Part 2

Second: Num. 18:26, 30, 31: “Thus speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up a heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe.” “Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then ... ye shall eat of it in every place, ye and your households; for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.”

Third: Deut. 14:22, 23, 28, 29: “Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of the seed that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and of the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.”

“At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: And the Levite (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee), and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.”

How long the Mosaic order was carried out we do not know. Samuel in his protest against Israel’s asking for a king (1st Sam. 8:15,17), tells them that “he will take the tenth of your seed and your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants.” “Also he will take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his servants.”

It is likely that the sacred use of the tithe was early perverted under the kings. We hear no more of this system until the time of Hezekiah (726 B. C.), who instituted once more “the courses of the priests and Levites” (2d Chron. 31:2-5, 10-12), and “commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and Levites.” The people responded at once, “and the tithes of all things brought they in abundantly.” So abundant were they that the chief priest reported that, “since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and have left plenty: for the Lord hath blessed his people, and that which is left is this great store.” So great was this store that chambers in the house of the Lord were prepared for it, and men were appointed to oversee this surplus, who “brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully,” and kept them in the places prepared for them. Before this reformation Amos had sounded his warning in these ironical words. Amos 4:4,5: “Come to Bethel and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgressions; and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years: for this liketh you, oh, ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.”

The prophets cry out all along the line against the greed and selfishness of the people. The captivity even did not burn out this root of evil, and Nehemiah is called upon to right the neglect of the command, “Honor the Lord with thy substance.” (Prov. 3:9.) He joins with the people in a determination to bring the first-fruits and the tithes unto the priests and Levites, that (Neh. 10:37, 38, 39) the “Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.” “And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God.” “And we will not forsake the house of our God.” But fickle Jewry was soon denying the charge of robbery at the mouth of Malachi who says: “Ye have robbed God in tithes and offerings and are cursed with a curse.” (Mal. 3:10.) “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,” that blessings, spiritual, temporal and national, may be poured out upon you. What Malachi denounced, Nehemiah rectified by one bold stroke. He gathered the Levites and singers from the fields, whither they had gone to earn a livelihood, and set them in their places. Once more the old order was restored, and it was true that all Judah (Neh. 13:12) “brought the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.”

When the New Testament opens its pages of history we find the tithe principle very scrupulously observed by the “rigidly righteous,” and perhaps by a majority of the Jewish people. The 7th chapter of Hebrews makes use of the word tithe to show that the priesthood of Christ, who is after the order of Melchizedek, is superior to the priesthood of the Levites, because they in the loins of their father Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. Barring this chapter there are just six other places where the tenth, or tithe, occurs. Three of these (John 1:39; Rev. 11:13; 21:23) are simple numerals. Of the remaining three, two refer to the same incident as recorded in Matt. 23:23, and Luke 11:42. The well-known words of Matthew, who gives the fullest statement, are these: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.” The other reference is equally well-known and occurs in the prayer of the Pharisee, who said, (Luke 18:12.) “I give tithes of all that I get.” The Revised Version is used in giving these quotations because it more correctly translates the verb in the first references which should also be translated “tithe” in the last reference, for the Greek verb is the same in all three.

SECOND: The Extra-Biblical records have frequent references to the tithe, the number and extent of which can only be hinted at in the brief selections given.

Since the time of Selden who wrote his famous “Historie of Tithes” almost 300 years ago (the edition to which I have access was published in 1618), little seems to have been added to the historical data respecting the tithe by those who write upon that phase of the subject. Every reference book in the various libraries of this city, and all the literature on the tithe, so far as consulted, have the same stereotyped references, with slight variations in supposition and inference. This fact led to the query, “Is there no new data? Have excavators and translators of other literatures discovered no evidence of this usage”? About four years and a half ago, I set about the task of reading in translation all that was available of the mass of material furnished us through the labors of such men as Dr. Legge, Prof. Max Mueller, Prof. Sayce and many others of the worthy host of oriental scholars. A few of the most interesting are given of the items that came to light in the course of a somewhat extensive and at times tedious reading.

In the literature of ancient China, (Li Ki, Book III., Ch. II., Sec. 27) we find this statement: “A tenth of the year’s expenditures was for sacrifices.” Simcox (Primitive Civilizations, Vol. II, p. 36) comments as follows: “This is nearly the only recognition of a tithe for religious or quasi-religious purposes in China and probably represents a very ancient fragment of tradition. The king received a tithe of the national produce, and he may have been anciently expected to spend a tithe of the revenue so obtained upon the rites of public worship; but an earlier passage in that same book describes the Son of Heaven as retaining nine-tenths of the produce of his domains for his own use, and employing the other tenth to defray the charges of the public offices.”

Prof. Maspero (The Dawn of Civilization, p. 302) writes thus concerning the customs in earliest Egypt: “The gods of the side which was victorious shared with it in the triumph and received a tithe of the spoil as the price of their help.” Again (p. 706) in speaking of a king in relation to the gods among the ancient Chaldeans, he says: “As soon as he had triumphed by their command, he sought before all else to reward them amply for the assistance they had given. He poured a tithe of the spoils into the coffers of their treasury, he made over a part of the conquered country to their domain, he granted them a tale of the prisoners to cultivate their lands or to work at their buildings.”

Prof. Maspero is writing of the earliest civilization which dates from 3000 to 4000 B. C., while Moses, it needs to be borne in mind, lived and wrote not more than 1500 years before Christ.

Prof. Hilprecht’s splendid summary (Explorations in Bible Lands during the 19th Century, recently published) confirms this view. In giving account of Rassam’s discoveries in the ruins of Abu Habba, the ancient Babylonian city of Sippara, he says (p. 275) the tablets discovered “make us acquainted with the duties and daily occupations of the different classes of temple officers and their large body of servants, with the ordinary tithes paid by the faithful, and with many other revenues accruing to the sanctuary from all kinds of gifts, from the lease of real estate, slaves, and animals, and from the sale of products from fields and stables. As tithes were frequently paid in kind, it became necessary to establish regular depots along the principal canals, where scribes stored and registered everything that came in. Among the goods thus received we notice vegetables, meat, and other perishable objects which the temple alone could not consume, and which, therefore, had to be sold or exchanged before they decayed or decreased in value. No wonder that apart from its distinct religious sphere the great temple of Shamash at Sippara in many respects resembled one of the great business firms of Babel or Nippur.” He further says (p. 311), in speaking of some ancient tablets found in the ruins of ancient Nippur by the party of which he was a member, “they consisted of business documents referring to the registry of tithes, and to the administration of the temple property.” These tablets discovered in 1888 proved to be a part of the great Temple Library discovered by Prof. Hilprecht in 1900. Many of them date back to the third millennium before Christ and some bear such names as that of the now famous author of the code of laws, Hammurabi; and others belong to the time as remote as that of Sargon, 3800 B. C.

In “Records of the Past” (edition of 1890, Vol. III., p. 96) we read “In a field of a tenth, he takes a tenth.” “As for the tithe, he gives one part as tithe to the palace.” Among the various kinds of divisions or land tenures, we find these two: “The division of a tenth,” and “The division with a tithe.” G. Bertin, the translator, says: “The work, as we know it from the fragment in the British Museum, is accompanied with a Babylonian translation of Sargon of Agade; and the fragments recovered are those of a Ninevite transcription made in the time of Asshurbanipal for his library.” The tablets are divided into two columns, the left hand one giving the Akkadian and the right hand one the translation. The translator further says: “The tablet from which the above is a translation is of great importance as giving us information and particulars as to the system of land tenure and cultivation of land in the early Akkadian period.” The date of this Sargon is now pretty well fixed at about 3800 B. C. This extensive system of land tenure being in vogue at that date argues that it had been in use in a less extensive form for a long time previous to the date of this publication.

The Pundit Dutt (Ancient India, Vol. II., p. 38), writing on “The Rationalistic Period, B. C. 1000-242,” quotes Megasthenes of the Fourth Century B. C., who gives an account of the civil administration of a city during that period as saying: “Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of five each.” In enumerating the duties of each, he says: “The sixth and last class consists of those who collect the tenth of the prices of the articles sold.”

Added to these references to China, India, Egypt, and Ancient Assyria and Babylonia, is the array of evidence commonly presented in writings on the tithe, including testimony from the Persians, Arabians, Phœnicians, Carthagenians and various other African communities, the ancient Britons, the Grecians and the Romans. One familiar instance from the Greeks will suffice for illustration.

In Xenophon’s Anabasis, book V, chapter 3, we are told that “they divided the money raised from the sale of captives and of the tenth which they took out for Apollo and for the Ephesian Artemis (Diana of the Ephesians), the generals took each a part to keep for the gods.” Referring to Xenophon’s own home in Scillus, we read: “He made both an altar and a temple with the consecrated money; and also thereafter always collecting a tithe of the fruits of the season from the land, he offered sacrifice to the goddess; and all the citizens and neighboring men and women partook of the feast.” A slab was set by the temple having the inscription, “The sacred place of Artemis. Let the one who has possession and enjoys the fruit thereof (i. e., of the estate) offer the tithe each year, and from the surplus repair the temple. If any one does not do this, it will be a care to the goddess,” i. e., she will punish him as an offender.

We now come to the era of the Church Fathers. Here we will quote more at length because of the importance of this testimony to the minds of many who are dealing with this subject. It is understood that these witnesses are not to be regarded as final authorities to those of us who believe in the inspired revelation, but they are important and interesting because they reflect the practice of the Church when it was making its first great effort to preach the gospel to every creature and was making that effort, as is generally supposed, in use of methods sanctioned by the Apostles. The quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the edition of The Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, published by the Christian Literature Co. of New York.

Clement (30-100 A. D.), who is generally agreed to be the one mentioned in Phil. 4:3, wrote a letter to the Corinthians, some think in 68, but the majority in 97 A. D. He says (Vol. I., p. 16), “These things therefore being manifest to us, and since we look into the depths of the divine knowledge, it behooves us to do all things in (their proper) order, which the Lord has commanded us to perform at stated times. He has enjoined offerings (to be presented) and service to be performed (to Him), and that not thoughtlessly or irregularly, but at the appointed times and hours. Where and by whom He desires these things to be done, He Himself has fixed by His own supreme will, in order that all things being piously done according to His good pleasure, may be acceptable unto Him. Those, therefore, who present their offerings at the appointed times, are accepted and blessed; for inasmuch as they follow the laws of the Lord, they sin not. For his own peculiar services are assigned to the high priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministrations devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen.

“Let every one of you, brethren, give thanks to God in his own order, living in all good conscience, with becoming gravity, and not going beyond the rule of the ministry prescribed to him. Not in every place, brethren, are the daily sacrifices offered, or the peace-offerings, or the sin-offerings and the trespass-offerings, but in Jerusalem only. And even there they are not offered in any place, but only at the altar before the temple, that which is offered being first carefully examined by the high priest and the ministers already mentioned. Those, therefore, who do anything beyond what is agreeable to His will, are punished with death. Ye see, brethren, that the greater the knowledge that has been vouchsafed to us, the greater also is the danger to which we are exposed.”

In The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Vol. VII., p. 381), supposed to have been written about 120 A. D., we read: “But every true prophet that willeth to abide among you is worthy of support. So also a true teacher is himself worthy, as the workman, of his support. Every first-fruit, therefore, of the products of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and of sheep, thou shalt take and give to the prophets, for they are your high priests. But if ye have not a prophet, give it to the poor. If thou makest a batch of dough, take the first-fruit and give according to the commandment. So also when thou openest a jar of wine or of oil, take the first-fruit and give it to the prophets; and of money (silver) and clothing and every possession, take the first-fruit, as it may seem good to thee, and give according to the commandment.”

Justin Martyr (110-165) furnishes the following testimony (Vol. I., p. 167) when speaking of the changes that have taken place in the Christians. He says that, among other things, “we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need.” In describing a church service (186), he further says: “And they who are well-to-do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows, and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.”

Irenaeus (120-202) gives an exceedingly valuable discussion of the relation between the law and the gospel, in which (Vol. I., pp. 476, 477 and 478) he says: “As in the law, therefore, and in the Gospel (likewise), the first and greatest commandment is, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, and then there follows a commandment like to it, to love one’s neighbor as one’s self; the author of the law and the Gospel is shown to be one and the same. For the precepts of an absolutely perfect life, since they are the same in each Testament, have pointed out (to us) the same God, who certainly has promulgated particular laws adapted for each; but the more prominent and the greatest (commandments), without which salvation cannot (be attained), He has exhorted (us to observe) the same in both.... And that the Lord did not abrogate the natural (precepts) of the law, by which man is justified, which also those who were justified by faith, and who pleased God, did observe previous to the giving of the law, but that He extended and fulfilled them, is shown from His words.” He then quotes examples from the Fifth Chapter of Matthew and speaks of the obedience of those who are freed from the bondage of the law, and adds: “And for this reason did the Lord, instead of that (commandment), ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ forbid even concupiscence; and instead of that which runs thus, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ He prohibited anger; and instead of the law enjoining the giving of tithes, (He told us) to share all our possessions with the poor; and not to love our neighbors only, but even our enemies; and not merely to be liberal givers and bestowers, but even that we should present a gratuitous gift to those who take away our goods.”... “Now all these (precepts), as I have already observed, were not (the injunctions) of one doing away with the law, but of one fulfilling, extending, and widening it among us; just as if one should say, that the more extensive operation of liberty implies that a more complete subjection and affection towards our Liberator had been implanted within us.” In the light of these statements, we are to understand his words on pages 484 and 485. “And the class of oblations in general has not been set aside; for there were both oblations there (among the Jews), and there are oblations here (among the Christians). Sacrifices there were among the people; sacrifices there are, too, in the church; but the species alone has been changed, inasmuch as the offering is now made, not by slaves, but by freemen. For the Lord is (ever) one and the same; but the character of a servile oblation is peculiar (to itself), as is also that of freemen, in order that, by the very oblations, the indication of liberty may be set forth. For with Him there is nothing purposeless, nor without signification, nor without design. And for this reason they (the Jews) had indeed the tithes of their goods consecrated to Him, but those who have received liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord’s purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely not the less valuable portions of their property, since they have the hope of better things (hereafter); as that poor widow acted who cast all her living into the treasury of God.”

Clement of Alexandria (153-217) writing about 200 A. D. says (Vol. II., p. 366), in discussing the source of the Greek virtues which he traces to the Jewish law, “Besides, the tithes of the fruits and of the flocks taught both piety toward the Deity, and not covetously to grasp everything, but to communicate gifts of kindness to one’s neighbors. For it was from these, I reckon, and from the first-fruits that the priests were maintained. We now therefore understand that we are instructed in piety, and in liberality, and in justice, and in humanity by the law.”

Tertullian (145-220), in describing the services of the Church, says (Vol. III., pp. 46, 47), “Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are, as it were, piety’s deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God’s Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another, for themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves will sooner put to death.... One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another.” In answering the objection to their feasts as wicked and extravagant, he retorts, “The Salii cannot have their feast without going into debt; you must get the accountants to tell you what the tenths of Hercules and the sacrificial banquets cost.”

Probably it will not be amiss to quote Tertullian on what he so aptly styles “the over-fed Christian,” in view of the many appeals for money by catering to the stomach of the saints. On the subject of Fasting (Vol. IV., p. 113) he says, “With you ‘love’ shows its fervor in sauce-pans, ‘faith’ its warmth in kitchens, ‘hope’ its anchorage in waiters.”