Biblical Views: The Economics of Family: Changing Biblical Norms

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A recent report by the MacArthur Foundation confirmed what most parents of 20-somethings already know: Young adults in the U.S. are taking longer than previous generations to become financially independent. Those in the 18–34 demographic receive an average of 10 percent of their income from parents, and one-fourth of 25-year-old white males live at home. The median age for a first marriage is now 27 for men and 26 for women, up from 23 in 1980.¹

While talk radio pundits and disapproving grandparents blame these delays in reaching the benchmarks of adulthood on permissive parenting and lazy kids, the MacArthur report points instead to the significant economic and social changes in the U.S. since 1970, particularly the “change from a manufacturing to a service-based economy that sent many more people to college, and the women’s movement, which opened up educational and professional opportunities.”² An economy that reserves good jobs for those with college degrees encourages young adults to focus on themselves before they focus on a family, a perspective that has now extended beyond college graduation into the early 30s.

Clearly, as our economy has changed, so have the messages that we internalize about the “right” family structures. The changes are evident in our own society, but they also can be traced through the various periods of ancient Israelite history. The Hebrew Bible does not reflect only one norm for the family, but several—each arising from a distinct economic situation.³

Before the development of the monarchy, agriculture was conducted by extended families, each headed by the oldest male. The enterprise was extremely labor intensive, requiring the building and maintenance of terraces to allow farming in the hills; the digging of cisterns to collect water for consumption and irrigation; plowing and reaping mostly by hand; and the many steps of grain processing, which alone could take 5 hours a day.

Such an economy encouraged large, harmonious extended families. Children were assets rather than dependents (by the age of eight, children in a farming economy can contribute more energy to the family’s income than they consume in calories). Much worked against longevity in the ancient world. The estimated infant mortality rate was 50 percent, death during childbirth was the leading cause of death for women, and most Israelites suffered from chronic malnutrition.

This type of extended-family system is reflected in several parts of the Biblical record, including the Covenant Code (Exodus 20:22–23:33), the story of Samuel’s birth (1 Samuel 1), and in some of the stories of Israel’s matriarchs, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel (Genesis 27, 30). In these stories, women strive to have male children and often die in childbirth, and the family seems largely on its own for survival. Conflicts arise over procreation and threats to extended family relationships.

During the monarchy, land ownership shifted into fewer hands. Struggling farm families rented out their labor and/or their land to those more successful, and the resulting “patrons” steadily accumulated large landholdings. The monarchy itself owned large estates and demanded tribute/taxes from citizens.

Such an economic system encourages reliance on one’s patron and the state rather than the extended family. The state benefits from weakening family ties when the financially vulnerable opt to serve in the military and/or rent out their labor instead of turning to relatives for help.

The existence of large estates is reflected in the Books of Samuel, Kings and several of the prophets. When Samuel scolds Israel for wanting a king, he warns that a king will take people’s sons for warriors, make men into overseers of his own lands, and seize land and stock to give to his courtiers: “you shall be his slaves” (1 Samuel 8:11–17). Micah rails against those who “covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (Micah 2:2). Deuteronomy, likely written during the monarchy, downplays the role of the extended family by shifting responsibility for punishing crimes from the victim’s family to the elders, and by prioritizing the husband-wife bond above other family ties. In the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 (usually credited to J, a source written during the monarchy), a man leaves his family and cleaves to his wife, while in earlier periods women joined the families of their husbands.

During the Persian period, described in the Bible as the return from exile, large private and 076monarchical estates were gone. Most land was again farmed primarily by extended families, though Persian officials demanded significant taxes. As in an earlier period of the nation’s history, people’s financial well-being was largely dependent on the success of their extended families.

This return to the extended families is reflected in Genesis 1 and Leviticus, both credited to the P source and believed to be post-Exilic. Here, procreation takes high priority. Genesis 1 charges the humans to “be fruitful and multiply.” Regulations for sexual relations in Leviticus increase the likelihood of procreation by forbidding sex during menstruation, male-male sex, and sex with animals. And the elaborate incest prohibitions regulate the interactions of family members living in close proximity.

Although Biblical materials are often treated as presenting a single vision of “family values,” this overview calls attention to how messages about the Israelite family changed over time in response to economic and social changes. Modern people, it seems, are not alone in having to adjust to a “new normal” of family life.

A recent report by the MacArthur Foundation confirmed what most parents of 20-somethings already know: Young adults in the U.S. are taking longer than previous generations to become financially independent. Those in the 18–34 demographic receive an average of 10 percent of their income from parents, and one-fourth of 25-year-old white males live at home. The median age for a first marriage is now 27 for men and 26 for women, up from 23 in 1980.1 While talk radio pundits and disapproving grandparents blame these delays in reaching the benchmarks of adulthood on permissive parenting and lazy kids, the […]