Interests > Religious Discussions
Was early Christianity communist?
FlaGator:
--- Quote from: JustSomeModerate on October 07, 2023, 08:39:30 AM ---What if the point wasn't communalism?
What if the people in Acts 5:1-11 passed because they didn't give up funds which they had gotten by the sale of their souls?
What if the main point of the communities was to protect people from being spiritually exploited by being forced into a spiritually exploitative lifestyle, even if they got paid?
--- End quote ---
Ananias and Sapphira died because they thought the could lie to God and get away with it. Also, the main point of the communities was to protect the followers of Christ from persecution by Jews and later the Romans and even later buy the sects that wanted to control whole of Christianity.
The communal nature of pooling their resources server the same purpose in all communal living situations, to provide for all equality so that a egalitarian life style could be established and maintained. However, human nature being what it is, makes this as difficult for Christians and any other group of people. We are a fallen and flawed people.
SVPete:
No. Helping fellow believers was voluntary.
No. The early church did not confiscate real estate or kill the owners.
No. The early church did not confiscate businesses or kill the owners.
No. The early church did not confiscate an ethnic group's food to starve millions of people.
No. The early church did not send people to remote islands or work camps.
If one bothers to read and understand the book of Acts, it will be clear that in the first year after the day of Pentecost, a large percentage of the people who had become believers were people who had come to Jerusalem for the holidays from Passover through Pentecost. They were far from their homes, far from their means of earning a living. They stayed in Jerusalem for an extended time to learn about their new faith, and needed basic things like places to live and food. Some believers who lived in or near Jerusalem voluntarily supplied their needs. Over time, the believers from other lands returned to their homes, carrying their faith with them.
A decade or so later there was a famine in Judea, and churches in Greece and Asia Minor voluntarily sent aid to the church in Jerusalem and Judea.
Socialism is not voluntary. Socialism rejects private property, while the early church avowed the Law against theft.
I've lost count ... is the the 532,879th time this Lib/Prog silliness has been answered here in the Cave?
JustSomeModerate:
--- Quote from: FlaGator on October 09, 2023, 07:14:20 AM ---Ananias and Sapphira died because they thought the could lie to God and get away with it.
--- End quote ---
I am suggesting it may have been because they made their money selling their souls for "magijos dalinimas" as the OP suggests.
If so, holding some of the money back meant they weren't fully repentant.
Suppose the point of the community was to protect people who were in danger of being blacklisted into spiritually exploitative work.
JustSomeModerate:
--- Quote from: SVPete on October 09, 2023, 12:43:51 PM ---No. The early church did not confiscate real estate or kill the owners...No. The early church did not confiscate businesses or kill the owners.
Socialism is not voluntary. Socialism rejects private property, while the early church avowed the Law against theft.
I've lost count ... is the the 532,879th time this Lib/Prog silliness has been answered here in the Cave?
--- End quote ---
Please consider reading the OP.
There's an etymological case that Mary Magdalene's name may mean "Magija dalina" or "[he/she/they] distributes magic" in a language which is said to be as ancient as Latin, or Biblical Greek or Hebrew.
I am suggesting the point of the communities may have been to protect people from spiritually exploitative work.
The intention may have been that the communities would become obsolete if society was ever safe from such work. They may not have been for everybody but only for individuals at risk of being blacklisted or bullied into spiritually exploitative work.
The term "magic" used to refer to trying to take the spirit or pattern of one person, place, or thing and use it to effect the outcome of another person place or thing, rather than to miraculous powers in general.
FlaGator:
The term "magic" is much to broad for us in the 21st century to apply any meaning out side the context of the era and culture using it. Magic in 21 century is an english word that has many definitions. Ancient Hebrew didn't have a term synonymous to "magic" al though they did have a word for magician, "chartom". The point of all this being is that historically there was no concept of "communism" as defined in modern ideology so to attempt to make a comparison between early Christian communities and modern communism is probably pointless.
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