free them from slavery and debt, which was the same thing in this ancient world.

In fact, debt forgiveness was so common that it was often used in a cynical way. Great generals and politicians would use it to set free large numbers of captives and slaves and give them voting rights or places in the military in order to tip the scales in their balance. But whether used for cynical means or not, it was commonly understood that debt need to be cleared or dealt with, otherwise it could destroy your society. The Gracchi are famous examples of men who understood this and who fought for the relief of indebted Romans.

The Bible is thoroughly aware of how necessary this is. This is from something I am writing,

“The Scriptures recognize how the system can be turned against the people, how the wealthy can use their wealth to increase their own power and position and crush the poor. Because of this God set in place laws that required the cancelling of debts, for example the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, and other laws pertaining to releasing fellow Israelites who were enslaved through unfortunate circumstances and decisions. The Scriptures recognize that people are not equal, or the same, and because of this society will become unbalanced, and therefore the system needs to be reset from time to time. The great reset in the Bible is the concept of periodical freedom from debt. This is the context of Isaiah 61,

“1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…” (Isa. 61:1-2).

This passage, which many will recognize as being part of the foundation of the ministry of Jesus in Luke chapter 4, is intricately bound up in the biblical concept of periodically releasing people from their debts and the slavery incurred by debt, so the land would remain stable. Central to God’s judgement on the Israelites was their continual refusal to enact these laws of justice,

“13 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, 14 ‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must set him free from your service.’ But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. 15 You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, 16 but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

17 “Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth” (Jer. 34:13-17).

God instituted a continual resetting of the economy so that people could be restored to their land and be able to provide for themselves, and continue to contribute to society. This was central to God’s ideal for his people, “And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan” (Lev. 25:10).

The simple response many conservatives will give to this examination of the need for debt forgiveness is that this was just something for ancient Israel. But this could not be further from the truth. Michael Hudson in his book …and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption From Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year, proves conclusively that the predatory rich who enslaved their populations were central to the collapse of the ancient Assyrian, Babylonian and other civilisations. The law of the word of God was written in this ancient context to seek to protect the Israelites from this same fate. This is the fate of all civilisations that allow debt to roll on unchecked. The predatory rich enslave their own people, weakening a society making it vulnerable to incursions from outside threats, this was true from Egypt to Rome and all the civilisations either side.”

We are not meant to live as extreme individualists. We are also not meant to live as just a cog in the collective machine. There is an intersection between our individual identities and our part to play in society, and debt forgiveness is relevant to this interplay.

I think the best way to explain this to conservative Christians is the idea of forgiveness in marriage. One of the keys in marriage is knowing that you should be quick to forgive, because if you do not even the best marriages can turn sour and turn into prisons, or worse, divorce. Forgiveness is key to stopping this from happening. It is incumbent on both the husband and the wife to not wrong each other. But it is just as necessary to quickly forgive those wrongs otherwise the relationship, the system, breaks down. It is incumbent on individuals to not make stupid financial choices. But it is just as necessary for the community to recognize that we are all often stupid, or unlucky, or both, and therefore there needs to be a societal mechanism for resets so that the system does not break. God understood this. So too did Caesar interestingly. But so too did many ancient peoples. We have forgotten this basic knowledge in our era.

It is time to remember it again.