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However the practice of regular tithes was not established until after Exodus. Tithes were common throughout the ancient Near East, as well as in later Lydia, Arabia, and Carthage.
Tithes were adopted by the early Christian church, being mentioned in councils at Tours in 567 and at Macon in 585. They were formally recognized under Pope Adrian I in 787. Tithing in Christian churches is controversial as it applies an Old Testament process to a New Testament organization (the Church). No evidence exists in the New Testament for the tithe to be applied to Christian believers. Indeed, only Jews living in the promised land were required to pay the tithe in the Old Testament, as it was actually a form of income tax used to support not only the temple and the priesthood, but also the government of Old Testament Israel.
As mentioned, the tithe and tithing first appear in the Bible in the Hebrew Old Testament (OT) in the book of Genesis in connection with the figure of Abraham. The origin of tithing is so intimately linked with both Abraham's cultural background and the figure of the Canaanite king and priest Melchizedek that they must all be discussed together. Then the history of the tithe in England and Ireland will be discussed.
The tithe is specifically mentioned in the OT book of Numbers in connection with the establishment of the cultus by Moses. Numbers 18:24-28 concerns the tribe of Levi, and especially the family of Aaron. The Lord denied them a territorial patrimony in the land they would occupy from which they could support themselves. This is because the Lord chose Aaron and his family to maintain the alter of the Lord and its cultus and named the tribe of Levi to assist them in caring for the Tent of the Presence (apart from the alter itself). Since they would, then, have no land with which to support themselves, the Lord made other provisions for them. They would receive from "all Israel" a tithe, and from that they would support themselves, after first setting a tithe of that tithe aside for the Lord.
The OT proof text for the tithe is Genesis 14:20. This is embedded in a unique, ancient, and ultimately foreign, that is to say, non-Hebrew/Jewish, tradition dating most probably to the 18th century BC., according to the translator of and commentator on Genesis for the Anchor Bible series, the late Professor Ephraim Speiser of the University of Pennsylvania. "Abram the Hebrew," returning from a military sortie which rescued his brother Lot and Lot's clan from the clutches of a group of foreign marauding kings probably intent upon seizing the copper mines south of the Dead Sea, was hailed by an enigmatic figure, the Canaanite king of the city-state of Salem (Jerusalem) who was also the high priest of the local Canaanite god of that region, El-Elyon.
There is no hint in the passage that Abraham was told by Melchizedek to tithe, and the Mosaic law on tithing was not formulated for another half a millennium or so. Abram is seen to have been grateful to his God for his victory over the marauding kings and wished to show his gratitude. But how? Abraham’s answer was straightforward: When Melchizedek appeared and offered him bread and wine and blessed him in the name of his Canaanite deity, Abram gratefully presented Melchizedek the high priest with a tithe from his booty.
Abraham is seen to have apparently tithed voluntarily, as there is no indication that Melchizedek ordered him to hand over 10% of the plunder. Abraham's motive is said to have been gratitude alone. But how did Abraham know to come to 10% (a tithe) as the appropriate amount?
In Deuteronomy 12:6 & 11, Yahweh declares to the wandering tribes of Hebrews following Moses that they will not be worshipping at any of the several Canaanite sanctuaries or altars or high places in the land they will occupy. The Lord instructs the Hebrews to worship only at the place he will select for them. To this place they will bring all the various kinds of offerings, which the text sets out in doublets:
It seems as though just about every type of offering is covered, except one. Offerings owed as simple taxes seem to be missing. The "tithe" is set against offerings which are owed but freely given. One could expect to find paired with this a type of offering which was not freely given but was an official levy, in other words, straightforward taxes. These taxes would be levied as a formal legal requirement by either the civil or religious authority. That this is in fact correct will be shown below.
One is still left with the question of how Abraham hit upon 10%, and not 5% or 20%. The 10% is far older than Abraham, a fact not appreciated by many commentators. Abraham, however, was well aware of his sitz im leben, even if some modern writers are not.
Abraham and his family came from the minority Semitic-speaking pastoral population (not from the Sumerian-speaking inhabitants) around Ur in southern Mesopotamia. They migrated northward and settled for a time in the area of Harran, a small city-state on the Balikh River, a tributary in the Great Bend of the upper Euphrates River, in northern Mesopotamia. They subsequently continued their trek westward with their herds to the land promised them by their God. They were a family of Semitic-speaking Mesopotamians.
Many examples of cultural heritage point to a close relationship between the family and descendants of Abraham and their original Mesopotamian homeland. It is certain that it was not only oral mythological traditions and inheritance laws that Abraham and his family carried with them to their new home as part of the cultural baggage of their Mesopotamian homeland. Abraham also brought his language with him.
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