What Would Jesus Tax?
How do we live in justice, peace with our neighbors, and widely-shared prosperity?
Home Themes index Documents index Links Contact Us

 

 http://www.grundskyld.dk/w-Landmark.doc

My Neighbor's Landmark:
Short Studies in Bible Land Laws
by Frederick Verinder
 
First published 1911, Andrew Melrose. London
Preface by The Very Rev. G.W. Kitchin, D.D. F.S.A.
Digital edition 2003, by www.grundskyld.dk,
adapted and expanded by www.wealthandwant.com

Preface

When we meet with a new interpreter, eager to impart a revelation, we set ourselves to challenge and compare his impassioned message with the ruling spirit of the age, the Zeitgeist, as the Germans call it. Thus when Mr. Verinder speaks of the land-usages and laws of our times, and sets against them the ancient orders and directions of the Pentateuch, we are aroused at once to question and to find out how this new view of possession and occupation fits in with the dominant thoughts of today. From these sacred books he builds a creed for working folk: that the earth is the Lord's, and that any occupier who claims more than the ancient Jubilee gave is a bold interloper; and he bases on these early Scriptural regulations a new brotherhood between the man of labor and the soil on which his sinews work.

There springs out of his argument another proof of the universal nature of the Bible. It is alike ancient and modern. He points out to us that private property in land is nothing but a survival of privileges won by the mailed fist. We know that the first settlement of the Jews in the land flowing with milk and honey was really a raid of moving "landgrabbers." After their bad times in Egypt, they fell on the natives of Palestine, drove them out, and took their place: as the missionaries of Jehovah they proclaimed that they had seized it for His use and in His Name; and they went on to show the world a better way of occupation, and a happier and more equable life.

Their main principle was that the holding of land, unlike the owning of commodities, carried with it a great social duty; land is the base of life, and to till the land the first of human tasks; not because a man owns it, but that he holds it as a trust from God, and must use his energy to coax the shy ground to produce more and more. This is his duty before God, the real Owner of it all. If the man is idle and ignorant, he will have to stand aside and starve. The State has to see to it that the opportunities of the land shall not be wasted; and the tiller has to do his best "that two blades may grow where there was but one before."

This book may be called a Utopia, as being of an imaginary aim. Still it is based on the history of the early Jews, and the undeveloped possibilities of a great growth of prosperity from the soil, unique mother of all production.

Mr. Verinder has revived in our hearts an ancient pleasure; for he has shown that the most modern aspirations breathe in the oldest Scriptures; it is as fit for ancient civilisations as for our days, when we now record the triumph of Knowledge over the powers of Nature. For all ages, whether three thousand years ago or today, there is the same hope; the hope of living in days of happy productiveness. Now that what Cobbett used to call the "great Wen" of London has seen the growth of many like "wens" all over the country, we are filled with a hopeful longing for a renewed country-life; we discern that, with better relations between mankind and the land, we shall attain to a purer life in the cleanness of country air, laboring there in liberty, self-supporting, and reviving the happiness of family life in peace. For it prophesies to us a new view of civilised activity, ohne Hast, ohne Rast.

Let us welcome this interesting book; it releases us from a city-made population, and brings us back to that healthy life, the true heritage of a vigorous race, escaping from the stifling atmosphere of the hurrying town.
  G.W.K.

CHAPTER 1 – By Way of Introduction
CHAPTER 2 – First Principles: The Earth is the Lord's
CHAPTER 3 – The Meaning of the Landmark
CHAPTER 4 – The Year of Jubilee: Land and Liberty
CHAPTER 5 – Land, Labor, Leisure and Learning
CHAPTER 6 – Compensation
CHAPTER 7 – Justice
Appendix: A. The Encroachments of Injustice B. The Effects of Land Monopoly C. The Restoration of Equal Rights D. The Coming Reign of Justice


CHAPTER 1 – By Way of Introduction
§ 1. On "Cursing one's Neighbors" — § 2. The Appeal of Christ and the Church to Moses and the Prophets — § 3. The Three Stages of Reform — § 4. The Bible as a Text-Book of Ethics — § 5. How the Law was handed down to us — § 6. The Modern Literary Criticism of the Pentateuch — § 7. Moses the Liberator and Lawgiver — § 8. Hebrew Land Laws: Principles and Details. "The Mother of all Things" — § 9. The Modern Application

CHAPTER 2 – First Principles: The Earth is the Lord's
§ 1. No Private Property in Land – § 2. God, the only Landowner —§ 3. has given the Land to the Human Race — § 4. All Men and all Generations have equal Rights of Use — § 5. The Profit of the Earth is for All

CHAPTER 3 – The Meaning of the Landmark
§ 1. The Conquest of Canaan — § 2. Hebrew View of the Conquest — § 3. God's Punishment of National Wrong-doing — § 4. The Family and the Nation — § 5. Trade and Agriculture among the Hebrews — § 6. The Division of the Land — § 7. Josephus on Land Value — § 8. The Landmark and its Meaning — § 9. Naboth's Vineyard — § 10. Micah and the Land-Grabbers — § 11. Sir Edward Strachey and Flavius Josephus on the Landmark — § 12. The Landmark in Modern England

CHAPTER 4 – The Year of Jubilee: Land and Liberty
§ 1. Landlordism and Slavery — § 2. No Involuntary Poverty under just Social Conditions — § 3. The People's Jubilee in the Old Testament — § 4. contrasted with the Victorian "Jubilee" — § 5. Meaning of the Hebrew Jubilee — § 6. Riches and Poverty — § 7. The Law of the jubilee. Compensation for unexhausted Improvements — § 8. The essential difference between Land and Improvements — § 9. Property in Land is Property in Man

CHAPTER 5 – Land, Labor, Leisure and Learning
§ 1. The Sabbatical Cycle and the Hebrew Holidays — § 2. The Sabbath Day: its Meaning and Use — § 3. The Relation between Labor and Rest. Work for All, Overwork for None — § 4. The Sabbath Year — § 5. or Year of Release — § 6. as a Witness to Equal Rights to Land — § 7. and as a Provision for National Education — § 8. What the Law meant to the Hebrew

CHAPTER 6 – Compensation
§ 1. The Place of the Levites in the Hebrew Commonwealth: their Functions — § 2. and their inheritance — § 3. The Meaning of the Tithe — 4. To whom is "Compensation" Due?— § 5. Land Restoration under Nehemiah

CHAPTER 7 – Justice
§ 1. The Ethical Significance of Christ's Resurrection — § 2. and of the Deliverance from Egypt — § 3. The Meaning of "Righteousness"— § 4. Justice the Foundation of all Law, Divine and Human. Because God is just, the Law must be just, and must be justly administered ,— § 5. and Justice must rule all our Social Relations — § 6. The Messianic Ideal: the coming Reign of Justice and Social Peace — § 7. The Christian Ideal of Universal Justice. The Fulfilling of the Law — § 8. Jesus Christ and His Apostles on Justice — § 9. Justice does not permit Private Property in Land — § 10 "The Simple but Sovereign Remedy"— § 11. The Parable of Naaman the Syrian

Appendix

A. The Encroachments of Injustice
The setting up of a privileged classleads to land monopolyand extremes of riches and poverty.

B. The Effects of Land Monopoly
The denial of equal rights in land drives drives men to the least productive soil — produces poverty — hunger in the midst of plenty — homelessness — misery in overcrowded cities — crime — and black despair.Land monopoly, by its economic wastefulnessbrings evil upon the robbers, — and upon the robbed. — Luxury brings social deterioration and carelessness about national welfare.Idle and luxurious ladiesincite their husbands to further injustice.The parlous plight of the poor.

C. The Restoration of Equal Rights
Nehemiah holds a mass meetingto demand the abolition of land monopoly without compensationand his proposed reforms are unanimously adopted. — He abolishes unjust taxes and land speculation. — His reforms are carried out. — Ezekiel demands land restoration.

D. The Coming Reign of Justice
With equal rights to land restoredmen shall enjoy the produce of their labor. — Life will be a joyin happy childhood and hale old age. — There will be security and plenty at homeand peace at home and abroad.


Abbreviations used

      Apoc. Apocryphal or deutero-canonical books of the O.T. (see vi. Article of Religion).
      A.V. "Authorised" Version of the Bible. The English translation of 1611.
      Eccles The Book of Ecclesiastes (O.T.).
      Ecclus The Book of the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or "Ecclesiasticus" (Apoc.)
      Gr.  Greek.
      Hebr. Hebrew.
      Heb. The Epistle to the Hebrews (N.T.).
      Jos. Flavius Josephus; Jewish historian and apologist. Born 37 A.D. Wrote in Gr.
      LXX Septuagint; ancient Gr. translation of Hebr. O.T. (The Version usually quoted by N.T. writers.)
      m. Marginal readings of A.V. or R.V.
      n. Note.
      N.T.  New Testament.
      O.T.  Old Testament.
      R.V.  Revised English translation of O.T. (1884) and N.T. (1880.)
      Sayings J.F.  "Sayings of the Jewish Fathers" — Pirke Aboth, or Chapters of the Fathers: a Mishnah Tract in the Talmud (translated and edited by Taylor, 2nd edit.).
      Vulg.  The Vulgate: ancient Latin Version of Bible.

The A.V. is generally used in the following pages, but with frequent reference to R.V., and especially to the very helpful R.V.m.

The author is greatly indebted to a learned Jewish friend, the Rev. B. T. Salomons, of Montefiore College, Ramsgate, who has kindly read the proofs with special reference to the quotations from extra-canonical Jewish writings, and has supplied some additional material which has been embodied in the notes. These additions are enclosed in square brackets and are marked S. 


"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isa. 8:20).

''They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them" (Luke 16:29).

"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Pet. 1:21).

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Rom. 15:4).

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free " (John 8:32).
next chapter —|— Table of Contents —|— abridged version —|— as single document
 
Note: You can read this in individual chapters (recommended) or as a single long document here. There is also a brief abridgement here.

To share this page with a friend: right click, choose "send," and add your comments; or select "File, Send."

Related
WealthandWant
themes
:
:

Red links have not been visited; .
Green links are pages you've seen
Home
Top of page
Themes index
Documents index
to email this page to a friend: right click, choose "send"
   
What Would Jesus Tax?
www.whatwouldjesustax.com
   
How do we organize and tax ourselves so as to live in justice, peace with our neighbors, and widely-shared prosperity?
The wisdom of the ages for 21st century questions.