COLLECTION in the NEW TESTAMENT. - During its first decades of life, the Church of Jerusalem lived in poverty 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 arose in the time of Claudius, and the abuses of the rich against the poor mentioned in Jas. 2:6–7; 5:1–6 made the material condition of the mother Church exceedingly precarious. S. Paolo, who had gone there with Barnaba to bring the aid collected at Antiochia (Acts 11:27–30), and who had promised the “pillars” (Giacomo, Cefa, Giovanni) “to remember the poor” of Jerusalem (Gal. 2:10), kept his word.
In I Cor. 16:1–2, the Apostle repeats the instruction already given to the Galati: to take up collections at the assemblies on the first day of the week and to set aside the alms which he himself would bring “to the saints.” In II Cor. he devotes two chapters to the collections (8–9), sends trusted delegates, and warmly commends them, pointing out their material and spiritual benefits. To the Romani (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 Acaia: “For,” he says, “if the Gentiles were made sharers in [Israel’s] spiritual goods, they must now in return assist [its children] also with temporal goods.” By bringing the collections to Jerusalem, the Apostle refuted by deeds the accusations of the Judaizers and the Jews. Before the tribunal of Felice he would invoke this argument (Acts 24:17).
Pietro De Ambroggi