1 Corinthians 16:1-4

§ 57. CONCERNING THE COLLECTION. During his Third Missionary Journey P. was collecting money for the relief of the Christian poor in Jerusalem. Two chaps. in the middle of 2 Cor. are devoted to this business, which, as it seems, had moved slowly in the interval between the two Epp. The collection had been set on foot some time ago in Galatia (1 Corinthians 16:1); in Macedonia it had been warmly taken up (2 Corinthians 8 f.); from Acts 20:4 we learn that “Asians” also (from Ephesus and the neighbourhood) accompanied P. in the deputation which conveyed the Gentile offering to the mother Church. A little later, in writing to Rome (1 Corinthians 15:25-32), the Ap. refers to the collection, with great satisfaction, as completed. Every province of the Pauline mission appears to have aided in this charity, which, while it relieved a distressing need, was prompted also by Paul's warm love for his people (Romans 9:3), and by his desire to knit together the Gentile and Jewish sections of the Church, and to prove to the latter the true faith and brotherhood of the converts from heathenism (2 Corinthians 9:11-14). P. had taken part in a similar relief sent from Antioch many years before (Acts 11 f.); and in the Conference of Jerus., when the direction of the Gentile mission was committed to him, the heads of the Judæan Church laid on him the injunction to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10). Foreign Jews were accustomed, as an act of piety, to replenish the poorfunds of the mother city. The Christian community of Jerus. suffered from chronic poverty. With little natural or commercial wealth, the city lived mainly upon its religious character on the attractions of the Temple and the Feasts thronged by Jews from the whole world; and the Nazarenes, while suffering from the intense bigotry of their compatriots in other ways, would find it esp. difficult to participate in employments connected with religion. 1 Thessalonians 2:14 intimates that the Judæan Churches had recently undergone severe persecution.