I began my journey with the stewardship ministries in 1969, and I have worked thirty-seven year full time in this ministry. During all these years, I have heard different concepts of stewardship, that were changing through the years. The interest in finding the original meaning of stewardship, it lead me to investigate the Scriptures in both, the Old and the New Testament. Meanwhile the books of the Old Testament (OT) were written in ancient Hebrew, the books of the New Testament (NT), were written in Greek.

Bruce Corley in his book Intertestamental Perspective of Stewardship (1971, p.16) states that an adequate concept of stewardship must be based on the semantics of the group of words in the original language. Since the OT was written mostly in ancient Hebrew, and NT in Greek, was necessary for me to clarify the concept as it appears in these languages, and then, compare it with the concept that has been poured into modern languages. The word oikonomía come from the common Greek and describes the responsibility assigned some to direct, manage or be in charge of the house of his master.

Because the oikonomía (stewardship) did not begin nor was defined in the NT books, I had to search on the OT books, to know where and when stewardship began. Finally I found the reference in the book of Genesis. Moses records that on the sixth day of creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image elohym and have dominion radah over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, “Gen. 1:26.

According to James Strong in the Dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic words (2002, p. 123), the word radah “dominion” which appears in the original text, means “direct, dominate, subdue, rule, govern,”. A careful reading of Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis describes Adam and Eve had to direct or manage five things: 1. The world,  2. Life, 3. Family, 4. Resources, and 5. Time appointed by God.

A valuable insight I gained is, that, stewardship is not an optional responsibility that we can take it, or allowed for convenience. Whether or not  a human being has a religious affiliation, believes or does not believe in the existence of God, agrees or does not agree with God, stewardship is still his or her assigned responsibility, for which God will hold everyone accountable. It was a responsibility assigned before the creation of humans; it was defined by God, before the human beings, were created, and before the formation of religious organizations.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus clarified through the parable of the unjust steward, where he reports that “There was a rich man who had a steward who was accused of wasting his possessions. And he called him, and said, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward “. Luc. 16: 1.2. It affirms that God will demand an account of mankind’s responsibility. He will require every human being to give an account of their management of the world, their life, family, resources and time. Failure to take this responsibility seriously, led to a loss of the privileges that are included in it.