Principle of Tithing
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 6:00AM 
For Some Reason Tithing Is A Old Testament Law Pastors Like! While I do not intend to get too deep on the issue of the festivals and tithing, it is necessary to understand how the festival system worked in ancient Israel as a first step to understand the financial aspects of festival observance.
The first problem is that no one really knows how the tithing system worked. (I have found it humorous to hear people speak on tithing who do not understand this fact.) It is not certain if there were one, two, or three tithes. The common view is that there was one tithe with three functions. The Talmudic view is that there were three tithes. The "correct" view, going back at least to Maimonides in the 12th century, is that there were two tithes, one with two functions.
The reason for the confusion is that the tithe is described in somewhat contradictory ways. It is said to belong to the Levites because they had no land to pay them for the work they did.
Numbers 18:21 “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.
(Another interesting fact is that we do not know exactly what that work was. It was not the sacrificial system, as a tithe of the tithe was allocated to the priests for that purpose. It must have included more than singing at the tabernacle.)
Another section tells us that about the tithe being given every three years to help the poor—and no doubt troubling to us Tea Party types that included illegal aliens! (Of course there was no distinction between legal and illegal immigrants at that time.)
Deuteronomy 14:28-29 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Yet another section tells us that the tithe is to be used for festival celebration.
Deuteronomy 14:22-23 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.
The common explanation is that there was one tithe with three functions. Anyone who has actually observed these festivals would immediately realize that this was wrong. Pilgrimage festival observance is expensive—for the ancient Israelite, it was also time consuming. Remember that there were three festival observances and most people walked.
2 days travel
8 days for Passover
2 days travel
2 days travel
2 days Pentecost and the Sabbath before it.
2 days travel
2 days travel
8 days of Tabernacles
2 days travel
This is about 30 days of food consumption for these days. Since most people were subsistence farmers who only grew enough food for themselves, there was very little surplus. So there was 36 days of food for 30 days. The tithe was pretty fine-tuned for this exact purpose. Thus the amount left over for any other purpose was small to nonexistent. In fact the Principle of Celebration would lead to the whole 10% spent on those days. There must have been more than one tithe.
The reason it seems unlikely that there were three tithes is that the economic cost of three tithes was quite high. It is likely that a portion of the Levitical tithe ended up paying for what we would perceive as government.
So I will proceed with the assumption that there were two tithes in ancient Israel with three functions. (I say assumption because there is really no clear consensus on this.) On Friday I will attempt to apply what we have learned to modern festival observance.
Reader Comments (1)
In Greece today, I understand that there is such a thing as "ELEVENTH TITHE".
Eddie H. Nessul
Amboy, CA
(Read Names Backwards!)