Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Tithe

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: B Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Tithe
  • Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 17:20:04 +0000

On 11/03/2006 15:52, Karl Randolph wrote:
Peter:

You're right. Now that you mention it, I remember the words.

Where do you get the idea that such mention is anachronistic? In my reading of Tanakh, I get the impression that Cyrus' command allowing Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the temple and Nehemiah's commission to rebuild Jerusalem's walls were two completely separate events with a century spanning the interval between them.

Chronicles was written after the Exile, so its mention is an explanation, while Nehemiah and Ezra were writing about their own time, ca. 420 to 400 BC, or well after Darius 1.

I suggest that these accounts are anachronistic because, although they were written or finally edited after the time of Darius I (certainly for Ezra and Nehemiah which mentions Artaxerxes, very probably for 1 Chronicles not least because of this reference to darics), the events referred to took place (according to the text) before the time of Darius. Note that this is true even of Nehemiah 7: while most of Nehemiah is from after the time of Darius, 7:6-73a, which is very similar to Ezra 2:1-70, is mush earlier: it is a record (see 7:5) of the first company of those who returned from exile, under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel (who may have been the same person), in the reign of Cyrus. This is very clear from the chronology of Ezra. Of course any reference to darics in relation to events in the reign of Cyrus is anachronistic, because they were first minted in the reign of Darius after whom they were named.

Could it be that counting the tithe as a percentage of money started at about that time? As a nod to those Jews who lived in Babylon while Jews who returned to Judea tithed in the traditional manner?

Maybe, but the offerings in darics of gold and minas of silver mentioned in these verses appear to have been freewill offerings rather than tithes.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.2.1/279 - Release Date: 10/03/2006





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page