Biblical Prosperity

People made money in the Bible basically the same way people make money today. In most cases, biblical era people made a living as servants or laborers, working for a single employer. Some went the business route, working for multiple customers. And others, to coin a phrase from Robert Allen, set up "multiple streams of income" and became extremely wealthy.

Money in Bible Times

For most of the ancient world, land and property (especially animals) were the basis of economy and security. Coinage wasn't really used until 600-500 B.C. The Lydian coin, minted in what is today Turkey, was perhaps the first. As a result, barter was the basis of most transactions.

As history progressed, money became more common. By the time of the Roman Empire, currency was an active part of the world's economy, though it had not completely displaced barter. However, until the Roman Empire, the value of currency fluctuated dramatically, based on a number of social conditions. Money in the Old Testament period was fluid. Money in the New Testament was slightly more stable, especially in the Roman world, but was still fairly complex.

Barter would again become predominant, with the decline of the western Roman Empire and the advent of the Dark Ages and feudalism.

Servants and Laborers

Servants and wage laborers formed the most common type of employment in the Bible. Barter in the ancient world wasn't simply the trading of goods and property. Sometimes people offered themselves, as was the case with Jacob who became an indentured servant to Laban. This was the most common form of slavery in the Bible (contrary to those Bible critics who accuse the Bible of condoning race-based slavery as practiced in the western world from the 1600s through the mid 1800s).

Indentured servitude was not the only form of slavery, however. Prisoners of war were sometimes taken as slaves. Slaves were sometimes traded between tribes or nations or families. Why? Slavery was common in the ancient world, and this was due, in large part, to the nature of the economy. If a person owned no property (and had no access to currency), he or she had little in the way of options.

Consequently, entire families became part of a slave class - with people being born into slavery. This wasn't simply a biblical phenomenon. It was a worldwide situation. Aristotle said it was the "natural order of things."

In addition to servants, there were wage-based laborers. These were individuals hired to work fields, shepherd livestock, etc. In return, the employers would provide food, shelter, or some other means of compensation. The major difference between wage-earners and servants was that wage-earners could more easily switch employers.

Bible Business

In Proverbs 31, the virtuous woman is praised for her skills and diligence in trade, real estate, and investments (contrary to some fundamentalist assumptions that women are to be "barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen").

Other examples of biblical figures taking the entrepreneurial route include Paul, who made a living as a tentmaker and Joseph (Jesus' earthly father) who worked as a carpenter. These occupations were essentially private businesses, where the workers served multiple customers, rather than a single employer or master.

Biblical Prosperity

It should come as no surprise that carpentry, tentmaking, and other business occupations provided a better standard of living than servanthood and simple wage earning. However, those who really cashed in were the entrepreneurs and monarchs who mastered residual income. These folks made money, even when they slept!

Job is one of the best examples of biblical prosperity. When we are first introduced to Job, we are told that "his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East."

In the ancient world, animals provided food, milk, clothing, labor assistance, and more. Job was the most valuable supplier in the marketplace, and thus "the greatest of all the people of the East."

Is Money the Root of all Evil?

Many people are taught that money is the root of all evil. This phrase is lifted from Paul's admonition to Timothy in I Timothy 6:10, but it's not an accurate quote. The King James Version says "root of all evil," while most modern translations have revised this to "root of all kinds of evil." While the King James is arguably closer to the original text (and thus more accurate), we still need to see the full quote.

I Timothy 6:10 reads: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

It's not money. It's the love of money. In other words, Paul is counseling against greed, not making a living. Something to keep in mind as one studies money in the Bible.

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