Early Christian Concern for the Poor in the Roman Empire

Taken from What Has Christianity Ever Done For Us? by Jonathan Hill

" In the past, Greeks and Romans alike had idealized the 'city' as the basic unit of human society, and they had regarded the 'citizens' as making up that society, Philanthropists and other wealthy individuals or families would make donations to their city, perhaps to pay for buildings or amenities. Official welfare, where it existed, was distributed according to citizenship, rather than actual need. For example, the Roman empire operated something called the 'annona' system, which shipped food from areas with a surplass to those with a deficit and distributed it to the people....But people had the right to receive the distributed food if (and only if) they were 'citizens' of the city that was doing the distributing- it had nothing to do with need. And, it seems, there were plenty of poor people in the Roman empire- not simply the destitute and the hungry, but the equivalent of the lower working classes, who may have had a roof over their heads but lived hand to mouth and were very vulnerable to economic change. In an age where apart from the annona, there was virtually no state assistance or welfare provision to the economically disadvantaged, people like this could easily become homeless and hungry. Moreover, the cult of the 'citizen' meant that foreigners had no place in the ideal image of the 'city'.
The Christians, however, helped to turn this whole system around. For them humanity was not divided between 'citizens' and 'non-citizens', it was divided between rich and poor. And 'poor', in this context, meant not only the destitute, but those vulnerable to poverty-traditionally, widows and orphans-as well as foreigners and other strangers. Christians believed that it was their duty to try to help these people. We have already seen Jesus'command in Matt. 19:21 to sell everything and give to the poor, and the tradition went back to the Old Testament too. Job 29:11-16 states;
When the ear heard, it commended me, and when the eye saw, it approved; because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger."