“The Bible requires Christians to tithe–and that’s on the gross, not net.”

“You can never out-give God!”

“If ten percent is good enough for Jesus, it ought to be enough for Uncle Sam.”

These are all statements I heard growing up in church in the midwestern United States. In that context, it was a given that if you were a good Christian, you gave ten percent of your income—before taxes, of course—to the church, the theological term for which is “tithing.”

As I got older and spent more and more time studying the Bible, I learned more about the original context of the idea of tithing. I learned about its origin in the Old Testament, how the idea of giving changed in the New Testament, and how things aren’t quite as black and white as I was led to believe. I’d like to share some of this information with you, to help you make wise decisions about your own giving habits.

There’s quite a bit to talk about, so I’m going to break things up: this will be the first of a three-part series on tithing.

In Part 1, we will look at the origin of the tithe in the Old Testament—where it came from, how it was used, and exactly how much the Israelites were required to tithe (surprisingly, it’s not ten percent!).

Part 2 will focus on understanding key New Testament texts that discuss giving, and discover what changed along the way.

Part 3 will draw the series to a close by looking at the practical aspects of New Testament giving–what it means for us today.

Ready to dive in? Okay, let’s go.

Tithing before the Law

Tithing was defined and instituted in the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law is the set of rules that God gave the people of Israel through Moses when they were at Mt. Sinai, after they had escaped from slavery in Egypt. (We’ll talk more about the Law in a bit.) While tithing was codified in the Law, the idea of tithing actually finds its origins before the Law. Three Old Testament texts stand out in this regard:

The gifts of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:3-5)

This is the first instance in scripture of humans bringing a sacrifice to God. Adam’s sons, Cain and Abel, each brought a sacrifice. For some reason (no one is really sure why), God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. I think this is probably due to the fact that Cain brought “some fruit” (i.e. whatever he had laying around) while Abel brought the “firstborn of his flock”. In other words, Abel gave God his best, while Cain did not.

Regardless of the reason, though, this passage is often cited in support of the requirement to tithe. But there is no mention or expectation of a tithe in this passage—only that Cain and Abel brought a sacrifice to God. The amount is simply not known.

Abraham’s tithe (Gen 14:20)

Here is the first instance of actual tithing in the Bible. After rescuing his nephew Lot from being abducted by several local kings, Abraham meets a priest named Melchizedek. Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and Abraham in turn gives him a tithe.

In this case, Abraham’s gift was a tenth of his spoils of war—not a tenth of everything he owned. It’s also important to note that this was a one-time gift, not the regular, repeated giving that the Law required.

Jacob’s promise (Gen 28:22)

This story in Genesis tells of the founding of the town of Bethel. Jacob has a dream in which God reaffirms his promise to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant. The next morning Jacob sets up a stone to remember this promise, and says (my paraphrase), “God, if you really do what you have promised to do, I will give you a tenth of everything I own.”

So what we have here is a conditional promise: God, if you do x, then I will do y. The problem is that there is a good chance that Jacob is trying to manipulate or take advantage of God here (and if you know about Jacob, he has a tendency to manipulate!). There is also the problem that, although Jacob’s promise to tithe is recorded, whether he actually followed through on his promise is not.

So what can we learn about tithing before the Mosaic Law?

• There was no system of tithing in place for followers of Yahweh.
• There was no direct command by God to tithe.
• Acts of tithing were voluntary and occasional.

Tithing after the Law

This brings us to the Mosaic Law. When Moses gave the people the law on Mt. Sinai, tithing was a component. Whereas before this tithing was voluntary and occasional, now it would be mandatory and systematic. So why the change?

We have to remember that Israel was now, for the first time, a country. And in this new country, there was no separation of church and state—they were one and the same (this is called a theocracy). Tithes were taxes, used to fund what we would consider government operations, in addition to funding the temple.

This has direct implications on tithing for us today. If you’re in the United States, you don’t live in a theocracy. You pay taxes to fund the government; any charitable giving is voluntary (but at least it’s tax-deductible!). Taxes pay for the government’s costs; tithing pays for your church’s costs. In ancient Israel, tithes paid for it all.

How many tithes?

Of course, whether you’re talking about modern-day America or Old Testament Israel, running a government takes a lot of money. Sometimes, ten percent of GDP just won’t cut it—such was the case for ancient Israel. You might be surprised to learn, then, that there was not just one tithe in the Old Testament. There were actually three of them!

The first tithe: The Levitical Tithe (Num 18:21; Lev 27:30-33)

The Levites were the tribe within Israel who were responsible for running the temple. The Levites were also the only tribe who didn’t get any land in the new country. Thus, they had no way of generating income. The Levitical Tithe was how they got their paycheck. The Levites, in turn, would then give a tithe of their own to the priests.

The second tithe: The Festival Tithe (Deut 14:22-27)

This is a second tithe, distinct from the Levitical tithe. The Festival Tithe was to provide the food for national feasts, which were numerous throughout the year. Think of it as a “national potluck” fund.

The third tithe: The Poor Tithe (Deut 14:28-29)

This is a third tithe, distinguished from the previous two. The Poor Tithe was unique in that it was only collected every third year. The purpose of this tithe was to establish a food bank where the poor could “come and eat their fill.”

The fact that there were three separate tithes required in the Old Testament means ancient Israelites didn’t give ten percent of their income to God. They actually gave around twenty-three percent of their income!

How (not to) tithe, Old Testament style

So if you wanted to tithe in the same manner as the Mosaic Law lays out, then you would have to

• Give ten percent of your income annually to the Levites.
• Set aside ten percent of your income annually to help pay for national holiday celebrations.
• Donate another ten percent of your income every third year to local food shelters.

Even if you believe that the tithe is still a requirement for New Testament believers, I guarantee you don’t tithe like this. (Prime example: you can’t give a tithe to the Levites; there are no Levites around to give your money to!) Nor should you, because as we mentioned earlier, tithes funded Israel’s theocracy. Most of us don’t live in a theocracy. Our system of government is radically different today, and so we can’t adopt Old Testament rules about tithing directly. It just doesn’t work.

Context, context, context

This is a great object lesson on the importance of context. Any biblical text must be understood in its original historical context. (This is important in resolving potential contradictions in the Bible too.) I’ve shown the historical context for tithing and some of the problems with dropping the Old Testament concepts about tithing directly into our own context.

So does that mean that because we can’t literally fulfill those commands, we don’t have to give to the church today? Not at all! The New Testament writers expected that Christians would give to the church, and they provide a good deal of guidance on the subject. In Part 2, we will look at what the New Testament says about giving.

(In order to put together this series, I have relied heavily on two scholarly articles by Andreas Köstenberger and David Croteau from the Bulletin for Biblical Research. If you want to read them in their entirety, here are the links: Will a Man Rob God? and Reconstructing a Biblical Model for Giving.)