Tertullian — Against Marcion 14

I now come to those ordinary precepts of His, by means of which He adapts the peculiarity of His doctrine to what I may call His official proclamation as the Christ. Blessed are the needy (for no less than this is required for interpreting the word in the Greek, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven . Luke 6:20 Now this very fact, that He begins with beatitudes, is characteristic of the Creator, who used no other voice than that of blessing either in the first fiat or the final dedication of the universe : for my heart, says He, has indited a very good word. This will be that very good word of blessing which is admitted to be the initiating principle of the New Testament , after the example of the Old.

What is there, then, to wonder at, if He entered on His ministry with the very attributes of the Creator, who ever in language of the same sort loved, consoled, protected, and avenged the beggar, and the poor , and the humble , and the widow , and the orphan? So that you may believe this private bounty as it were of Christ to be a rivulet streaming from the springs of salvation . Indeed, I hardly know which way to turn amidst so vast a wealth of good words like these; as if I were in a forest, or a meadow, or an orchard of apples. I must therefore look out for such matter as chance may present to me. In the psalm he exclaims: Defend the fatherless and the needy; do justice to the humble and the poor; deliver the poor , and rid the needy out of the hand of the wicked .

Similarly in the seventy-first Psalm: In righteousness shall He judge the needy among the people, and shall save the children of the poor. And in the following words he says of Christ: All nations shall serve Him. Now David only reigned over the Jewish nation, so that nobody can suppose that this was spoken of David; whereas He had taken upon Himself the condition of the poor , and such as were oppressed with want, Because He should deliver the needy out of the hand of the mighty man; He shall spare the needy and the poor , and shall deliver the souls of the poor. From usury and injustice shall He redeem their souls , and in His sight shall their name be honoured.

Again: The wicked shall be turned into hell , even all the nations that forget God ; because the needy shall not always be forgotten; the endurance of the poor shall not perish forever. Again: Who is like the Lord our God , who dwells on high, and yet looks on the humble things that are in heaven and on earth!— who raises up the needy from off the ground, and out of the dunghill exalts the poor; that He may set him with the princes of His people, that is, in His own kingdom. And likewise earlier, in the book of Kings, Hannah the mother of Samuel gives glory to God in these words: He raises the poor man from the ground, and the beggar, that He may set him among the princes of His people (that is, in His own kingdom), and on thrones of glory (even royal ones). 1 Samuel 2:8 And by Isaiah how He inveighs against the oppressors of the needy!