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19

YEHOVAH's TITHE IN

SCRIPTURE

Happily there are many people throughout the world who recognize that
it is a religious and moral obligation to give. So now, as in past ages,
many earnest people not only approve but practice the principle of
setting aside from their incomes "not less than a tenth for YEHOVAH
God." Scriptural studies may help many inquirers to "perceive and
know" what is the mind and will of YEHOVAH respecting their giving,
and that they may have "grace and power faithfully to perform the
same," is the prayer and fervent desire of the Authors.

Henry Lansdell
John D. Keyser
Part One

THE hieroglyphics of Egypt, the cuneiform tablets of Babylonia, and early writers
of Greece and Rome inform us that before the Bible was written, it was an almost
universal practice among civilized nations for people to pay tithes to their gods.
However, none of these sources tell us when, or where, the practice began, or who issued
the law for its observance.

Therefore, it is our object in this series of articles to investigate what may be
learned concerning tithe-paying from the Bible, and from Jewish writings of the period
between the Old and New Testaments.

If we begin our study concerning tithe-paying by reading the book of Genesis, we
naturally turn first to such passages that tell of the offering of material things to
YEHOVAH. We find at least six persons who made such offerings-- namely, Cain and
Abel, Noah, Abram, Isaac, and Jacob; and we proceed to ask what we learn from them as
to patriarchal or what is called pre-Mosaic tithe-paying.

Cain and Abel

Very early Christian writers connected the rejection of Cain's offering with
tithing. Tertullian [1 Adversus Judaeos 2:2], for instance, in the third century wrote that
YEHOVAH God rejected the sacrifice of Cain, because he did not rightly divide what he
offered -- using as a source a Latin version of Genesis 4:7, made from the Septuagint.
Clement of Rome also (Ep. Ad: Corinth. N 4), who lived in the first century, and
Iranaeus, who wrote in the century following (Adv. Hares. Bk. iv. ch. 34), both quote the
seventh verse of Genesis 4 according to the Septuagint reading. In the fourth century