Clarence Jordan
Encyclopedia
Clarence Jordan a farmer
and New Testament
Greek
scholar, was the founder of Koinonia Farm
, a small but influential religious community
in southwest Georgia
and the author of the Cotton Patch translations of the New Testament. He was also instrumental in the founding of Habitat for Humanity. His nephew, Hamilton Jordan
, served as White House Chief of Staff during the Jimmy Carter administration.
, to J. W. and Maude Josey Jordan, prominent citizens of that small town. From an early age the young Jordan was troubled by the racial and economic injustice that he perceived in his community. Hoping to improve the lot of sharecroppers through scientific farming techniques, Jordan enrolled in the University of Georgia
, earning a degree in agriculture
in 1933. During his college years, however, Jordan became convinced that the roots of poverty
were spiritual as well as economic. This conviction led him to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Louisville, Kentucky
, from which he earned a Ph.D.
in the Greek New Testament in 1938. While at seminary Jordan met Florence Kroeger, and the couple were soon married.
, and their families moved to a 440 acre (1.8 km²) tract of land near Americus, Georgia
, to create an interracial, Christian farming community. They called it Koinonia (κοινωνία), a word meaning communion or fellowship that in Acts
2:42 is applied to the earliest Christian community.
The Koinonia partners bound themselves to the equality of all persons, rejection of violence, ecological stewardship, and common ownership of possessions. For several years the residents of Koinonia lived in relative peace alongside their Sumter County
neighbors. But as the civil rights movement progressed, white citizens of the area increasingly perceived Koinonia, with its commitment to racial equality, as a threat. In the 1950s and early '60s
, Koinonia became the target of a stifling economic boycott and repeated violence, including several bombings. When Jordan sought help from President Eisenhower
, the federal government refused to intervene, instead referring the matter to the governor of Georgia. The governor, a staunch supporter of racial segregation
, responded by ordering the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
to investigate Koinonia's partners and supporters for purported Communist ties.
Interestingly, Jordan chose not to participate in the marches and demonstrations of the era. He believed that the best way to effect change in society was by living, in community, a radically different life.
"The Letter to the Christians in Birmingham
." His translation of Ephesians 2:11-13 is typical:
Along with his rendering of "Jew and Gentile
" as "white man
and Negro
," Jordan converted all references to "crucifixion
" into references to "lynching
," believing that no other term was adequate for conveying the sense of the event into a modern American idiom:
The Cotton Patch series used American analogies for places in the New Testament; Rome
became Washington, D.C.
, Judaea
became Georgia
(the Governor of Judaea
became the Governor of Georgia), Jerusalem became Atlanta, and Bethlehem
became Gainesville, Georgia
.
Jordan's translations of scripture portions led to the creation of a musical, Cotton Patch Gospel
, telling the life of Jesus Christ using his style and set in Georgia, and incorporating some passages from his translations.
and Linda Fuller visited Koinonia, planning only to stay for a couple of hours. Inspired by Jordan, however, the Fullers chose to make Koinonia their permanent home in mid-1968. A marital crisis and dissatisfaction with their millionaire lifestyle had earlier persuaded the couple to sell their possessions and seek a life together in Christian service. The Fuller family brought renewed energy to Koinonia. The organization changed its name to Koinonia Partners and started a number of partnership type ventures such as "Partnership Housing," a project to build and sell quality, affordable homes at cost with a no interest mortgage for low-income area families. The Fullers' five years at Koinonia followed by three years of building "partnership housing" in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire or Belgian Congo) would eventually lead, in 1976, to the creation of Habitat for Humanity.
Jordan, however, would not live to see the completion of the first house. On October 29, 1969, he died suddenly of a heart attack. As he had requested, Clarence had a simple burial. His body was placed in a shipping crate from a local casket manufacturer and was buried in an unmarked grave on Koinonia property. Jordan's funeral was attended by his family, the Koinonia partners, and the poor of the community.
"He be gone now," reflected a neighbor in 1980, "but his footprint still here".
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
Greek
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
scholar, was the founder of Koinonia Farm
Koinonia Partners
Koinonia Partners is a Christian farming intentional community in Sumter County, Georgia.-History:The farm was founded in 1942 by two couples, Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mabel England, as a “demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God.” For them, this meant following the example of...
, a small but influential religious community
Religious community
A religious community is a community who practice the same religion.In the wider sense it may describe members of one religion who live near or intermingled with members of other religions, who may often mix together in everyday life but worship separately. One might speak of the Catholic...
in southwest Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and the author of the Cotton Patch translations of the New Testament. He was also instrumental in the founding of Habitat for Humanity. His nephew, Hamilton Jordan
Hamilton Jordan
William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan was Chief of Staff to President of the United States Jimmy Carter.-Early life:...
, served as White House Chief of Staff during the Jimmy Carter administration.
Early years
Jordan was born in Talbotton, GeorgiaTalbotton, Georgia
Talbotton is a city in Talbot County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,019 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Talbot County. Talbotton may be best known in history as the place where the immigrant Straus family got their start in retail sales in the 19th century....
, to J. W. and Maude Josey Jordan, prominent citizens of that small town. From an early age the young Jordan was troubled by the racial and economic injustice that he perceived in his community. Hoping to improve the lot of sharecroppers through scientific farming techniques, Jordan enrolled in the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
, earning a degree in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
in 1933. During his college years, however, Jordan became convinced that the roots of poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
were spiritual as well as economic. This conviction led him to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, from which he earned a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in the Greek New Testament in 1938. While at seminary Jordan met Florence Kroeger, and the couple were soon married.
Koinonia Farm
In 1942, the Jordans and another couple, Martin and Mabel England, who had previously served as American Baptist missionariesMissionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
, and their families moved to a 440 acre (1.8 km²) tract of land near Americus, Georgia
Americus, Georgia
-Early years:Americus, Georgia was named and chartered by Sen. Lovett B. Smith in 1832.For its first two decades, Americus was a small courthouse town. The arrival of the railroad in 1854 and, three decades later, local attorney Samuel H. Hawkins' construction of the only privately financed...
, to create an interracial, Christian farming community. They called it Koinonia (κοινωνία), a word meaning communion or fellowship that in Acts
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
2:42 is applied to the earliest Christian community.
The Koinonia partners bound themselves to the equality of all persons, rejection of violence, ecological stewardship, and common ownership of possessions. For several years the residents of Koinonia lived in relative peace alongside their Sumter County
Sumter County, Georgia
Sumter County is a county located in the southwest portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 26, 1831. As of 2000, the population was 33,200. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 32,532...
neighbors. But as the civil rights movement progressed, white citizens of the area increasingly perceived Koinonia, with its commitment to racial equality, as a threat. In the 1950s and early '60s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
, Koinonia became the target of a stifling economic boycott and repeated violence, including several bombings. When Jordan sought help from President Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, the federal government refused to intervene, instead referring the matter to the governor of Georgia. The governor, a staunch supporter of racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
, responded by ordering the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation or GBI is an independent, U.S. state of Georgia agency that provides assistance to the state's criminal justice system in the areas of criminal investigations, forensic laboratory services and computerized criminal justice information.-Organization:The agency is...
to investigate Koinonia's partners and supporters for purported Communist ties.
Interestingly, Jordan chose not to participate in the marches and demonstrations of the era. He believed that the best way to effect change in society was by living, in community, a radically different life.
Cotton Patch series
In the late 1960s, the hostilities gradually subsided, and Jordan increasingly turned his energies to speaking and writing. Among the latter are his well-known Cotton Patch series, homey translations of New Testament writings. Jordan believed it was necessary not only to translate individual words and phrases, but also the context of Scripture. Thus, Jordan retitled Paul's letter to the EphesiansEpistle to the Ephesians
The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, often shortened to Ephesians, is the tenth book of the New Testament. Its authorship has traditionally been credited to Paul, but it is considered by some scholars to be "deutero-Pauline," that is, written in Paul's name by a later author strongly influenced by...
"The Letter to the Christians in Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
." His translation of Ephesians 2:11-13 is typical:
Along with his rendering of "Jew and Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
" as "white man
White man
White man or white men also may refer to:Sociology and anthropology:* A white male, also see: Caucasian race* Western world* White people - a racial, political, sociological or cultural classification of people...
and Negro
Negro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
," Jordan converted all references to "crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
" into references to "lynching
Lynching in the United States
Lynching, the practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently in the South from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in the annual toll in 1892.It is associated with...
," believing that no other term was adequate for conveying the sense of the event into a modern American idiom:
The Cotton Patch series used American analogies for places in the New Testament; Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
became Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Judaea
Iudaea Province
Judaea or Iudaea are terms used by historians to refer to the Roman province that extended over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel...
became Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
(the Governor of Judaea
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
became the Governor of Georgia), Jerusalem became Atlanta, and Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
became Gainesville, Georgia
Gainesville, Georgia
-Severe Weather:Gainesville sits on the very fringe of Tornado Alley, a region of the United States where severe weather is common. Supercell thunderstorms can sweep through any time between March and November, but are concentrated most in the spring...
.
Jordan's translations of scripture portions led to the creation of a musical, Cotton Patch Gospel
Cotton patch gospel
Cotton Patch Gospel is a musical by Tom Key and Russell Treyz with music and lyrics written by Harry Chapin just before his death in 1981...
, telling the life of Jesus Christ using his style and set in Georgia, and incorporating some passages from his translations.
Habitat for Humanity
In 1965, MillardMillard Fuller
Millard Dean Fuller was the founder and former president of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit organization known globally for building houses for those in need, and the founder and former president of The Fuller Center for Housing...
and Linda Fuller visited Koinonia, planning only to stay for a couple of hours. Inspired by Jordan, however, the Fullers chose to make Koinonia their permanent home in mid-1968. A marital crisis and dissatisfaction with their millionaire lifestyle had earlier persuaded the couple to sell their possessions and seek a life together in Christian service. The Fuller family brought renewed energy to Koinonia. The organization changed its name to Koinonia Partners and started a number of partnership type ventures such as "Partnership Housing," a project to build and sell quality, affordable homes at cost with a no interest mortgage for low-income area families. The Fullers' five years at Koinonia followed by three years of building "partnership housing" in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire or Belgian Congo) would eventually lead, in 1976, to the creation of Habitat for Humanity.
Jordan, however, would not live to see the completion of the first house. On October 29, 1969, he died suddenly of a heart attack. As he had requested, Clarence had a simple burial. His body was placed in a shipping crate from a local casket manufacturer and was buried in an unmarked grave on Koinonia property. Jordan's funeral was attended by his family, the Koinonia partners, and the poor of the community.
"He be gone now," reflected a neighbor in 1980, "but his footprint still here".