A Brief History of Tithes
Sylvan James
INTRODUCTION
“It is revolting to all Christian principles enunciated in the New Testament that men should be imprisoned, or their goods seized, or, even as it happened in Ireland within this century, be shot dead because they refused to pay tithes.” H. W. Clarke
This blog presents a short and clear history of the rise and growth of the system of tithes, free from technical and language difficulties.
Evidence showing the “tithe” was not a strict “tenth” or indeed any other fraction will be presented. Although the written secular history shows that it may have been universal, this does not prove that it was instituted by God.
I will also show that the pre-law tithe was abolished by the institution of the Mosaic Law and how the Church and the secular authorities copied this tithe.
The supporters of tithing today often demand an explanation for the prevalence of the tithe among ancient nations.
It is argued, if, for religious purposes, everyone decided to give according to his inclinations, then how should so many nations have arrived at a tenth rather than any other fraction?
Does the seeming universality of this fraction point to a time when the ancestors of all nations lived together, and so derived the custom from a common source?
No historian, and no traditional account known in any country, has given the origin of the tithe, nor is the Bible explicit about it.
But, do we really have to account for the payment of a tenth by pagans to their gods in ancient times?
Are we allowed to frame a hypothesis from the Biblical facts? The answer is NO.
Again, the Biblical facts are only what God appointed. If it’s not Biblical, then God did not appoint it.
Is it reasonable to suppose that God wanted us to practice something and then omitted to mention these things? The answer is again NO.
Can we entertain the hypothesis of men that from the beginning God taught Adam to tithe? NO.
God taught Adam many things which he disobeyed, hence the fall. We should concentrate our attention on what God is saying to us today by His Holy Spirit and the written Word He has been pleased to give us rather than hypothesizing of what may have been said to Adam but was not revealed to modern Christians in the Scriptures.
PRE – MOSAIC LAW TITHES
The secular method of studying the antiquity of tithes is insufficient to determine if it is an eternal principle given by God.
By this method, instances of the use of the word “tenth,” not tithe, in connection with religious offerings or sacrifices are gathered from the ancient literature of various nations
Then it is inferred, “the universality of the practice points to a time when the ancestors of all nations lived together and so derived the knowledge from a common source.” Abraham’s and Jacob’s tithe fall under this heading.
However, my research found no exact mathematics in this stage of development in any land.
When men were hunters, fishers, and gatherers; no hunter or fisher ever thought of giving exactly “one-tenth” of any animal or his catch to a god; mathematics were unknown to them.
Instead, the best pieces: the head, the right shoulder, the thigh, the breast, kidneys and liver, or the fat, were given. These customs survived when domesticated animals replaced wild game.
Therefore, the Old Testament does not command a “tenth” of an animal killed for food, but a piece of some other animal set aside for this purpose.
In the time of the Judges, the seer or priest took “potluck”. He contented himself with any part of the sacrifice his forks fished up (I Sam. 2:13).
The use of the “tenth” by heathens cannot mean that God gave them the principle before He gave it to us. This assumes that primitive man worshipped the true and the living God, before He introduced Himself to Abraham.
But, did primitive people worship God? St. Paul does not think so and told the Corinthians as much. “The things which the gentiles sacrifice are unto devils…”
HOW PRIMITIVE PEOPLE COUNTED
There is sufficient evidence to show primitive people learnt to count only as far as their fingers allowed.
Sometimes they may have understood the idea of one finger as the smallest convenient portion (fraction), so the word “tenth” may only mean fraction or portion rather than a strict mathematical percentage.
An example from the Old Testament is available, Gen. 14:20; Heb. 7:4, Abram gave the priest a tenth of the spoils of war, but in Num.31 when the spoils of a war was divided, it is not 10% but 0.2% and 2%.
Therefore, the theory of an equal and exact percentage from all persons and all booty is incorrect.
According to our best knowledge, Moses wrote both Genesis and Numbers. Either the Israelite did not use the Abrahamic principle of giving a tithe (10%) OR the tithe was simply a “finger”; any fraction.
This same incapacity for dealing with fractions appears in the estimate of time e.g. first watch, night watches etc.
The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard is another example; the owner of the vineyard cannot or will not calculate a fraction of a day’s pay.
Therefore we can safely conclude that given a group of units, primitive men could set aside one out of each ten, if necessary, but they could not calculate a tenth of any number of units.
The fact of such incapacity for arithmetical computation in early Hebrew days as well as in the later Jewish times is admitted by historians.
It is also clear from the two fractions which appear so often in the ancient customs, one fifth and one tenth, arose from counting upon the fingers of one or both hands (Lev. 27:30, 31) and the toes if necessary.
In addition, some biblical idioms are expressive of the writer’s inability to count large numbers e.g. sheep without number, comparisons to the stars of heavens and the sand of the seas (Gen.13:16; 15:5).
God is able to reveal to Abraham the exact number of his descendants, but would Abraham understand? Therefore, God uses an idiom which Abram understood, the stars of the sky.
The first striking fact concerning tithing is that the Scripture has little to say about it prior to the time of Moses.
The first eleven chapters of Genesis cover some 2,000 years. While sacrifices and several other rituals are mentioned, the subject of tithing never emerged as a topic of discussion.
The first mentioned is the account of Abram’s Tithe in Genesis chapter 14.
Following the slaughter of the kings, Abraham returned with his nephew Lot, the other captives, and with a large amount of spoil recovered from the rescue (verses 16–17).
Abraham then met Melchizedek and gave him a tenth of the spoil, “he gave him tithes of all” (verse 20).
The remainder of the spoils were returned to the king of Sodom (verses 21–24). This “tithes of all” was a “one-time” gift to the High Priest. For more on this tithe read the blog on Abram’s Tithe.
There is further proof that tithing as a universal principle did not exist before the time of Moses.
The example of Joseph reveals no knowledge of such a principle. While in Egypt he was inspired to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams about seven full years of harvest and seven years of famine.
When Pharaoh saw the wisdom and the Spirit of God in him (Genesis 41:38–39), he set him ruler over all the land of Egypt. For seven years they gathered in the harvests and stored the grain.
When the famine came, the Egyptians used all their money to purchase some of the grain reserves (Genesis 47:14–15). They then gave all their cattle to Joseph in exchange for grain (verse 16). Finally, they bartered themselves and their land for food (verse 18–20).
This meant that Pharaoh, through the advice of the patriarch Joseph, came to possess all things found in Egypt.
At this point, if there was a universal tithing principle known to all nations Joseph would have used it, but Joseph didn’t, instead the Bible says:
Then Joseph said unto the people, ‘Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the increase, that you shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. Genesis 47:23–24.
Joseph, a man in whom was wisdom and the Spirit of God, did not command a tithe instead he commanded the fifth part.
This amount was not equal to what his father Jacob had proposed (see blog on Jacob’s Tithe), nor by his great grandfather Abraham (See blog on Abram’s Tithe), who gave a tenth to the priest.
Moses stated that a tenth of the increase had to be set aside for the Levites. But Joseph said no such thing. He declared that a fifth part (two tenths) was to be Pharaoh’s for his own personal use, while all the remainder went to the people.
Joseph did not give a part of the increase to the priesthood proving that he was unaware of any universal law of tithing. Joseph knew nothing of the so-called universal tithing principle because they never existed.
He also respected and obeyed his father, Jacob, more so than his brethren, he would have known about Abraham’s tithing example and the conditional tithe of Jacob, yet in Egypt Joseph chose not to institute the tithe on the people.
This was not an act of disobedience because he was “a man in whom the Spirit of God is” (Genesis 41:38). Joseph said nothing about giving a tenth of the increase to any priesthood because there was no universal tithing law before or after Moses.
The Semite’s tradition before the Mosaic Law was to pay no tithe on land because he did not own any land. Instead he paid the god, or ancestor, who was considered the owner, a portion of the harvest or the rearing of animal; this portion was burned. To live in the land, he paid nothing.
The connection of the tithe with a primitive god or patron saint also explains why no tithe is exacted from untilled land. The propitiation of the divinity for digging up the land is found in most primitive people but the regularity of a tithe upon grain varies from area to area.
The payment of the tithe became equivalent to the actual cleansing rite. Therefore, the presence of a worshipper of strange gods in the land was tolerated if he paid the necessary “fees” for the cleansing of the land.
The rate of the ancient tithe was the same as for booty taken in war and also the modern Church tithe and this gives the possibility of where the modern Church tithe originated.
We also find that the tithe and purification was originally the familiar and universal purification from war or defilement by the dead bodies in the war. This was practiced in all parts of the world by primitive men.
The payment of a fee was the equivalent of the actual “salvation” and the presence of an unbeliever was tolerated if he paid the necessary fees (tithes) for the cleansing of the land from defilement.
Abram, Jacob and the pagan primitives giving a tenth of their possessions to a priest or god before the Mosaic Law, is not relevant today.
These persons lived before the Law and everything they did was before the law. Why do we single out the tithe as an “eternal principle”?
A tradition cannot automatically become an eternal principle because it is old, very common or even widespread. The fact that it was present in much pagan cultures as was idolatry, worship of other gods, witchcraft, voodoo and necromancy.
Look for my next post Abram’s Tithe