Hebrew tax, (some form of עָרִך, to arrange). Taxes of some kind must have been coeval with the origin of civilized society. The idea of the one is involved in that of the other, since society, as every organization, implies expense, which must be raised by the abstraction of property from the individuals of which it consists, either by occasional or periodical, by self-imposed or compulsory, exactions. In the history of Israel, as of other nations, the student who desires to form a just estimate of the social condition of the people must take into account the taxes which they had to pay. According as these are light or heavy may vary the happiness and prosperity of a nation. To them, though lying in the background of history, may often be traced, as to the true motive power, many political revolutions. We find a provision of income made at the very commencement of the Mosaic polity. Taxes, like all other things in that polity, had a religious origin and import. While the people were in the migratory stage during their marches through the desert, only such incidental taxes were levied, or rather such voluntary contributions were received, as the exigencies of the time demanded. It was not till their establishment in Canaan that taxation assumed a regular and organized form. We propose, therefore, in the following article (which treats only of public and stated imposts) to consider the subject chronologically from that point. SEE ASSESSMENT.
I. Under the judges, according to the theocratic government contemplated by the law, the only payments obligatory upon the people as of permanent obligation were the tithes (q.v.) the first-fruits (q.v.), the redemption-money of the first-born (q.v.), and other offerings as belonging to special occasions. SEE PRIEST. The payment by each Israelite of the half-shekel as “atonement-money” for the service of the tabernacle, on taking the census of the people (Exodus 30:13), does not appear to have had the character of a recurring tax, but to have been supplementary to the free-will offerings of Exodus 25:1-7, levied for the one purpose of the construction of the sacred tent. In later times, indeed, after the return from Babylon, there was an annual payment for maintaining the fabric and services of the Temple; but the fact that this begins by the voluntary compact to pay one third of a shekel (Nehemiah 10:32) shows that till then there was no such payment recognized as necessary. A little later the third became a half, and finder the name of the didrachma (Matthew 17:24) was paid by every Jew, in whatever part of the world he might be living (Josephus, Ant. 18:9,1). From the Talmudical tract Shekalim (Mishna, 2, 4), the time of payment appears to have been between the 15th and the 25th of the month Adar, that is, in March. After the destruction of the Temple, this didrachm was ordered by Vespasian to be paid into the Capitol, “as,” says Josephus, “they used to pay the same to the Temple at Jerusalem,” (War, 7:6, 6). During the prosperity of Palestine, large sums were thus collected in Babylon and other Eastern cities, and were sent to Jerusalem under a special escort (Josephus, Ant. loc. cit.; Cicero. Pro Flacc. c. 28). We have no trace of any further taxation than this during the period of the judges. It was not in itself heavy it was lightened by the feeling that it was paid as a religious act. In return for it the people secured the celebration of their worship, and the presence among them of a body of men acting more or loss efficiently as priests judges, teachers, perhaps also as physicians. We cannot wonder that the people should afterwards look back to the good old days when, they had been so lightly burdened.
II. Under the monarchy, its centralized government and greater magnificence involved, of course, a larger expenditure, and therefore a heavier taxation. This may have come, during the long history of the kingdom, in many different forms, according to the financial necessities of the times. The chief burdens appear to have been
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Tax, Taxes, tribute, render under caesar, Temple tax, poll tax, taxation
Bible reference(s): 1 Kings 10:25, 1 Kings 12:4, 1 Kings 9:22, 1 Maccabees 10:29, 1 Samuel 10:27, 1 Samuel 17:25, 1 Samuel 8:15, 2 Chronicles 9:24, 2 Kings 15:20, 2 Kings 17:4, 2 Kings 23:35, Exodus 30:13, Ezra 4:13, Ezra 4:20, Ezra 7:24, Malachi 3:8, Mark 12:15, Matthew 17:24, Matthew 22:17, Nehemiah 10:32, Nehemiah 13:10, Nehemiah 9:37, Romans 13:7, Luke 2:1-3, Acts 5:37, Numbers 31:28, Numbers 31:37-41, Deuteronomy 16:10, Joshua 17:13, Judges 1:28, 2 Samuel 20:24, 1 Kings 9:21, 1 Kings 12:18, 2 Kings 23:33, 2 Chronicles 8:8, Esther 10:1
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
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