Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us

by Kabir Sehgal

  Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.46

  By sidestepping the question, he provides a politically astute response and again draws a distinction between the secular and the sacred, between earthly and heavenly treasure. The Pharisees can’t blame him for subversion, and the Jewish revolutionaries can’t accuse him of total deference to the Romans. However, by suggesting one should pay Caesar’s taxes, Jesus implicitly recognizes that money is a man-made construct that is difficult to avoid in this world. His answer presents the “spheres of exchange” that were discussed in chapter 3. Just as you don’t pay your aunt cash for cooking Thanksgiving dinner, you can’t buy your way to righteousness. It’s the same line between secular and sacred that Jesus tries to draw when he overturns the benches of moneychangers in the temple courts: “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”47 In his comment about paying taxes, Jesus notes the limits of Roman money: The currency of Caesar’s empire doesn’t circulate in God’s Kingdom. Each coin has an image of Caesar, but each person is made in the image of God.

  Though it’s the wrong currency for the afterlife, we still need money for earthly life. It is also written in the scriptures that the love of money—not money itself—is the root of all sorts of evil. Money is like blood. You need it to live but it isn’t the point of life. Just as one donates blood, the scriptures instruct believers to share their wealth. Jesus mentions to whom one should give—those in need and even one’s enemies: “Love your enemies… lend to them without expecting to get anything back.”48 His message got through to his followers, who understood that material wealth was to be shared:

  All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.49

  Jesus holds up a poor widow as an example of how to share one’s wealth. She gave two coins of low value to the temple. The wealthy people gave larger amounts. Jesus says that the widow gave more than the wealthy: “They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”50 The poor widow gave all her wealth. She renounced it, which is in line with the ethical standard of total detachment from money for Christians. She embraced the paradoxical wisdom of faith.

  Most of us aren’t willing to donate all of our wealth. But maybe we can interpret her actions in a different light—that she sacrificed her financial well-being. Pastor Keller construes sacrificial giving to mean that one should give in a way that sacrifices one’s lifestyle. Perhaps we should follow the guideline of tithing (10 percent), according to the scriptures. Yet Pastor Keller contends it’s important how we answer the question, “Is there a cross in your economic life?”51 Author and Christian theologian C. S. Lewis further describes sacrificial giving:

  I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them. I am speaking now of “charities” in the common way. Particular cases of distress among your own relatives, friends, neighbors or employees, which God, as it were, forces upon your notice, may demand much more: even to the crippling and endangering of your own position.52

  Sacrificial giving would lead to reflection upon how we spend our money and whether it adequately reflects our values. By sacrificing financial well-being, we could move away from money, detach from it, and bound toward a life of freedom from material wealth. By subscribing to the spiritual logic that less is more and nothing is everything, the promise of heavenly treasures could be closer at hand.

  God’s Abundance

  The Torah begins with God creating the world. “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”53 Everything that God made, from the birds and the bees, to man and minerals, belongs to God, and he bestows these things as blessings. There is clear instruction on how to receive more of these blessings, too. Moses advises his people that if they obey the Lord, follow his commandments, and live in a righteous manner, they will receive prosperity and abundance: “He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.”54

  But all too often, humans begin to worship the gift and not the giver, forgetting that we are only temporary custodians for God’s abundance: “As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil.”55 And as such, we shouldn’t confuse fleeting wealth, hoarding or worshipping it, as an everlasting one. When Moses ascends Mount Sinai, he receives the Ten Commandments, which explicitly cast idolatry, including the worship of wealth, as a sin.

  You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.56

  However, while Moses is receiving these instructions, his people are violating them. They gather gold earrings, which Aaron fashions into an idol of a calf, a graven image. The people worship the golden calf as a god, burning offerings next to it. God demands that Moses return to his people, who have been corrupted. Moses admonishes his people for their “great sin” of making “gods of gold,” but he pleads with God to forgive them.57 Instead, God strikes them with a plague.

  Not only did they worship false gods, they exhibited greed, which, according to the Ten Commandments, is also a sin. This commandment goes even further than others, since it prescribes not only how someone should act but also how they should think:

  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.58

  As if the commandments weren’t clear enough, the Hebrew Scriptures detail the many problems that result from economic logic, such as arrogance: “But the rich answer roughly.”59 Moreover, material wealth is illusory, as one will always want more: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth, with gain: this also is vanity.”60 Most troubling is that greed blinds people from realizing that it’s God who blesses us with abundance. The benefactor is forgotten:

  And when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage… Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.61

  The blinding nature of greed is also addressed in the Talmud, an important text of Judaism, which was compiled between the third and the fifth centuries AD. It tells the story of Alexander the Great, who once asked a group of rabbis to present him a gift in order to honor him. The rabbis gave him an eyeball. Alexander weighed it against gold and silver, but the eyeball couldn’t be outweighed. The rabbis explained: “It is the eyeball of a human being, which is never satisfied.”62 The rabbis then covered the eyeball with dust and the precious metals outweighed it.

  In this story, dust allays greed, but elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, it’s recommended that we see material wealth as dust. During the trials of Job, in which he is deprived of his wealth, it is said to him to “lay gold in the dust.”63 His material possessions are fleeting, like dust, and in the end amount to nothing.64 Instead Job must r
ealize, “the Almighty is your gold, and your precious silver.”65 This instruction is a rejection of the economic logic that more is better. King Solomon recommends this same path of not chasing riches: “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be wise enough to desist. When your eyes light upon it, it is gone; for suddenly it takes to itself wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.”66 According to Rabbeinu Bachya, a thirteenth-century Spanish scholar of Hebrew Scriptures, the writings of Solomon discourage those who are consumed with the desire to accumulate riches. One’s ability to acquire riches isn’t dependent on one’s wisdom. Even if one obtains wealth, one may not be able to keep it, as it may depart, like a bird that takes flight.67

  But according to Larry Kahaner, author of Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud, the spiritual logic of less is more doesn’t capture what the Hebrew Scriptures state about material wealth. A more accurate description, he says, is enough is enough, or personal contentment. He writes, “What is important is to be satisfied with the money you have and use it for the good of your family and community.”68 One who is content will enjoy the everlasting treasure of God; as it says in Proverbs, “A cheerful heart has a continual feast.”69 According to Meir Tamari, author of The Challenge of Wealth, God will bestow abundance on those who have faith.

  For those who have faith and are blessed with wealth, King Solomon urges charity and decries blinding selfishness: “He who gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.”70 For what one reaps, he will also sow: “One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer.”71 Because wealth is seen as God’s blessings, and the Torah says poverty is an everlasting problem, wealthy people must act as virtuous custodians, using their resources to help those in need:

  For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.72

  God instructs his people on charity: how much to give and to whom. A tithe or one-tenth should be given to those in need, especially widows and orphans. A tithe is the first biblical vow that man makes to God. Jacob promises to provide God a tenth of everything he has—if he can escape his brother, Esau, who is trying to kill him.73 In an agrarian economy, God’s instructions on charity pertain to the harvest. For example, one should not reap the corners of the fields, so that there will be some crops for the poor. God also commands that his people should be charitable with moneylending. They should not engage in usury or charge interest rates on loans to fellow Israelites: “Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you.”74 Usury is later called an “abomination” in the book of Ezekiel.75

  Charity is one of the highest virtues in Judaism. The Talmud states that “charity is equal in importance to all the other commandments combined.”76 Tsedakah is the Hebrew word for charity, which originates from the root for justice.77 The emphasis on charity found in Judaism is exemplified with the tikkun olam, which originates from early rabbinical texts and means “repairing the world.”78 It is the call for Jews to be responsible not just for themselves but for the greater community. Tikkun olam is a strong part of modern liberal Judaism, and has inspired many Jews to donate vast sums of money to charity—to lay their treasure to the dust.

  A Test of Man

  The deprivation of wealth is one of Job’s trials, but within the Koran, the inverse of this test is emphasized. The abundance of māl, which means “wealth” or “property” is a test in itself.79 For Muslims, life is a test—to live in a virtuous manner, according to the principles of the Koran, and to submit to God.80 Material wealth is part of this fitnah, or “test of faith,” since it reveals the true nature of a person’s heart.

  The Koran portrays this test with a parable of two men, a wealthy man and a poor man. The wealthy man’s gardens bear many fruits. He boasts to the poor man, “I am greater than you in wealth.” He dupes himself into thinking that his garden will never perish. The poor man questions and shames the rich man, asking whether he’s forgotten the power of God: “Although you see me less than you in wealth… It may be that my Lord will give me [something] better than your garden.” Then the gardens are destroyed, and the rich man regrets his folly.81 The poor man understood the spiritual logic of less is more in terms of material wealth. By believing the economic logic of more is better, the wealthy man failed the fitnah. The Koran makes it clear that wealth is indeed a fitnah:

  And know that your properties and your children are but a trial and that Allah has with Him a great reward.82

  Not only does the Koran openly declare that material wealth is a fitnah, but it gives clear guidance on how to pass it—to remember to keep one’s faith in God and not be blinded by greed:

  O you who have believed, let not your wealth and your children divert you from remembrance of Allah. And whoever does that—then those are the losers.83

  If a person passes the test and submits to God, acting according to his will, then the person will reap the bounty of spiritual riches. Similar to the scriptures already discussed, the Koran uses agrarian terms to portray God’s blessings:

  The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed [of grain] which grows seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies [His reward] for whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.84

  But if a person fails this test, and lusts after the earthly treasure of māl, then there will be dire consequences on Judgment Day, even banishment to hell:

  If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to you than Allah… then wait until Allah executes His command. And Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people85…

  And you love wealth with immense love. No! When the earth has been leveled pounded and crushed—And your Lord has come and the angels, rank upon rank, And brought [within view] that Day, is Hell—that Day, man will remember, but what good to him will be the remembrance?86

  Despite being warned about this fitnah, humans are easily susceptible to failing it. The Koran explains people’s obsession of māl in various ways, from wanting to solidify one’s social status to trying to attain immortality:

  Woe to every scorner and mocker. Who collects wealth and [continuously] counts it. He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal.87

  The temptation of material wealth has always been great. In the seventh century AD, at the time of the Koranic revelations, status in the community was determined by one’s wealth and number of children. Professor of Islamic studies Colin Turner finds eighty-six passages in the Koran that mention māl or the plural amwāl.88 According to Monzer Kahf, a scholar of Islamic finance, the Koran doesn’t prohibit māl. He explains, “[Muslims] don’t condemn wealth and riches.”89 After all, two of Muhammad’s associates were very wealthy, and Muhammad didn’t condemn them.

  Some Koranic passages specify how not to misuse māl, as in giving to charity and then reminding others of one’s generosity. Yet several passages caution against obsession with māl.90 That so many passages warn against greed suggests that the community at the time was preoccupied with earthly treasures. The obsession of māl prevented some from recognizing Muhammad, an orphan and once a shepherd, as a prophet. Such a man, devoid of earthly riches, would have difficulty commanding respect in a society that venerates wealth.

  Above all, the Koran’s teachings about māl maintain that one must see the clear distinction between earthly and heavenly treasure. The paradoxical wisdom is made clear: Earthly treasure is ephemeral; God’s is eternal:

  And do not extend your eyes toward that by which We have given enjoyment to [some] categories of them, [its being but] the splendor of worldly life by which We test them. And the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring.91

  Jesus makes a similar distinction in the Sermon on the Mount. Muslims see the Koran as
the continuation and conclusion of God’s message that was revealed to prophets like Moses, Job, and Jesus. Many of the Koran’s teachings on how to handle wealth are akin to those found in other Abrahamic faiths. For example, the Koran forbids the worship of graven images. It also recounts the story of the golden calf to illustrate the consequences of idolatry: “Indeed, those who took the calf [for worship] will obtain anger from their Lord.”92 The Koran also maintains that everything belongs to God, as he created the world:

  To Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth and what is between them and what is under the soil.93

  God’s gift creates a gratitude-induced obligation for humans, who must serve as the temporary and righteous trustee of God’s abundance. The relationship between God and humans is that of amanah, or trust to do the right thing and fulfill God’s will. Devout Muslims see their blessings, from money to children, as belonging to God, so they try to act in line with the principles established in the Koran. A paramount principle is to “do thou good,” according to the Koran:

  But seek, with the (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on thee, the Home of the Hereafter, nor forget thy portion in this world: but do thou good, as Allah has been good to thee, and seek not (occasions for) mischief in the land: for Allah loves not those who do mischief.94

  One of the ways to “do thou good” is charity. One of the pillars of Islam is almsgiving, or zakat, which is mentioned in more than thirty passages in the Koran. Every Muslim who has the resources must give to the poor. The root of zakat means “purify” and “growth.” In giving zakat, one cleanses wealth of greed—circulating God’s gift to others, thereby sustaining this spiritual gift economy. The Koran doesn’t denote how much, but tradition set by Muhammad suggests 2.5 percent of one’s income per year. The Koran specifies various groups that should receive these donations, from fuqara, or the poor, to the al-gharimin, those who can’t repay their debts.95