By Brian Knowles

Exegetical Methodology
Assuming that certain people are utterly sincere, which I do, the issue becomes one of exegetical methodology and understanding. It’s a matter of how we use the Scriptures to form doctrine and to support dogma. If something is a commandment (a mitzvah), it’s a commandment. If it’s not, it’s not. If it is a commandment, we must then consider to whom it is directed, and under which circumstances it is to be appropriately applied. The fact that a commandment is included in Scripture does not necessarily prove that all Christians, throughout all time, are bound to keep it in all circumstances.

The great Medieval Jewish sage, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), made a study of the 613 commandments (mitzva’ot) of Torah. He concluded that in his day observant Jews could keep only 271 of them. What happened to the other 342? They were "on the books" but did not apply to Jews in the Diasporic circumstances of Maimonides’ day.

Those who teach that tithing is an obligation for Christians often use Scripture selectively, even indiscriminately. As we have just noted, the five books of Moses contain some 613 mitzva’ot (commandments). Those who select, then adapt, the tithing commandments for obedience by Christians often ignore many of the other commandments of Torah. Or, if they accept them, they modify them to suit current ecclesiastical purposes. We could call this "the obedience of expedience." So let’s begin by establishing some working principles of exegesis.

The Issue of Audience
In the Public Relations profession, a specific audience is called a "public." The PR practitioner tailors his or her messages for specific publics. The Bible does the same thing. Solomon Schonfeld understands and explains this principle:

"…it was a mistake to offer the whole of the Five Books to mankind at large, as if all the happenings to Israel of old and the laws given to them and their descendants were ever intended by the Bible to have universal application! The text itself repeatedly stresses, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel.’ Yet Bible devotees and propagators have unwittingly disobeyed the Bible and have extended the application of purely Israelite observance to all the peoples of the earth, as if no nation would become godly unless it adhered also to obligations specifically Jewish."

Schonfeld continues, "The Bible itself is explicit as to which of its parts refer to mankind generally, and which sections apply exclusively to its immediate recipients, namely the children of Jacob."

This is a working principle of Biblical exegesis. Put another way, text without context is pretext. Every law of Torah has a specific context and an appropriate application. As we learned from Maimonides, the fact that it is a law that is "on the books" does not mean that it automatically applies to everyone in all times and circumstances. The Biblical laws concerning tithing are a case in point. There is a finite number of Scriptural passages that address the issue of tithing. The case for compulsory tithing, if indeed it can be made, must be based upon these passages. The issue is, are these Biblical texts being appropriately used by those who insist that tithing is obligatory for Christians? We shall see.

First, let’s establish one thing up front: Do some churches actually teach that tithing is required of Christians as a matter of obedience to God – or am I merely creating a straw man argument here? A few churches do appear to hedge on this issue. Tithing is both "voluntary" and a matter of "obedience to God." Here’s how one denomination answers the question, "Is tithing voluntary?" "Everyone who honors God by obeying his instructions does so on a voluntary basis. God never forces anyone to act against his or her will. At the same time, however, He expects us to tithe and equates failure to tithe with robbing Him (Malachi 3:8)." Those who teach obligatory tithing typically use this approach or a variation on it. Tithing is "voluntary" but if you don’t do it you’re robbing God – hence sinning.

Of course we all know that we are free moral agents. We have a choice as to whether we will or will not obey God, as did the ancient Israelites (Deuteronomy 30:19). But the way this answer is worded makes it appear that our only choice is between obeying or disobeying God by tithing or not tithing. The passage in Malachi 3 is applied to all people in all times. In this interpretation, failure of Christian to tithe to the Church becomes "robbing God."
This is clearly a bogus application of Scripture. It is ripping a text out of its historical context and reapplying it to a different time, circumstance and audience. With that in mind, lets go back and examine the text in its original setting.

Malachi’s True Message
The name "Malachi" means "my messenger." He was the last (12^th) of the so-called "minor" prophets. With Malachi, the "Old Testament" period came to a close. Malachi apparently wrote around 433 BCE, during the time of Artaxerxes I (464-423 BCE) and Darius II (423-404 BCE). He was also a contemporary of Nehemiah (445-415 BCE) who was heading a project to build the broken down walls of Jerusalem. Ezra and Zerubbabel had earlier rebuilt the Temple. Scholar J.M.P. Smith says of this book: "…the book of Malachi fits the situation amid which Nehemiah worked as snugly as a bone fits its socket." Nehemiah had returned to Israel in 444 BCE to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. The restoration period of Ezra-Nehemiah lasted about a century. During this time, representatives of Israel’s tribes were returning to their own land to reestablish themselves and the religion of Israel. To avoid repeating the sins of the past that led to their captivity, the leaders of the time – Ezra, Zerubbabel and Nehemiah – insisted on rebuilding the nation’s relationship to God through Torah and the Mosaic Covenant. The issues of Nehemiah and those of Malachi run parallel to each other. Both, for example, stressed the importance of reestablishing Israel’s tithing system in order to support the priests and the Levites who ministered at the newly rebuilt Temple (Nehemiah 10:37-39; Malachi 3:7-10).

The overall message of Malachi is addressed to "Israel" (1:1), not to the gentiles and certainly not to the Church that was yet to emerge some four centuries later. With all this in mind, lets examine the relevant passages in Nehemiah and Malachi.

Nehemiah and Tithing
When Nehemiah addresses the issue of tithing, he is referring to the same circumstances about which Malachi is concerned. Notice carefully the wording of Nehemiah’s declaration on the subject:

"Moreover, we [the Israelites] will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work. A priest descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes up to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and oil to the storerooms where the articles for the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the singers stay.

Nehemiah is plainly addressing the issue of the restoration of the Priestly and Levitical systems to the service of God and the Temple. In fulfilling the Law of Moses the people brought their tithes to the Levites in the cities where they lived, and the Levites in turn tithed to the priests on what they received. Only Levites and priests were ever commanded or empowered in Torah to receive tithes. No other class of people, whether they be prophets, rabbis, captains of synagogues, cantors or Christian ministers, has ever been authorized to receive the first tithe from the days of Moses to the end of the Apostolic Age. From its inception, it was strictly set aside for the priests and the Levites because they have no property inheritance in Eretz Yisrael. The wording of Numbers 18:21 is explicit: "I give to the Levites all the tithes (ma’aserot) in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting." Note "to the Levites," "in Israel," and "for the work they do." The Jewish people have always understood the specificity of this command. No where do we find Jesus or his apostles reinterpreting this command to apply to the Christian ministry. In his day, the apostles would have paid their tithes to the priests and Levites for the Temple service as did all Jews living in Palestine. Jesus himself, in "fulfilling all righteousness," would have done the same. How then did the Church end up appropriating the tithe? It certainly wasn’t an apostolic decision.

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge puts it succinctly: "The tithe was to be given to the Levites…The tithe was taken over by the church [Roman Catholic], and is still one of the main supports for an established ecclesiastical organization. In Jewish writings, however, the suggestion was made that the tithes which could no longer be given because of the destruction of the Temple should be devoted to charity; many individuals still assess themselves a tenth of their income for this purpose."

The Jewish people realized that the tithe was for the Levites and priests only, and that once the Temple was destroyed, the law – as it was drafted – could no longer be observed. The tradition of giving a tenth to the poor was not a divinely imposed, Biblical law, but rather something that became voluntary – "self-assessed" -- on the part of individual Jews.

The Jewish people understood that the "main purpose [of the tithe] was the maintenance of the Temple and its personnel." Once the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the tithing law no longer applied. The priests and the Levites had to find new ways of earning a living. The Synagogue had never demanded the tithe for it would have been illegal for it to do so. Rabbis in Jesus’ day were never supported by the tithe, unless they happened also to be priests or Levites (which some were).

Originally, "As appears in the Bible, the law of tithing was to be applied in Palestine only…" For a period of time following the destruction of the Temple, tithes continued to be paid in Palestine, Syria and Babylonia. But, as the great medieval sage, Moses Maimonides, said of the first tithe, "…Torah does not make it obligatory except in the Land of Israel [and then of course only while the tabernacle or Temple systems were in operation.]" Maimonides’ teaching on this reflected the Talmud which explained that the duty of setting aside a tenth was based on the principle "Every precept dependent on the land [of Israel] is in force only in that land…" The tithing laws related specifically to the land of Israel, which was variously defined, and not to the Diaspora generally. In addition, it was intended only for the priests and the Levites, though some paid it directly to the Temple.

One thing is certain, "…very few people observed the laws of the tithe properly" Not only was the wording of the original Biblical legislation difficult to interpret, but the financial stresses on Israelites throughout history were enormous. The legal aspects of tithing were the cause of the creation of a special section of the Talmud called Demai.

The Order of Tithes in Ancient Israel
The theocracy of Israel has long passed into history. The Temple is no more and the priests and Levites have ceased to function in their ritual roles. Consequently, after 70 AD, Israel’s tithing system, such as it was ceased. Giving a tenth to the poor was not observing the law of tithing; it was substituting for it, or replacing it.

When the tithing system was in force in Israel, it took the following pattern:

"The order of the tithes was as follows. First the heave-offering (terumah) was set aside for the priest. This usually amounted to a fiftieth of the produce. The first tithe from the remainder was then given to the Levite, who, when he received it, gave one tenth of it to the priest, thus rendering the remainder of the first tithe permitted food everywhere, even for those in a state of uncleanness. In the first, second, fourth and fifth years of the Sabbatical cycle, the layman then set aside a second tithe to be taken up to the city of Jerusalem and there eaten in a state of cleanness (or he might take up its redemption money, i.e. its value plus a fifth)…

Jewish authorities agree that this was the pattern of tithing during those periods of Israel’s history when it was rightly practiced. It was this system that Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi sought to restore. For the Church to construe Malachi 3:8-11 to represent a commandment for the modern non-Jewish Christian to tithe to the Church is a gross exegetical distortion. Doing so rips these words right out of their original context and plants them where they do not belong.

Every Jew knows that no one other than the priest and the Levite has ever been entitled to claim the tithe on the basis of Biblical law.