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Tithing |
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By the first
century, the Jewish tithing system had become normative and was expected of all the Jews, especially those living in It is likely,
therefore, that Jesus was familiar with the Jewish tithing system as well as
taxation by Jesus
instructed his disciples to leave all their possessions behind, including
property and livelihoods, in order to follow him. They, like Jesus, were
“ministered to” by a group of wealthy widows; but when they traveled without
these women, Jesus sent his disciples ahead to establish lodging and his general
reception. When a town was inhos-pitable or
unwilling to listen to the gospel, they ventured to another village. In one
rather receptive town, Jesus spoke a poignant para-ble
about a Pharisee who claimed that he had surpassed the law with regard to tithing.
While he did not take that opportunity to criticize the tithe, he also did
not command his disciples to uphold it; instead, Jesus instructed them to
collect funds for the poor. This teaching was maintained by
Paul and the early church. The early church
took their lead from the teachings of Jesus with respect to tithing and
ministerial support. There is little or no men-tion
of tithing in the ante-Nicene writings, and there is no common term for
tithing in the Apostolic Fathers and Apologists (a period of one hundred and
fifty years). It is difficult, therefore, to ascertain if collecting funds
for the ministry and for the needy was practiced the
same way in every church. What is certain is that the A large
number of ministers from the The epistles
of Paul contain several references to charitable gifts being
given to the poor, and not least among the recipients was the In addition
to the poor and disenfranchised, apostles, prophets, and teachers were generally maintained by local churches during the
Apostolic age, but Paul took no money for his preaching. He labored as an
artisan throughout his missionary life, thus, he did not become a “burden” to
any believer. The apostle continued this practice until the closing years of
his ministry; even while he was awaiting trial in Support for
the clergy during the ante-Nicene era was limited to the few highly-profiled members in the local communities, but it
was never given in the form of a salary, nor was it raised through tithing.
Assistance was given in the form of food or housing, neither of which were in control of the recipient. Although all support was
voluntary, it was plentifully supplied. This opened
the door to excess and abuse in those churches that liberally responded to
the needy. Paul praised the believers of Some churches
observed the words of Jesus and the apostles on alms so well that stern
warnings had to be given to prevent thought-less giving simply because
someone said they were in need. This was the case with the community
reflected in the Didache:
This is the
earliest warning against indiscriminate almsgiving in the church. To rephrase
the closing mandate of the warning: Hold your alms tightly, even if they make
your hands sweat, until you find the proper object of your charity. Alms were never referred to as tithes in the Didache, in each reference the quantity was left entirely
to the judgment of the one who was giving. Justin Martyr
was the first apologist to describe the Sunday ser-vice in detail. After
explaining the meaning of the Eucharist to the emperor, to whom his treatise
was written, he defined the role of the wealthy in the community:
Justin’s
description of the Lord’s Day is similar to that presented in the Didache. That the Didache
reflects the early chapters of Acts and cites the oral traditions of Jesus
prior to the written gospel identifies its early date of the second century
confirms both works showing that little had changed concerning the
,collection for the poor and needy. Justin Martyr (like Paul, Acts, and the Didache) said that all contributions were absolutely
voluntary:
In Acts the
collection was given to the apostles, in the Didache
it was presented to local prophets (or directly to the poor if no prophet
resided in the community), in Justin all gifts were deposited with the
president (the one officiating over the service). The church offices in
Justin Martyr were of a more advanced type than those in Acts or the Didache, yet there was no tithing. The recipients of alms
in Acts and the Didache were those “who are in
need,” in Justin they are listed as orphans and widows, those who are sick or
in want, those in prison, and Christian travelers in need. While care for the
needy was a mat-ter of routine for early believers,
it was not so for the society in which they lived. Justin, therefore, drew a
contrast between church practice and the social mores concerning the poor:
The mention
of widows and orphans in Justin’s register of those who received support from
the church is significant and reflects the popular attitude of the early
believers. In Although the
early church did not collect tithes, she managed to support the needy and
disenfranchised. This was a practice from the beginning: “Clean and undefiled
religion before the God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in
their affliction, to keep himself unspotted from the
world.” Since the early believers took to heart the teaching of Jesus about
the heavenly Father, they felt it was their duty to care for the fatherless
on earth. Equality of all, regardless of one’s status, race, or gender, was a
popular theme in early patristic literature, including the rich and the poor,
as reflected in Hermas:
By the close
of the sub-Apostolic age, the church sustained an impres-sive
voluntary system of collection for the poor and needy, without a notion of
tithing. As we advance
into the Patristic age, the compulsory Jewish tith-ing system was reinterpreted by the fathers of the
church. Irenaeus, in the last quarter of the
second century, claimed that everything God had designed for the Jews had
purpose for the Christians-including the tithe. Instead of ten percent of the
increase, as was expected of a tithe, believers were to “set aside all their
possessions for the Lord’s purposes, bestowing joyfully and
freely not the less valuable portions of
their property, since they have the hope of better things.” Laws concerning
the tithe no longer apply to those who have consecrated all their possessions
to the Lord, according to Irenaeus. Christians
could thus give beyond what was anticipated by the
Jewish tithe, they were able to give to the poor without restriction. As the church
matured she became more institutionalized, but the
way funds were gathered for the clergy and the poor remained sim-ple and voluntary. The Latin church followed the lead
of the East in this regard. At the close of the second century, Tertullian of Carthage recorded another description of a
church service which included the collection of
funds. This work was also addressed to the emperor
in the form of an apology on behalf of the church.
No donation
in the church, great or small, was used to lavishly
support the clergy or to assist the able-bodied, only those who were
incapable of providing for themselves received relief. This principle
remained constant during the ante-Nicene era, the
only aspect that changed was the frequency of the collection. In the earliest
days of the church donations were given weekly, at times daily, but by the
time of Tertullian, contributions were gathered
only once a month. All gifts were voluntary and no compulsion was exerted in any com-munity.
These funds were not spent on luxury, but were used
for the burial of the poor, for the needs of abandoned and exposed children,
and for the requirements of the old, the shipwrecked, the exiled, the
banished, and those who were imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. Charity was bestowed out of love for one’s neighbor and for a
unity in mind and soul, “We do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with
one another. All things are common among us but our wives.” Tertullian further said that “there is no buying and
selling of any sort in the things of God”; God and commerce were utterly
separate: “You cannot serve God and mammon,” Jesus told his disciples. The
term (mammon) appeared for the first time in the words of Jesus, but its
Hebrew equivalent was popular among the rabbis and was used
in the Mishna. The word properly refers to wealth, espe-cially property. Its use in the gospel was also
applied to the selection of ministers; that is, anyone
separated for church ministry could not depend upon God and upon his
wealth. Furthermore, no one was to enter the ministry in the hopes of
financial security or gain. The idea of abandoning all earthly possessions in
favor of heavenly treasures originated with Jesus, who also taught that ambition is directed by the heart, thus, worldly desires
cannot achieve heavenly objectives. One reason
why tithing this was not required in the early church was that there were no
salaries, building projects, expanding infrastructure, or retirement plans to
support. Again the Didache: Apostles and prophets
were directed to follow the instructions in the gospel: “But every apostle
who comes to you shall be received like a lord; but he will remain only one
day; but if there is a need, another, but if he remains three days, he is a
false prophet. And while going out, the apostle shall receive nothing except
bread, enough to last until he spends the night; but if he asks for silver he
is a false prophet.” While
traveling apostles depended on the churches in which they ministered for
support, resident prophets and teachers ministered full-time for food. “Every
genuine prophet who wishes to settle among you is worthy of his food. In the
same manner, a genuine teacher is himself also, just as the laborer, worthy
of his food.” The early
church was not comprised of freeloaders, each member contributed to the
community according to his ability. Again the Didache:
Paul taught
that everyone in the church was to work for the common good; if one did not
work, he did not eat. With this rule he hoped to
reduce the number of busybodies in the community. Those who had jobs worked,
those who did not were to find employment; no one was to live off the
kindness of the church simply because he called himself a Christian. This was
not compulsory, but was accomplished accord-ing to
God-given insight; however, anyone who refused to work or who expected the
church to care for them without their labor was to be marked as an abuser of
the church’s charity. Each member was to learn the difference between a
“Christian” and a “Christ-user.”
While this
attitude was maintained well into the third century toward support of the
clergy is evident in Cyprian (200-258 CE), the brilliant Carthaginian presbyter and student of Tertullian.
Cyprian was a great defender of the clergy who insisted on a strict
separation between ministry and secular business. He compared the tribe of
Levi (which had no inheritance and depended on the tithe for support) to
those in the church who in the same way devoted themselves exclusively to her
service. Cyprian was the first to encourage clerical sup-port and to extend
provision to the bishops, presbyters, and deacons, without recommending a
fixed amount. One century later, after the unification of the church under
Similar
opinions were expressed by Jerome (died 420 CE), the eminent translator and
interpreter of the scriptures.
It is no coincidence that the obligation for Christians to tithe
corresponds in time with the advancement of the priesthood. From the beginning
all believers were priests, everyone offered prayers; there was no room nor particular need for a professional priesthood.
The function of “priest” during the ante-Nicene era transferred from the
apostle to the prophet to the presbyter to the bishop, along the way each
office became defined. After the Nicene Creed
(325CE), a need for more priests arose, since the church flourished with its
new legal status. The
exegetical leap of Ambrose and his contemporaries that cristian
priesthood inherited the merits of the Jewish priesthood was inevitable. With
this cornerstone laid, tithing was established in the Church
. The Council
of Macon in 585 CE ordained the payment of tithes; whoever refused to pay
them was excommunicated. This decree terminated the
voluntary status of giving, in exchange the church
inherited one that was both mandatory and binding-five and a half centuries
after the formation of the apostolic church. The system
rejected by the apostles was imposed by their distant interpreters, who found
in the Jewish scriptures a means to support an ever
advancing clergy, and ultimately, the declining participation of the
laity.
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