~~~~~~~~~~ | Levitical Tithe | Festival Tithe |
---|---|---|
Scripture Verses | Leviticus 27, Numbers 18:25-32 and Hebrews 7:5-11 | Deuteronomy 12:16-21, 14:22-26, Exodus 23:14-17 and Deuteronomy 16:16 |
Where to Eat | Eaten anywhere in the promised land (only Levites could
eat) |
Only Eaten In Jerusalem |
Who Received | Tribe of Levi excluding Aaronic Priests | All tribes of Israel |
Final Ownership | 90% owned by the Tribe Of Levi and 10% went to Aaronic
Priests |
Original Owners |
Why | Substitute for Land inheritance | Teach the fear of The Lord |
Option to convert to money | Add 20% to the monetary value and bring it to Levites | No redemption option specified |
Further Action | Levites Tithed 10th of the Tithe to Aaronic Priests | No further action – all consumed during festivals |
~~~~~~~~~~ | Leverite Marriage Law – Marrying deceased husband’s male
relative |
Tithing Law |
---|---|---|
Definition | Marrying deceased husband’s nearest male relative if there
are no surviving male heirs |
ALWAYS food, agricultural products, seed of the land,
produce, oil, wine and livestock INSIDE the promised land but |
How it started? | Unknown and no specific reason or commandment given | Unknown and specific reason or commandment |
Purpose | To continue and preserve the male line of the deceased husband | Levite tithe is to offset the loss of land inheritance for the tribe of Levi & Festival tithe is to teach the fear of the Lord |
Before the law of Moses | Practiced | Practiced |
Compulsory or Optional? | Mandatory in many parts of the ancient Middle East | Not compulsory but done as a free will offering or part of a previous vow |
Incorporation into the Law of Moses | Modified and adapted into the Mosaic law, also affected inter-tribe marriages | Modified and codified into the Mosaic law, different tithes introduced |
How did it start? | Unknown and no specific reason or commandment given | Unknown and specific reason or commandment |
Frequency | Does not matter, could happen in any year | 6 years of continuous tithing and on the 7th year no tithing |
Mentioned in the Talmud | Discussed at least in one tractate | Discussed at least in one tractate |
Question posed to Jesus? | Sadducees posed a specific question to Jesus | No one asked Jesus about tithing |
What did Jesus say? | Never explicitly abrogated and did not command the Jews to discontinue the practice | Never explicitly abrogated but asked the Jews under the law
to tithe from garden herbs |
Elsewhere in the New Testament | Mentioned only by Jesus and the Sadducees, not mentioned elsewhere | Mentioned by Jesus and mentioned in the book of Hebrews |
Primary Subject of in the mentioned New Testament verse | No, resurrection was the primary subject when the Sadducees questioned Jesus | No, pride vs. humility (in the parable – Luke 18:9-14),
emphasis on justice and mercy (Matt. 23:23/Luke 11:42) and |
Apostle Paul’s position | Paul never made a statement about the custom of Leverite law |
Paul never mentioned about tithing |
Commanded to New Testament Christians? | No, A Christian woman need not marry her deceased husband’s nearest male relative if there is no surviving son |
No, A Christian is not commanded to tithe to the local Church |
How today’s Christian church (various denominations) follow both? |
No Pastor asks a Christian widow to remarry or ask her to marry her husband’s nearest male relatives if she does not have a son even though it is practiced before the law of Moses |
Pastors exhort Christians to give 10% of their gross income (money earned) stating that tithing was practiced even before the law of Moses! |
Abraham’s Tithe | Jacob’s Tithe | Under the law of Moses |
---|---|---|
Only Abraham tithed and not his servants | Only Jacob (promised to) tithe and not his sons and servants |
Only Land owners growing crops and cattle owners tithed to Levites and Levites tithed to the priests. Poor and workers in the farms did not tithe |
Only once paid | Promised to pay only once | Levitical and Festival tithes were yearly paid for 6 continuous years and Charity tithes were paid once in 3 years |
Not from possessions but consisted of war spoils only | Promised to pay from whatever God would give him | Yearly paid Levitical and Festival tithes and Charity tithes were paid once in 3 years |
Abraham wanted to pay tributes to God and return the rest to the King of Sodom after rescuing his nephew Lot |
Hebrew language says Jacob had fear and doubts about God and to manipulate God he made a conditional vow to tithe! |
It was mandatory |
Voluntary and tithed to Melchizadek and returned 90% back to the King of Sodom! |
Voluntary but no record of Jacob paying tithes | Compulsory and followed levitical, festival and charity tithing systems |
Not commanded to tithe | Not commanded to tithe | Commanded to tithe |
Gave the rest of the 90% to the King of Sodom | Did not give the rest to of the 90% to anyone | Levites tithed 10% to the Aaronic Priests and kept the rest of the agricultural products and livestock to themselves |
Previous vow | Conditional vow | Not subject to vow |
Only one variety – war spoils | Only one type | Multiple – at least 3 different tithes specified in the law |
Melchizedek was the recipient | No record about the recipient | Levite got the 1st tithe and in turn tithed to the Priests, poor received the tithes and consumed by the owners during festivals |
Total – 10% | Total – Uncertain | Total – 23.3% (10% Levitical, 10% Festival and 3.33 % Charity – 6 year average 23.3% & if Sabbatical year included it comes to about 20%) |
Old Testament Levites | Early Church Pastors | Modern day Pastors |
---|---|---|
Physical Descendents of Jacob’s 3rd Son Levi | One of the five fold minsters | Anyone who runs a Church |
Got their authority to minister by the commandments given in the law of Moses |
Appointed by Apostles | Seminary/Bible college qualification or self-appointments or being the son of a Pastor qualifies them. Only a few of them have a genuine calling from God |
Were NOT full-time workers | Most of them were NOT full-time workers | Most of them are full-time workers |
Received tithes from the rest of Israel | Never received tithes from early Christians but sometimes accepted free will gifts/offerings |
Most of them receive tithes from modern-day Christians in the form of money |
Received tithes from the rest of the tribes to offset their loss of land inheritance | Received freewill offerings/gifts for their labor in the Lord | Have an entitlement mentality and force believers to give, sometimes with threats |
In turn tithed to Priests and the Priests did not tithe to anyone! |
Never tithed to any central authority or any denominational head quarters |
Usually tithe to denominational headquarters or tithe to their Pastoral friends |
Always functioned as a team | Always mentioned in plural and the Apostles came first |
Mostly single pastor controlled systems and pre-eminence to his family |
Accountable to Aaronic Priests and were not supposed to go inside the Holy of Holies |
Accountable to Apostles and inter-dependant of other ministerial offices |
CEOs of a religious enterprise, sometimes accountable to their denomination |
Only Aaronic priests had special privilege in the tabernacle and the Levites did not control all the resources in the religious enterprise |
Apostles had greater authority and followed by Prophets. No single Pastor and his family controlled all resources of a religious enterprise |
Usually a single Pastor controls all the resources of the religious enterprise and other associate Pastors and Church workers are employed by the Pastor |
Only received money when the Israelites decided to redeem the tithe by adding 20% of the monetary value |
Most of them were in secular jobs and sometimes received voluntary monetary gifts |
Compulsorily collect tithes from the gross money earned from believers |
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