Editing Bible (section)

===Social responsibility===
The philosophical foundation of [[human rights]] is in the Bible's teachings of natural law.<ref name="Levent Gönenç">{{cite book| last=Gönenç| first=Levent| title=Prospects for Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Countries| year=2002| publisher=Kluwer Law International| location=The Netherlands| isbn=978-90-411-1836-3| page=218}}</ref><ref name="David Kim">{{cite book|editor1-last=Kim|editor1-first=David|editor2-last=Kaul|editor2-first=Susanne|title=Imagining Human Rights|year=2015|publisher=de Gruyter| location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-11-037619-7|pages=13–17}}</ref> The prophets of the Hebrew Bible repeatedly admonish the people to practice justice, charity, and social responsibility. H. A. Lockton writes that "The Poverty and Justice Bible (The Bible Society (UK), 2008) claims there are more than 2000 verses in the Bible dealing with the justice issues of rich-poor relations, exploitation and oppression".<ref>Lockton, Harwood A. "When Doing Good is Not Good Enough: Justice and Advocacy." (2014). p. 130</ref> Judaism practised charity and healing the sick but tended to limit these practices to their own people.<ref name="Bullough"/> For Christians, the Old Testament statements are enhanced by multiple verses such as Matthew 10:8, Luke 10:9 and 9:2, and Acts 5:16 that say "heal the sick". Authors Vern and Bonnie Bullough write in ''The care of the sick: the emergence of modern nursing,'' that this is seen as an aspect of following Jesus's example, since so much of his public ministry focused on healing.<ref name="Bullough">Bullough, Vern L., and Bonnie Bullough. ''The care of the sick: The emergence of modern nursing''. Routledge, 2021. p. 28</ref>

In the process of following this command, monasticism in the third century transformed health care.{{sfn|Crislip|2005|p=3}} This produced the first hospital for the poor in [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]] in the fourth century. The monastic [[Health system|health care system]] was innovative in its methods, allowing the sick to remain within the [[monastery]] as a special class afforded special benefits; it [[Social stigma|destigmatized]] illness, legitimized the [[Deviance (sociology)|deviance]] from the norm that sickness includes, and formed the basis for future modern concepts of public health care.{{sfn|Crislip|2005|pp=68–69, 99}} The biblical practices of feeding and clothing the poor, visiting prisoners, supporting widows and orphan children have had sweeping impact.<ref name="Charles Schmidt">{{cite book| last=Schmidt| first=Charles|title=The Social Results of Early Christianity| chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_X-UROGF6ZcUC|year=1889| publisher=William Isbister Ltd.|location=London| pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_X-UROGF6ZcUC/page/n279 245]–256| chapter=Chapter Five: The Poor and Unfortunate| isbn=978-0-7905-3105-2}}</ref><ref name="Establishments">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/modelsforchristi0000unse |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/modelsforchristi0000unse/page/290 290] |title=Models for Christian Higher Education: Strategies for Survival and Success in the Twenty-First Century |year=1997 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |isbn=978-0-8028-4121-6 |quote=Wesleyan institutions, whether hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, or schools, historically were begun with the spirit to serve all people and to transform society. |access-date=18 October 2007 }}</ref><ref name="Teasdale2014">{{cite book |last=Teasdale |first=Mark R. |title=Methodist Evangelism, American Salvation: The Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1860–1920 |date=2014 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock Publishers]] |isbn=978-1-62032-916-0 |page=203 |quote=The new view of evangelism called for the denomination to undertake two new forms of activities: humanitarian aid and social witness. Humanitarian aid went beyond the individual help that many home missionaries were already providing to people within their care. It involved creating new structures that would augment the political, economic, and social systems so that those systems might be more humane. It included the establishment of Methodist hospitals in all the major cities in the United States. These hospitals were required to provide the best treatment possible free of charge to all who needed it, and were often staffed by deaconesses who trained as nurses. Homes for the aged and orphanages were also part of this work. }}</ref>

The Bible's emphasis on learning has had formidable influence on believers and western society. For centuries after the fall of the western Roman Empire, all schools in Europe were Bible-based church schools, and outside of monastic settlements, almost no one had the ability to read or write. These schools eventually led to the West's first universities (created by the church) in the Middle Ages which have spread around the world in the modern day.<ref name="auto">Geoffrey Blainey; ''A Short History of Christianity''; Penguin Viking; 2011</ref> Protestant Reformers wanted all members of the church to be able to read the Bible, so compulsory education for both boys and girls was introduced. Translations of the Bible into local vernacular languages have supported the development of national literatures and the invention of alphabets.{{sfn|Sanneh|McClymond|2016|p=279}}

Biblical teachings on sexual morality changed the Roman empire, the millennium that followed, and have continued to influence society.{{sfn|Harper|2013|pp=14–18}} Rome's concept of sexual morality was centered on social and political status, power, and [[social reproduction]] (the transmission of social inequality to the next generation). The biblical standard was a "radical notion of individual freedom centered around a libertarian paradigm of complete sexual agency".<ref name="Rebecca Langlands">{{cite book| last=Langlands| first=Rebecca| title=Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome|year=2006| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge| isbn=978-0-521-85943-1}}</ref>{{rp|10, 38}} Classicist [[Kyle Harper]] describes the change biblical teaching evoked as "a revolution in the rules of behavior, but also in the very image of the human being".<ref>Harper, Kyle (2013). ''From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-07277-0}}.</ref>{{rp|14–18}}