[b-hebrew] Tithe

Karl Randolph kwrandolph at email.com
Fri Mar 10 13:36:45 EST 2006


Kevin:

Torah reflects an agricultural society where all 
goods revolved around food stuffs, including pay 
for work. Very little was valued in units of pay 
other than agricultural products. Barter was the 
main form of exchange. Even international trade 
was carried out on the barter system using food 
as the measure of value, c.f. Solomon's pay to 
Hiram for building products.

The widespread use of coinage postdates Tanakh. 
I expect that the Christian practice comes from 
Jewish practice as it developed after Tanakh but 
before the New Testament.

Karl W. Randolph.


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kevin Riley" <klriley at alphalink.com.au>
> 
> 
> Just reading in Malachi 3 and a thought occurred to me:  Had the definition
> of "tithe" changed from the one in Leviticus [crops and herds] towards the
> one used in Christianity [all income whether goods or money] or does that
> post-date the break between Judaism and Christianity.  I just had a feeling
> I may have been reading something into the text that isn't there.  Checking
> the meaning of "McSR " didn't help as it was basically "tithe", "one tenth".
>   Did Judaism move towards tithing other than agricultural produce?
> 
> Kevin Riley

-- 
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