King James Bible Dictionary

First mentioned in the command (Exodus 30:11-16) that every Jew from twenty years and upward should pay an annual tax of "half a shekel for an offering to the Lord." This enactment was faithfully observed for many generations (2 Chronicles 24:6; Matthew 17:24).

Afterwards, when the people had kings to reign over them, they began, as Samuel had warned them (1 Samuel 8:10-18), to pay taxes for civil purposes (1 Kings 4:7; 9:15; 12:4). Such taxes, in increased amount, were afterwards paid to the foreign princes that ruled over them.

In the New Testament the payment of taxes, imposed by lawful rulers, is enjoined as a duty (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13, 14). Mention is made of the tax (telos) on merchandise and travellers (Matthew 17:25); the annual tax (phoros) on property (Luke 20:22; 23:2); the poll-tax (kensos, "tribute," Matthew 17:25; 22:17; Mark 12:14); and the temple-tax ("tribute money" = two drachmas = half shekel, Matthew 17:24-27; comp. Exodus 30:13). (See TRIBUTE.)

I. Under the judges, according to the theocratic government contemplated by the law, the only payments incumbent upon the people as of permanent obligation were the Tithes, the Firstfruits, the Redemption-money of the first-born, and other offerings as belonging to special occasions. The payment by each Isr'lite 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 freewill 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 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 under the name of the didrachma , (Matthew 17:24) was paid by every Jew, in whatever part of the world he might be living. II. The kingdom, with centralized government and greater magnificence, involved of course, a larger expenditure, and therefore a heavier taxation, The chief burdens appear to have been

(1) A tithe of the produce both of the soil and of live stock. (1 Samuel 8:15,17) (2) Forced military service for a month every year. (1 Samuel 8:12; 1 Kings 9:22; 1 Chronicles 27:1) (3) Gifts to the king. (1 Samuel 10:27; 16:20; 17:18) (4) Import duties. (1 Kings 10:15) (5) The monopoly of certain-branches of commerce. (1 Kings 9:28; 22:48; 10:28,29) (6) The appropriation to the king's use of the early crop of hay. (Amos 7:1) At times, too, in the history of both the kingdoms there were special burdens. A tribute of fifty shekels a head had to be paid by Menahem to the Assyrian king, (2 Kings 16:20) and under his successor Hoshea this assumed the form of an annual tribute. (2 Kings 17:4) III. Under the Persian empire the taxes paid by the Jews were, in their broad outlines, the same in kind as those of other subject races. The financial system which gained for Darius Hystaspes the name of the "shopkeeper king" involved the payment by each satrap of a fixed sum as the tribute due from his province. In Judea, as in other provinces, the inhabitants had to provide in kind for the maintenance of the governor's household, besides a money payment of forty shekels a day. (Nehemiah 5:14,15) In Ezra 4:13,20; 7:24 We get a formal enumeration of the three great branches of the revenue. The influence of Ezra secured for the whole ecclesiastical order, from the priests down to the Nethinim, an immunity from all three (Ezra 7:24) but the burden pressed heavily on the great body of the people. IV. Under the Egyptian and Syrian kings the taxes paid by the Jews became yet heavier. The "farming" system of finance was adopted in its worst form. The taxes were put up to auction. The contract sum for those of Phoenicia, Judea and Samaria had been estimated at about 8000 talents. An unscrupulous adventurer would bid double that sum, and would then go down to the province, and by violence and cruelty, like that of Turkish or Hindoo collectors, squeeze out a large margin of profit for himself. V. The pressure of Roman taxation, if not absolutely heavier, was probably more galling, as being more thorough and systematic, more distinctively a mark of bondage. The capture of Jerusalem by Pompey was followed immediately by the imposition of a tribute, and within a short time the sum thus taken from the resources of the country amounted to 10,000 talents. When Judea became formally a Roman province, the whole financial system of the empire came as a natural consequence. The taxes were systematically farmed, and the publicans appeared as a new curse to the country. The portoria were levied at harbors, piers and the gates of cities. (Matthew 17:24; Romans 13:7) In addition to this there was the poll-tax paid by every Jew, and looked upon, for that reason, as the special badge of servitude. United with this, as part of the same system, there was also, in all probability, a property tax of some kind. In addition to these general taxes, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were subject to a special house duty about this period.