Liberation Theology in the Bible

Biblical Bases of Liberation Theology

Old Testament
As liberation theologians read the following passages, they conclude that God favors the poor and oppressed. Thus they believe that God's clergy have a special mission to work on behalf of the poor and oppressed and to help improve their conditions.

Exodus 1: 8-14: The Hebrews oppressed
1:8 Then there came to power in Egypt a new king who knew nothing of Joseph.
1:9 'Look,' he said to his subjects 'these people, the sons of Israel, have become so numerous and strong that they are a threat to us.
1:10 We must be prudent and take steps against their increasing any further, or if war should break out, they might add to the number of our enemies. They might take arms against us and so escape out of the country.'
1:11 Accordingly they put slave-drivers over the Israelites to wear them down under heavy loads. In this way they built the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses[*a] for Pharaoh.
1:12 But the more they were crushed, the more they increased and spread, and men came to dread the sons of Israel.
1:13 The Egyptians forced the sons of Israel into slavery,
1:14 and made their lives unbearable with hard labour, work with clay and with brick, all kinds of work in the fields; they forced on them every kind of labour.

Exodus 2: 23-25 God remembers Israel
2:23 During this long period the king of Egypt died. The sons of Israel, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God.
2:24 God heard their groaning and he called to mind his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
2:25 God looked down upon the sons of Israel, and he knew.

Exodus 3: 7-12 The mission of Moses
3:7 And Yahweh said, 'I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings.
3:8 I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
3:9 And now the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have witnessed the way in which the Egyptians oppress them,
3:10 so come, I send you to Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel, my people, out of Egypt.'
3:11 Moses said to God, 'Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?'
3:12 'I shall be with you,' was the answer 'and this is the sign by which you shall know that it is I who have sent you... After you have led the people out of Egypt, you are to offer worship to God on this mountain.'

Jeremiah 22: 13-19 Against Jehoiakim
22:13 'Doom for the man who founds his palace on anything but integrity, his upstairs rooms on anything but honesty, who makes his fellow man work for nothing, without paying him his wages,
22:14 who says, "I will build myself an imposing palace with spacious rooms upstairs", who pierces lights in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.
22:15 Are you more of a king for outrivalling others with cedar? Your father ate and drank, like you, but he practised honesty and integrity, so all went well for him.
22:16 He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? - it is Yahweh who speaks.
22:17 You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.'
22:18 So Yahweh has said this about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: 'Doom for that man! Raise no dirge for him, "Mourn for my brother! Mourn for my sister!" Raise no dirge for him, "Mourn for his highness. Mourn for his majesty"
22:19 He will receive the funeral honours of a donkey, - dragged away and thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 3: 13-15
3:13 Yahweh rises from his judgement seat, he stands up to arraign his people.
3:14 Yahweh calls to judgement the elders and the princes of his people: 'You are the ones who destroy the vineyard and conceal what you have stolen from the poor.
3:15 By what right do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?' It is the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks.

Isaiah 58: 5-7 58:6
58: 6 Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me - it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks - to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke,
58:7 to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin?
58:8 Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Your integrity will go before you and the glory of Yahweh behind you.

Amos 5:24 But let justice flow like water, and integrity like an unfailing stream.

Micah 2: 104 Against the tyranny of the rich
2:1 Woe to those who plot evil, who lie in bed planning mischief! No sooner is it dawn than they do it - their hands have the strength for it.
2:2 Seizing the fields that they covet, they take over houses as well, owner and house they confiscate together, taking both man and inheritance.
2:3 So Yahweh says this: Now it is I who plot such mischief against this breed as your necks will not escape; nor will you be able to walk proudly, so evil will the time be.
2:4 On that day they will make a satire on you, sing a dirge and say, 'We are stripped of everything; my people's portion is measured out and shared, no one will give it back to them, our fields are awarded to our despoiler.'

New Testament

Rhetoric of the New Testament: The following words are mentioned this many times. love = 146 * works = 108 * peace = 94 * free = 44 * poor = 35 * just = 31 * charity = 24 * help = 10

Luke 4: 4:16-19 Good news to the poor
4: 16 He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read
4:17 and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
4:18 The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free,
4:19 to proclaim the Lord's year of favour.

Luke 10: 27-28 Loving your neighbor
10:27 He replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself'[*b]. 10:28 'You have answered right,' said Jesus 'do this and life is yours.'

Jesus and the Money Changers
Matthew 21:12 Jesus then went into the Temple and drove out all those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling pigeons.

Mark 11:15 So they reached Jerusalem and he went into the Temple and began driving out those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling pigeons.

John 2:14 and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there.
2:15 Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers' coins, knocked their tables over.

Matthew 19:24 Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.'

Matthew 25: 31-46 Parables * The Last Judgement
25:31 'When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory.
25:32 All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats.
25:33 He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.
25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.
25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; 25:36 naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."
25:37 Then the virtuous will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink?
25:38 When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome; naked and clothe you;
25:39 sick or in prison and go to see you?"
25:40 And the King will answer, "I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."
25:41 Next he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42 For I was hungry and you never gave me food; I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink;
25:43 I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, naked and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me."
25:44 Then it will be their turn to ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?"
25:45 Then he will answer, "I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me."
25:46 And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life.'

James 1: 1:9-11 The Rich and the Poor
1: 9 It is right for the poor brother to be proud of his high rank,
1:10 and the rich one to be thankful that he has been humbled, because riches last no longer than the flowers in the grass;
1:11 the scorching sun comes up, and the grass withers, the flower falls;[*c] what looked so beautiful now disappears. It is the same with the rich man: his business goes on; he himself perishes.