The Judaean cultural context of community of goods in the early Jesus movement: Part IV. The Jesus movement and holy community of life and property amongst the poor of Judaea

This article explores the origins of the earliest Jerusalem believers’ communal lifestyle (Acts 1:13–14, 2:42–47; 4:32–5:11; cf. 6.1–6). Jesus’ example and authority sanctioned community of life and property. Wealthy supporters made benefactions (Luke 8:1–3) to his travelling party’s shared purse. Jesus’ group financed from their common purse support for the poor, common meals and other needs (John 6.5–7; 12:4–6; 13:29). Ideals of holiness and complete consecration dominated ancient Judaea more than Galilee. Highly dedicated service to God in common life amongst the poor had originated as a Judaean response, amongst the Essenes, to the harshness of agrarian subsistence economy. The verb nosphizomai, used of Ananias’ crime in Acts 5:2–3, means ‘embezzle, misappropriate’; Peter’s reference to Ananias’ sale of property (5:4) may reflect the Hebrew verb macar in its root sense ‘hand over’. Ananias’ property-surrender, which was only provisional, reflected both the Essene novitiate (1QS 6.13–23, cf. Josephus, Jewish War 2.8.7 §§137–142) and the nascent Church’s associations with Essenes in Jerusalem.