The Biblical Roots of Thanksgiving

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November 22, 2007

Unbeknownst to many Americans, Thanksgiving is yet another legacy of the Biblical heritage that shaped American law and culture over the centuries. There is at least some evidence that the deeply pious Pilgrims — who, as Puritans, believed the Old Testament law was binding on Gentiles as well as Jews — may have been partially inspired by the Jewish harvest festival of Booths (Sukkot). Sukkot is a week-long celebration, mandated in Leviticus 23, in which the Jewish people remember and give thanks for their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. It is usually observed in October — as was the original Thanksgiving in 1621.

At the very least, the concept and duty of thanksgiving is deeply rooted in the Biblical tradition. Indeed, you can actually see much of the Torah's ceremonial commandments as being nothing less than institutionalized thanksgiving: the Sabbath, Passover, the Festival of Weeks, the Festival of Booths, the entire sacrificial system, seek to inculcate among the people the awareness of divine graciousness. "He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to make petition, to give thanks, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel," says Chronicles. "Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done," sang the Psalmist.

The apostle Paul, in the earliest book in the New Testament, makes thanksgiving a virtual commandment: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

It's hardly surprising, then, that the Pilgrims set aside a special time to give thanks to God for his mercy. Thanks to contemporary accounts written by Edward Winslow (in his 1621 A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth) and Governor William Bradford himself (History Of Plymouth Plantation), we have a pretty good idea of what happened 400 years ago.

As most people know, the first winter was devastating: Of the 110 Pilgrims and crew who left England, only about 50 survived the cold and hunger of that first winter. But then, on March 16, with freezing winds still blowing across the Atlantic ocean, a seeming miracle occurred. An Abanki Indian named Samoset strolled right into the Pilgrim settlement and announced, in English, "Welcome!" Samoset had learned English from British fishermen along the coast. Samoset brought his friend, Squanto (Tisquantum), who not only spoke better English but had actually lived in England for nearly a decade. He had been kidnapped from the Plymouth area in 1608 and had traveled back and forth.

It was Squanto who taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn, how to catch fish and eels, how to tap maple syrup — and basically how to survive in this harsh Massachusetts winter.

By the time fall arrived, the Pilgrims' meager barley and wheat crops were offset by a bountiful supply of corn, fish and wild turkeys. For that reason, the deeply pious Puritan Governor Bradford, reflecting on the ancient Israelites' thanksgiving for their deliverance from Egypt, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. Squanto, the local chief Massasoit and 90 Indian braves came to the three-day celebration — and brought most of the food!

Thanksgiving has evolved into a secular holiday in the United States, shared by people of all faiths and no faith, but we should remember that our Pilgrim forefathers and foremothers looked to Biblical precedents for their inspiration. Plus, it bears remembering whom the early Pilgrims were thanking as they enjoyed the unexpected bounties of nature and the equally unexpected kindnesses of America's native people.

A couple of points to make. The Pilgrims, though often referred to a Puritans, were more precisely Puritan Separatists. Generally, Puritans believed in trying to purify the Church of England without leaving it. Separatists believed the Church of England (and the Roman Catholic Church) were beyond redemption and correct Godly worship required separation from them.

Of the Church of England, William Bradford (governor of the Plymouth Colony) wrote in his journal:

"The one side [the Pilgrims] laboured to have the right worship of God & discipline of Christ established in the church, according to the simplicity of the gospel, without the mixture of mens inventions, and to have & to be ruled by the laws of Gods word, dispensed in those offices, & by those officers of Pastors, Teachers, & Elders, etc. according to the Scriptures. The other party [the Church of England], though under many colors & pretenses, endeavored to have the episcopal dignity (after the popish manner) with their large power & jurisdiction still retained; with all those courts, cannons, & ceremonies, together with all such livings, revenues, & subordinate officers, with other such means as formerly upheld their anti-christian greatness, and enabled them with lordly & tyranous power to persecute the poor servants of God."

The Pilgrims were also dead set against the Roman Catholic church and rejected all Catholic holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. Of the Catholic church:

It is well known unto the godly and judicious, how ever since the first breaking out of the light of the gospel in our honorable nation of England, (which was the first of nations whom the Lord adorned therewith after the gross darkness of popery which had covered and overspread the Christian world), what wars and oppositions ever since, Satan hath raised, maintained and continued against the Saints, from time to time, in one sort or other. Sometimes by bloody death and cruel torments; other whiles imprisonments, banishments and other hard usages; as being loathe his kingdom should go down, the truth prevail and the churches of God revert to their ancient purity and recover their primitive order, liberty and beauty.

Of Christmas, Bradford recounted:

"And herewith I shall end this year [1621]. Only I shall remember one passage more, rather of mirth then of weight. One ye day called Christmas-day, the Govr [William Bradford] called them out to work as usual but most of this new-company excused them selves and said it went against their consciences to work on the day. So the Govr told them that if they made it matter of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. So he led-away the rest and left them; but when they came home at noon from their work, he found them in the street at play, openly; some pitching ye barr, & some at stool-ball, and such like sports. So he went to them, and took away their implements, and told them that it was against HIS conscience, that they should play & others work. If they made the keeping of it (CHRISTMAS) a matter of devotion, let them keep it in their houses, but there should be no gaming or reveling in the streets. Since which time nothing hath been attempted that way, at least openly."

I find it ironic that Thanksgiving has become the kickoff to the Christmas shopping season when any self respecting Pilgrim wouldn't be caught dead observing Christmas.

The Pilgrims were bible believers. They undoubtedly knew about God's holy days but I'm not sure that they associated their first feast with the feast of tabernacles, but it could be so. By many accounts, they considered the new land the "new Israel" and in many ways this belief led to the greatness of America.

November 21, 2007
The Tragedy of the Commons
By John Stossel

Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. “Isn’t sharing wonderful?” say the teachers.

They miss the point.

Because of sharing, the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn’t happen.

The failure of Soviet communism is only the latest demonstration that freedom and property rights, not sharing, are essential to prosperity. The earliest European settlers in America had a dramatic demonstration of that lesson, but few people today know it.

When the Pilgrims first settled the Plymouth Colony, they organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share everything equally, work and produce.

They nearly all starved.

Why? When people can get the same return with a small amount of effort as with a large amount, most people will make little effort. Plymouth settlers faked illness rather than working the common property. Some even stole, despite their Puritan convictions. Total production was too meager to support the population, and famine resulted. Some ate rats, dogs, horses and cats. This went on for two years.

“So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue the next year also, if not some way prevented,” wrote Gov. William Bradford in his diary. The colonists, he said, “began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length after much debate of things, [I] (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves. ... And so assigned to every family a parcel of land.”

The people of Plymouth moved from socialism to private farming. The results were dramatic.

“This had very good success,” Bradford wrote, “for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. ... By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many. ... “

Because of the change, the first Thanksgiving could be held in November 1623.

What Plymouth suffered under communalism was what economists today call the tragedy of the commons. But the problem has been known since ancient Greece. As Aristotle noted, “That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.”

When action is divorced from consequences, no one is happy with the ultimate outcome. If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to be a free rider, to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will be taken by someone else. Soon, the pot is empty and will not be refilled — a bad situation even for the earlier takers.

What private property does — as the Pilgrims discovered — is connect effort to reward, creating an incentive for people to produce far more. Then, if there’s a free market, people will trade their surpluses to others for the things they lack. Mutual exchange for mutual benefit makes the community richer.

Secure property rights are the key. When producers know that their future products are safe from confiscation, they will take risks and invest. But when they fear they will be deprived of the fruits of their labor, they will do as little as possible.

That’s the lost lesson of Thanksgiving.

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