Title: ALMSGIVING AND THE KINGDOM WITHIN: TERTULLIAN ON LUKE 17:21 , 

By: MICHAELS, J. RAMSEY, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 00087912, Jul98, Vol. 60,
Issue 3
Database: Religion and Philosophy Collection
ALMSGIVING AND THE KINGDOM WITHIN: TERTULLIAN ON LUKE 17:21

THE POET Robert Bridges once wrote to the Catholic poet Gerard
Manley Hopkins, asking how he might come to faith in Christ.
Hopkins wrote back a two-word reply: "Give alms."(n1) To some
Protestants, Hopkins's answer could reinforce the stereotype of a
Roman Catholic appeal to merit or good works as the basis of
Christian salvation. But the Victorians knew their Bible. Quite possibly Hopkins had in
mind something rather specific from the New Testament.

THE ABRUPT COUNSEL "Give alms" occurs twice on the lips of Jesus in the Gospel of
Luke (11:41 and 12:33). The relevant verses can be translated as follows:

Luke 11:41. "Yet give [as] alms [Delta o Tau Epsilon Epsilon Lambda Epsilon Eta Mu o
Sigma Upsilon v Eta v] the things within [Tau Alpha Epsilon vov Tau Alpha] and look,
everything is clean vof you [Kappa Alpha i i Delta o Upsilon Pi Alpha v Tau Alpha
Kappa Alpha Theta Alpha Rho Alpha Upsilon Mu i v Epsilon Sigma Tau i v]."

Luke 12:33."Sell your possessions [Tau Alpha Upsilon Pi Alpha Rho Chi ov Tau Alpha]
and give alms Delta Sigma Tau Epsilon Epsilon Lambda Epsilon Eta-Mu o Sigma
Upsilon Eta v] Make for yourselves purses that do not get old, a treasure in the heavens
that does not fail, where a thief does not come near, and moth does not destroy."

In the first passage Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees--from Luke's standpoint

unbelievers--while in the second he is addressing his own disciples. Almsgiving was one
of the three pillars of Jewish piety (above all, Pharisaic piety), but Jesus is asking of the
Pharisees more than they were accustomed to give. In Matthew, Jesus simply
presupposes the three pillars (almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, Matt 6:1-18) and contents
himself with instructing his disciples how they should give alms--without ostentation or
fanfare like the "hypocrites" (that is, the Pharisees, 6:1-4). Both Matthew and Luke also
preserve Mark's story about the rich man who came to Jesus asking how he might gain
eternal life and was told, "Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven" (Mark 10:21; compare Matt 19:21; Luke 18:22). Luke's
distinctiveness lies, first, in the frequency of his references to giving radically and
generously to the poor,(n2) and second, in his willingness to sum up this radical
generosity as "giving alms" in the two passages, 11:41 and 12:33.
While Luke's emphasis on almsgiving as a central command of Jesus goes beyond assent
to Jewish practice as Matthew describes it (Matt 6:1-4), it has definite precedent in pre-
Christian Judaism. A good example is Tob 4:6-11:

To all who practice righteousness give alms from your possessions, and do not let your
eye begrudge the gift when you make it. Do not turn your face away from anyone who is
poor, and the face of God will not be turned away from you. If you have many
possessions, make your gift from them in proportion; if few, do not be afraid to give
according to the little you have. So you will be laying up a good treasure for yourself
against the day of necessity. For almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you from
going into the Darkness. Indeed, almsgiving, for all who practice it, is an excellent
offering in the presence of the Most High. (NRSV)

One noticeable difference in Tobit is the qualifying expression, "to all who practice
righteousness" (v. 6). This is comparable to the extreme caution about giving to those
who are unworthy urged in Sir 12:4-7 and to the warning "Let thine alms sweat into thine
hands until thou knowest to whom thou art giving" in Did. 1:6. The Lucan commands to
give alms contain no such limitations or safeguards. Another difference is Tobit's explicit
identification of almsgiving as a sacrificial offering, although Luke preserves this idea in
the story of Cornelius in the Book of Acts (10:4; see also Heb 13:16, and especially 2
Clem. 16:4).

The precise command "Give alms," which occurs only twice in Luke, epitomizes the
theme of giving to the needy, which surfaces again and again in Luke's "central section"
(9:51-19:44), as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem with his disciples (for example, in 10:25-
37; 11:5-8,41; 12:13-21,33-34,48; 14:12-14,15-24; 16:9,19-31; 18:1-8,18-25; 19:1-10).
The parable of the Samaritan in 10:25-37 (found only in Luke) responds to the question
"Who is my neighbor?"--with the conclusion that the true neighbor in the story of the
wounded traveler was "the one who had mercy on him" (10:37). "Mercy" Tau O Epsilon
Lambda Epsilon O Zeta] is acted out by the Samaritan, who "went to him and bandaged
his wounds," "put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him"
(v. 34), and later "took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper," saying
"Look after him, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may
have" (v. 35). "Mercy" comes down to a matter of giving, in actual "dollars and cents."
To Epsilon Lambda Epsilon O Zeta "mercy," finds its expression here in something
equivalent to Epsilon Lambda Epsilon Eta Mu O Sigma Upsilon v Eta, "alms," using a
cognate instead of the actual word.

In the next chapter (chap. 11), God's own willingness to give to those who ask is
demonstrated in the parable of the friend who comes at midnight asking for three loaves
of bread (11:5-8), with a lengthy application about giving and receiving (vv. 9-11). The
section contrasting the "sound" eye with the "evil" eye (11:34-36) is open to several
possible interpretations, one of which is as a reference to generosity contrasted with greed
(suggested by the context of the parallel passage, Matt 6:22-23).(n3) The discourse
against the Pharisees (Luke 11:37-54) begins as a controversy about the laws of purity
regarding table utensils (vv. 37-40), but in v. 41 Jesus abruptly changes the subject to
giving alms (Delta Sigma Tau Epsilon Epsilon Lambda Epsilon Eta Mu O Sigma Upsilon
v Eta v) which leads into an indictment of the Pharisees and scribes on several fronts (vv.
42-54).

II

THE MEANING of Luke 11:41 is debated. Jesus tells the Pharisees to give as their alms
Tau Alpha Xi vov Tau Alpha literally "the things within." This comes in a context in
which he has been contrasting the "outside" (Tau Sigma Epsilon Xi Omega Theta Epsilon
v) with the "inside" (Tau O Epsilon Sigma Omega Theta Epsilon v) whether of cups and
plates or of human beings: "But the Lord said, `Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of
the cup and dish, but the inside of you is full of greed and evil. You fools! Did not he
who made the outside also make the inside?'" (11:39-40). The question is whether Tau
Alpha Epsilon vov Tau Alpha "the things within," are the contents of the cups and dishes
being used at the meal to which the Pharisee had invited Jesus (as in the NIV, "But give
what is inside to the poor"), or the Pharisees' material possessions more generally (as in
the KJV, "such things as ye have").

For all practical purposes, these two interpretations reduce to one. It is highly unlikely
that Luke intends Jesus to be commanding only the gift of a few vessels of leftover food
from one specific meal! Rather, such a gift represents a commitment on the part of the
Pharisees to give alms generously from all that is theirs. Only on the basis of such a
commitment can Jesus say, "Look, everything is clean for you." Instead of Tau Alpha
Upsilon Pi Alpha Rho Chi ov Tau Alpha "your possessions," as in 12:33, Luke uses the
term Tau Alpha Epsilon vov Tau Alpha "the things within," in keeping with the language
of the context about "the outside" and "the inside."

A third interpretation spiritualizes the whole thing by linking Tau Alpha Epsilon ov Tau
Alpha with Tau o Epsilon Sigma Omega Theta Epsilon v Upsilon Mu Omega v, so as to
yield the meaning (in Plummer's paraphrase) "Give your souls as alms" (i.e., give not
merely food or money but your heart.(n4) This is unlikely for two reasons: first, Luke
(unlike Matthew) rarely internalizes the commands of Jesus to do good or show mercy to
the poor (compare, for example, Luke 6:20,21 with Matt 5:3,6); second, "the inside of
you" [Tau o Epsilon Sigma Omega Theta Epsilon v Upsilon Mu Omega v] is "full of
greed and evil" (Luke 11:39). Such filth within the soul is hardly an appropriate offering
to the poor.

Luke 11:41 is best understood, therefore, as a saying equivalent to what Jesus will say
later in 12:33 ("Sell your possessions and give alms," so as to make "purses that do not
get old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail") and in 18:22 ("Sell what you have
and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in the heavens"). In each instance there is
a command to give away possessions followed by a promise of reward. In 12:33 and
18:22 the reward is heavenly and future, while in 11:41 it is present: "Look, everything is
clean for you" (l Delta o Upsilon Pi Alpha v Tau Kappa Alpha Theta Alpha Rho Alpha
Upsilon Mu iv Epsilon Sigma Tau iv). Purity laws no longer apply if a person lets go of
possessions and gives generously, even recklessly, to the poor. The heart of such a person
is already in heaven (12:34).

III

IS IT POSSIBLE TO GO A STEP FURTHER and say that for such a person the kingdom
of God has already come? Luke 17:21 is not normally listed among those passages where
Luke urges reckless generosity to the poor. The Pharisees' question which evokes Jesus'
pronouncement in Luke 17:20b-21 is about eschatology, not almsgiving, and v. 21 itself
introduces a rather long excursus on eschatology directed at Jesus' disciples (17:22-18:8).

There are two ironies plaguing every attempt to make sense of Luke 17:21: first, a
pronouncement introducing a detailed presentation of futuristic eschatology is itself a
programmatic statement of realized eschatology; second, this profound assurance that
"the kingdom of God is within you" is addressed not to Jesus' disciples but to the
Pharisees. Both of these ironies are addressed if we place 17:20b-21 ("The kingdom of
God comes not with observation [Mu Epsilon Tau Alpha Pi Alpha Rho Alpha Tau Eta
Rho Eta Sigma Epsilon Omega Zeta, nor shall they say, `Look, here!' or `There!' For
look, the kingdom of God is within you [l Delta o Upsilon Gamma Alpha Rho Eta Beta
Alpha Sigma l Lambda Epsilon l Alpha Tau o Upsilon Theta Epsilon o Upsilon Epsilon v
Tau o Zeta Upsilon Mu Omega v Epsilon Sigma Tau lv]") beside another saying
involving realized eschatology and directed similarly to the Pharisees, namely, 11:41
("Yet give [as] alms [Delta o Tau Epsilon Epsilon Lambda Epsilon Eta Mu o-Sigma
Upsilon v Eta v] the things within [Tau Alpha Epsilon vov Tau Alpha] and look,
everything is clean for you [Kappa Alpha l l Delta o Upsilon Pi Alpha v Tau Alpha
Kappa Alpha Theta Alpha Rho Alpha Upsilon Mu lv Epsilon Sigma Tau lv]"). The most
striking correspondence lies in the structure of the final clauses: l Delta o Upsilon
Gamma Alpha Rho Eta Beta Alpha Sigma l Lambda Epsilon l Alpha Tau o Upsilon
Theta Epsilon o Upsilon Epsilon v Tau o Zeta Upsilon Mu Omega v Epsilon Sigma Tau
lv (17:21); Kappa Alpha l l Delta o Upsilon Pi Alpha v Tau Alpha Kappa Alpha Theta
Alpha Rho Alpha Upsilon Mu lv Epsilon Sigma Tau lv (11:41). Each pronouncement is
introduced by "look" (l Delta o Upsilon), and each offers to the Pharisees a salvation or
cleansing that is present (Epsilon Sigma Tau lv). The most noticeable difference is that
11:41 attaches a condition to the offer (they must give away their possessions), while
17:21 appears to be unconditional.

Yet not every interpretation of Luke 17:21 takes it as unconditional. In addition to the
translation of Epsilon v Tau o Zeta Upsilon Mu Omega v as "within you" or "in your
midst," Tertullian reads it as "within your grasp" (or "possession"), in other words, the
kingdom is at your disposal; it can be shared in by you, if you want it; "to take it lies
among your choices and within your power."(n5) The relevant passage in Tertullian is in
his work Against Marcion. In order to show Jesus' teaching anticipated by Moses,
Tertullian interprets Luke 17:21 in connection with Deut 30:11-14:

The kingdom of God, he says, cometh not with observation, neither do they say, Lo here,
lo there, for behold the kingdom of God is within you. Surely everyone must interpret
these words, "Is within you" [intra vos], as "in your hand" [in manu], "within your
power" [in potestate vestra], if you give ear, if you do the commandment of God [si
faciatis dei praeceptum]. But if the kingdom of God is in the commandment [in
praecepto], set opposite to it Moses, as our antitheses suggest, and there is complete
agreement. The commandment [praeceptum], he says, is not on high, nor far from thee. It
is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up to heaven, and bring it down
for us, and we will hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say,
Who shall go over the sea and bring it for us, and we will hear it and do it? The word is
near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, and in thy hands [in manibus tuis], to do it. This
will be the meaning of, Not here, not there; for behold the kingdom of God is within you.
(n6) (Against Marcion 4.35.12-13)

Clearly, the presence of the kingdom is conditional in this passage. The kingdom is
"within you," Jesus tells the Pharisees, "if you do the commandment of God." For them at
that moment, the kingdom of God is "in the commandment." Its presence depends on
something they must "do." According to Tertullian, it is "in your hand," a phrase
anticipating his quotation from Deut 30:14, "The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in
thy heart, and in thy hands to do it."(n7)

What exactly is the "commandment of God" (dei praeceptum) of which Tertullian

speaks? In his exposition of the next chapter of Luke, he comes to Luke 18:18-22, where
a man asks Jesus, "Good teacher [Praeceptor optime], what shall I do to obtain possession
of eternal life?" In reply, says Tertullian, Jesus

inquired whether [the man] knew--which means, was keeping--the Creator's

commandments [de praeceptis creatoris], in such form as to testify that by the Creator's
commandments eternal life is obtained; and when that man replied, in respect of the chief
of them, that he had kept them from his youth up, he got the answer, "One thing thou
lackest; sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven;
and come follow me."

Then Tertullian makes his point:

Come now, Marcion . . . , what will you be bold enough to say? Did Christ here rescind
those former commandments, not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to bear
false witness, to love father and mother? Or is it that he retained these and added what
was lacking? And yet, even this commandment [hoc praeceptum] of distributing to the
poor is spread about everywhere in the law and the prophets, so that boastful keeper of
the commandments was convicted of having money in much higher esteem. (Against
Marcion 4.36.4-5).(n8)

The "one thing" which Jesus adds to the commandments of the Decalogue is the single
command, "sell all that thou hast [quaecunque habes, 4.36.4; "what you have," quae
habes, 4.36.7] and give to the poor." It is fair to conclude that "this commandment [hoc
praeceptum] of distributing to the poor" (4.36.5) is precisely "the commandment of God"
(dei praeceptum) mentioned earlier in connection with Jesus' pronouncement that the
kingdom is "within you," "in your hand," or "within your power" (4.35.12). Moreover,
Tertullian's rendering of Luke 18:22 (quaecunque habes, "all that you have," or quae
habes, "what you have") echoes his translation of Luke's Tau Alpha Epsilon VOV Tau
Alpha literally "the things within," in Luke 11:41 as quae habetis ("Give alms of those
things which ye have, and all things will be clean for you," 4.27.3).(n9) While Tertullian
does not specifically label Luke 11:41 "the commandment [praeceptum] of God," he does
go on to contrast "the more important things of the law: almsgiving and vocation and the
love of God," with the "precepts [praecepta] and doctrines of men" (4.27.6-9).(n10)

In short, Tertullian affords a basis in the very early history of the interpretation of Luke
17:21 for suggesting that "within you" meant "in your hands" or "within your power," in
the sense that the Pharisees, as "lovers of money" (Luke 16:14), had the opportunity to
gain the kingdom by opening their hands in reckless generosity to the poor. The
commandment implicit in Luke 17:21 is a commandment already explicit in 11:41, "Give
as alms the things within [your possession], and look, everything is clean for you!" The
latter is simply a clearer and more direct way of saying, "Look, the kingdom of God is in
your hands!"

Is Tertullian true to Luke's intention? Luke 17:20-21 is so brief and enigmatic that it is
difficult to say, but Tertullian's view does resolve the two classic difficulties in the
interpretation of this text: first, it explains why the pronouncement is directed at the
Pharisees (for the same reason 11:41 was directed at the Pharisees); second, and
consequently, it keeps 17:20-21 distinct from 17:22-18:8, where the audience shifts from
the Pharisees to the disciples. There are catch words linking the two sections ("nor shall
they say, `Look, here!' or `There!'" in v. 20; "and they shall say to you, `Look, there!' or
`Look, here,'" in v. 23), but 17:22-18:8 is serious and detailed teaching on eschatology,
while 17:20-21 is not. It is not an answer to the Pharisees' question when the kingdom of
God will come. Jesus withholds the real answer from them and gives it instead to his
disciples. To the Pharisees he offers only a slightly different version of what he had said
to them before (11:41).(n11) It is a rebuke to their greed, and at the same time it is an
opportunity for them to change.

In 11:37-41 the Pharisees raised the question of ritual purity, and Jesus abruptly shifted
the discussion to almsgiving. Here they ask about eschatology, and he does the same
thing, only to take up the Pharisees' question of eschatology with his own disciples in the
next section (17:22-18:8). When he has finished with this, he turns his attention once
more, in 18:9-14, to the Pharisees and their extravagant claims of righteousness and
generosity ("I pay a tithe on all that I acquire," v. 12). Finally, after a brief section on
children (18:15-17), which illustrates v. 14b, he comes to the story of the rich ruler
(18:18-27); the ruler lacked "one thing": "Sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me" (18:22). Thus, Luke's
arrangement of his material offers at least some basis for the interpretation Tertullian
presupposes in his reply to Marcion.

IV
TWO PASSAGES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS further illustrate this understanding of
Luke 11:41 and Luke 17:21. Peter, in his rebuke to Ananias for withholding part of the
proceeds from the sale of his property, asked, "While it remained, did it not remain yours
[Sigma oi], and when it was sold, was it not in your authority [Epsilon V Tau Eta Sigma
Eta Epsilon Xi o Upsilon Sigma i Alpha] Why have you put this thing in your heart? You
have not lied to humans but to God" (Acts 5:4). In Tertullian's terms, Peter could have
said that the proceeds from the sale were Epsilon v Tau o Zeta Sigma o Upsilon in the
sense of "in your hand" or "within your power." Ananias and Sapphira, like the Pharisees
in Luke, had the opportunity to grasp life and participate in the kingdom by giving away
all that was in their hands, but through greed they chose death instead.

Another passage in Acts introduces Cornelius as "a devout man and one who feared God
with all his household, who did many deeds of almsgiving [Pi ol Omega v Epsilon
Lambda Epsilon Eta Mu o Sigma Upsilon v ALpha Zeta Pi o Lambda Lambda Alpha
Zeta] for the people and prayed to God continually" (Acts 10:2). An angel says to
Cornelius in a vision, "Your prayers and your alms [Alpha i Epsilon Lambda Epsilon Eta
Mu o Sigma v Alpha i Sigma o Upsilon] have come up as a memorial before God"
(10:4), and instructs him to send for Simon Peter. Peter, in 10:9-16, has a vision of his
own in which he is told that what God has cleansed he (Peter) must not make common (v.
15) and from which he concludes, "God has shown me that I must not call any person
common or unclean" (v. 28). Cornelius' story is, from one standpoint, a story about the
conversion of a Gentile and, from another, a story about the coming of the Holy Spirit on
a group of Gentiles. But it is also a remarkable instance of resolution of the problem of
ritual purity (the issue dividing Jews from Gentiles) by a person's willingness to give
alms. Maybe Hopkins was onto something!

(n1) The story has been told more than once. See, for example, the letter Flannery
O'Connor wrote in 1962 to Alfred Corn, published in F. O'Connor, The Habit of Being:
Letters (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1979) 476-77. O'Connor explained that
Hopkins "was trying to say to Bridges that God is to be experienced in Charity (in the
sense of love for the divine image in human beings)."

(n2) For a summary, see J. A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel according to Luke I-IX (AB 28;
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981) 247-51.

(n3) See O. Bauernfeind, "haplous," TDNT, 1. 386.

(n4) A. Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St.
Luke (ICC; New York: Scribner's, 1903) 311.

(n5) The terminology is J. A. Fitzmyer's (The Gospel according to Luke X-XXIV [AB
28A; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985] 1161), drawing on that of H. J. Cadbury, "The
Kingdom of God and Ourselves," Christian Century 67 (1950) 172-73; cf. C. H. Roberts,
"The Kingdom of Heaven (Lk. xvii.21)," HTR 41 (1948) 1-8; A. Ruestow, "Entos hymon
estin: Zur Deutung von Lukas 17.20-21," ZNW 51 (1960) 197-224. This meaning is
supported by a number of papyrus texts cited by Roberts and by Ruestow, although the
translation of these texts is still disputed. See Fitzmyer's discussion and bibliography
(Gospel according to Luke X-XXIV, 1159-63); also BAGD, 269.

(n6) Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem (ed. and tr. Ernest Evans; Oxford: Clarendon,
1972) 462-65. My translation follows that of Evans except for "our antitheses," where
Evans (inexplicably) has "my antitheses" for the Latin nostras antitheses. Tertullian
appears to be using "our" rhetorically to engage Marcion in dialogue: "our" antitheses
are, in Tertullian's view, no antitheses at all, for Jesus and Moses are "in complete
agreement."

(n7) The phrase "in your hands" is found in the LXX of Deut 30:14 but not in the Hebrew
text.

(n8) Ed. Evans, 367-69.

(n9) Ibid., 414-15.

(n10) Ibid., 416-19.

(n11) The phrase "with observation" (Mu Eta Tau Alpha Pi Alpha Rho Alpha Tau Eta
Rho Eta Sigma Epsilon Omega Zeta) is highly ambiguous. It can refer to searching the
skies for signs of the end (in keeping with the accompanying "`Look, here!' or `There!'"),
or to the Pharisees' habit of watching or lying in wait for Jesus to trap him in his words,
or simply to their zeal for purity and ritual observance. Possibly the issues discussed in
11:37-41 are still in view here. Certainly they are in view in 17:11-19, and Luke will
return to them in his contrasting portraits of the Pharisee and the tax collector in 18:9-14.

~~~~~~~~

By J. RAMSEY MICHAELS, 10 Moss Lane Madbury, NH 03820

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Source: Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Jul98, Vol. 60 Issue 3, p475, 9p
Item: 1568761