“DEVOURING WIDOW’S HOUSES”
By Steven M. Collins
Devouring widow’s
houses and making away with them? How could the Pharisees devour (or rob)
houses owned by widows? Certainly, no one in modern Christendom would do such a
thing! Don’t be too sure. Let’s consider this warning carefully in light of
scriptural precedents and a common practice found in modern Christian
organizations to see if the same thing could be happening today.
Somehow the
Pharisees had devised a method of stealing the homes of widows. At all times,
unscrupulous people will try to take advantage of the elderly by a variety of
economic tricks and “con” games. However the Pharisees were “religious” people.
They had to devise a way to use their religious influence and position to
convert widows’ houses (likely their main asset) to an asset controlled by the
Pharisees. The Pharisees did not have to rob widows of their houses via some
strong-arm technique; they could easily “devour” their houses via another
maneuver. They could simply talk widows into deeding their houses to the
Pharisees in their wills. When the widows died, their properties would go to
the Pharisees instead of to the widows’ rightful heirs among their own
relatives. This could all have been made to sound very religious as the
Pharisees hawked their schemes to aging widows, but the bottom line is that the
Pharisees could transfer assets away from widows and their heirs to the
accounts of the Pharisees, and they could do it all legally.
The concept of
children receiving an inheritance from their parents at the latter’s death is a
consistent theme throughout the Bible. In the time of Jesus and the
Pharisees, there had to be legal mechanisms for transferring wealth from one
generation to another. It is noteworthy that Jesus accused the Pharisees
of devouring “widow’s” houses. Widows, by definition, no longer had husbands to
watch out for their financial interests, and widows would be especially
vulnerable if approached by the Pharisees at the time of their bereavement.
Let’s briefly
examine what the Bible has to say about inheritance rights. When Abraham died,
his son, Isaac, received the inheritance of the Divine birthright blessings as
well as Abraham’s earthly possessions, and Abraham even gave “gifts” (or
endowments) to the sons of his concubines (Genesis 25:5-6). When Isaac died,
Jacob received the inheritance of the Divine birthright blessings, albeit by
trickery (Genesis 27) after Esau had previously disowned the birthright
(Genesis 25:29-34). When Jacob died, he disinherited his oldest son, Reuben,
from receiving the birthright blessings because of Reuben’s blatant disregard
of his father’s rights with Jacob’s concubine, Bilhah
(Genesis 35:22 and 49:3-4). These accounts show that while inheritances are
normally passed down from one generation to another, they can be renounced by a
younger generation or the senior generation can “disinherit” certain children
if they offend or act presumptuously against their parents.
When the
Israelites entered the Promised Land, God emphasized the importance of estates
and property remaining within a family. God gave the Israelites laws regarding
inheritances to implement that objective. God was so adamant on this point that
he banned the selling of family properties in perpetuity (Leviticus 25:23). He
also established the Jubilee Years, during which lands and estates that had
been lost by a particular family had to be restored to the original family of
ownership at regular intervals (Leviticus 25:24-28). All property was protected
by Jubilee Year provisions, with one exception.
I urge readers
to look up the word “inheritance” in a Concordance and see how often this
subject is mentioned in the Bible. The Biblical principle of leaving an
inheritance for one’s children is very clear.
The Pharisees
knew God’s laws about inheritances, but they apparently had devised legal
mechanisms to circumvent the scriptures by convincing widows to will their
properties to the Pharisees instead of to their children or other living
relatives. This would be one more example of how the Pharisees invented
“traditions” which contradicted God’s laws (Matthew 15:1-3).
Some modern
churches and religious organizations have programs where they urge widows (or
the elderly of either gender) to will their homes and/or assets to churches
when they die. Biblical laws and examples argue that if people have any living relatives, the properties and
assets are to stay within a family. While
Perhaps
churches which have received properties from elderly donors should reconsider
their practices in light of Jesus’ Christ’s denunciations of the Pharisees for
their conversion of widow’s properties to their own ownership and control. In
order to implement biblical laws and precedents about inheritances as well as
Jesus Christ’s own words, churches and religious entities receiving donated
property ought to be sure that there are no living relatives to be found before
accepting such a donation.
While it may be
legal in today’s society for churches or religious entities to take control of
(or “devour”) the property of the elderly, Jesus Christ has already made clear
his judgment on this subject. Those who “devour widow’s houses” by legal
mechanisms will be judged in the next life not by any man-made definition of
what is legal, but rather by God’s laws and by Jesus Christ’s words.