Beggar to King: All the Occupations of Biblical Times
By Walter Duckat
Doubleday, 1968, First Edition
The author of this rare book, published in 1968, was a director of vocational guidance for New York City and a professor at Yeshiva University, among other schools. Walter Duckat reminds us of the importance of work in God’s eyes, and the diversity of occupations in the Old and New Testaments.
Duckat accurately states that the ancient Hebrews and the first-century Christians were the only peoples with a worldview (philosophy) that elevated the value of human labor.
“How work is viewed in any society casts important light on the prevailing thinking, social structure, and values of that people,” he writes. “Contempt for labor prevailed in ancient Greece where even a citizen who was a laborer was held in contempt … [By contrast], the Hebrews were virtually the only ancient people who preponderantly viewed work as dignifying rather than demeaning” (p. xx, xxi).
Other ancient peoples, including the Greeks and Romans, despised manual labor. For this reason, the wealthy supported widespread slavery. To justify this massive economic benefit for the ruling classes, they had to devalue human beings, a grievous evil.
Likewise, the Greeks and Romans debased women, making them work in servitude to husbands and giving them no economic rights. By contrast, Jewish women in antiquity “enjoyed a higher status than that of most women in the distant past,” writes Duckat. The work of women, described in his book, is shown to have equal value to the work of men.
The Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament show that the work of men and women was important to God, regardless of the job description. God shows that he values humble people in hundreds of professions. Work is shown to be intrinsically meaningful.
Consider the ancient harness makers. “Harness the horses, ye horsemen (Jeremiah 46:4). Harness makers used knives, awls, thread, and needles to stitch together strips of leather by hand. Archaeologists discovered a street in Rome where most harness makers did their work. Without them, the powerful beasts used for militaries, farmers, and transportation—the horse and ox—could not be employed.
Most of us know that some of Jesus’s friends were fishermen, that Paul was a tentmaker, and that he was a carpenter, but few of us know that the Old and New Testaments mention salt workers. The Dead Sea supplied an abundance of salt (Deuteronomy 3:17). Workers had to place thousands of gallons of water from the sea into vessels, allow it to evaporate, and then package the remaining salt. Others had to purify salt found in rock form, because it was usually contaminated by manure fertilizer. Hard work, to say the least, but essential for food processing, medicine, and taxation (e.g., the salt tax).
The humble postal worker, often disregarded today, played a key role in ancient commerce. The term postmaster, which is found in Ezra 4, referred to an Assyrian office occupied by a worker known as “lord of official intelligence,” says Duckat. Most postal workers were the trusted employees of kings and wealthy individuals. The poor sent messages in the packs of traveling friends and family members (1 Peter 5:12, Ephesians 6:21). The common term apostle, as used among first-century Christians, had no special religious connotation. The apostles were just traveling communicators—message bearers.
Athletes in biblical times did not become millionaires by hitting a ball with a bat, but they did gain admiration and some “emoluments.” Herod the Great promoted wrestling, a sport dating back to 3000 BC. The contests of Olympia included boxing (Ephesians 4:27), chariot races, foot races, archery, and powerlifting. In reward for victories, athletes usually got a crown of leaves and a palm branch.
These are just a few of the jobs described by Duckat. The other two hundred entries are fascinating. But the author’s purpose is about more than presenting a dry ledger of ancient occupations. The Scriptures, he says, provide a remarkable anthropological, historical, and archaeological record of work, economics, and technology, but they also attribute meaning and value to all work that is offered in service to God and to serving others in love.
What the Scriptures never say is that work is the foundation of meaning or human dignity. On this point, Duckat made two common theological errors. These important mistakes show up in the following sentence.
“Although work was initially considered as a punishment for sin, it was also a way of lifting him to a higher level,” Duckat.
First, it is inaccurate to say that work was originally punishment for sin. The first couple of chapters of Genesis show God working (creating a universe). His work is obviously not a punishment for sin. Moreover, he gave humans meaningful work before we sinned (see Genesis 2:15, for example). So, the original design for human work was not punishment.
The second error by Duckat was to write that work is “a way of lifting” human beings to a “higher level” of dignity. God did not design work as a means of elevating the value of a human being. God created humans in his image, and so the priceless worth of every person is already unconditionally established by God, independently of what we do. That being the case, there is no need to earn our value in God’s eyes by the work we do. We can be thankful for that, because work is such a tenuous aspect of life. If we lose our jobs to layoffs, sickness, or age—and if we believe that work is the basis of our worth—then our dignity becomes conditional and uncertain.
Both the Old and New Testaments offer a more profound view of work. They say that God designed work as a means of expressing our preestablished, God-given worth, and as a means of participating in the meaningful purposes of God. Work is a way to love our neighbors, build communities, provide for those we love, and improve society.
Duckat probably made these theological mistakes because he focused on Genesis 3 rather than the previous two chapters. As Genesis 3 shows, sin did have a negative downstream effect. Work became toil. Now our labors require more sweat and tears, and it produces less abundance. Naturally, everything became harder as a result of our choice to reject God.
Those theological points aside, Beggar to King is a fascinating book and an important reminder that God is interested in every person’s work. He calls us to work as means of loving people and loving God. And there is no higher purpose in life than love.
Quote to Ponder
“Families employed in the same craft formed clans that later grew into guilds and unions. Members of these guilds tended to live in their own districts and to band together for common social, economic, and cultural benefits … There was a union of butchers that instituted an arrangement whereby each member might have at least one day of work in periods of economic depression.” — Walter Duckat