Robbery is the violent or unlawful taking of another person’s property. Scripture condemns theft, oppression, man-stealing, invasion of property rights, and sacrilegious taking from sacred places.
Definition
Robbery is the unlawful taking of property or rights. In the biblical material it includes raids, theft, oppression, man-stealing, and invasion of another person’s land. The term can also describe sacrilegious taking from a temple treasury.
Biblical Usage
Scripture records robbery by Ishmaelites, Chaldeans, Sabeans, and the men of Shechem, and describes robbers in Judea during the New Testament period. Theft and man-stealing were condemned, invasion of land rights was forbidden, and “robbers of churches” is better understood as “robbers of temples.”
Historical Background
Robbery was associated particularly with nomadic tribes of the East. The Mosaic law addressed theft, man-stealing, and the invasion of property rights. Temple treasure chambers were regarded as being under divine guardianship, so stealing from them was sacrilegious.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Practised by the Ishmaelites (Gen. 16:12), the Chaldeans and Sabeans (Job 1:15, 17), and the men of Shechem (Judg. 9:25. See also 1 Sam. 27:6-10; 30; Hos. 4:2; 6:9). Robbers infested Judea in our Lord’s time (Luke 10:30; John 18:40; Acts 5:36, 37; 21:38; 2 Cor. 11:26). The words of the Authorized Version, “counted it not robbery to be equal,” etc. (Phil. 2:6, 7), are better rendered in the Revised Version, “counted it not a prize to be on an equality,” etc., i.e., “did not look upon equality with God as a prize which must not slip from his grasp” = “did not cling with avidity to the prerogatives of his divine majesty; did not ambitiously display his equality with God.” “Robbers of churches” should be rendered, as in the Revised Version, “of temples.” In the temple at Ephesus there was a great treasure-chamber, and as all that was laid up there was under the guardianship of the goddess Diana, to steal from such a place would be sacrilege (Acts 19:37).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Robbery has ever been one of the principal employments of the nomad tribes of the East. From the time of Ishmael to the present day the Bedouin has been a “wild man,” and a robber by trade. (Genesis 16:12) The Mosaic law on the subject of theft is contained in (Exodus 2:2) There seems no reason to suppose that the law underwent any alteration in Solomon’s time. Man-stealing was punishable with death. (Exodus 21:16; 24:7) Invasion of right in land was strictly forbidden. (27:17; Isaiah 5:8; Micah 2:2)
