COLLETTA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. - The Church of Jerusalem, during the first decades of its life, lived in destitution and in constant need of financial assistance. The subsequent persecutions (Acts 4:1-8:3; 9:1-3), the confiscations ordered by the Sanhedrin (and by the Roman authorities), the famine that occurred in the time of Claudius, the abuses of the rich against the poor of which James 2:6-7; 5:1-6 speaks, made the material conditions of the mother Church quite precarious. St. Paul, who had gone there with Barnabas to bring the relief collected at Antioch (Acts 11:27-30) and who had promised the "pillars" (James, Cephas, John) "to remember the poor" of Jerusalem (Gal. 2:10), kept his word.
In I Cor. 16:1-2, the Apostle repeats the order already given to the Galatians to collect in the assemblies on the first day of the week and to set aside the alms that he himself would bring "to the saints." In II Cor. he devotes two chapters to the collecta (8-9), sends trusted delegates, warmly recommends it, pointing out its material and spiritual advantages. To the Romans (Rom. 15:25-27) he announces that he is setting out for Jerusalem to bring to the poor of that Church the offerings collected in Macedonia and Achaia: "For, he says, if the Gentiles were made partakers of the spiritual goods [of Israel], they must now in return assist [the children] also with temporal goods." The Apostle, by bringing the collecta to Jerusalem, refuted by his deeds the accusations of the Judaizers and of the Jews. Before the tribunal of Felix he will make this argument count (Acts 24:17).
Bibliography
Pietro De Ambroggi