18 Bible Verses on Tithes and Offerings, and Why the Tenth Was Never Ten Per Cent

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • Israel paid three separate tithes across a seven-year cycle, which together come to nearer a fifth of everything than a tenth.
  • One of the three was eaten by the family at a festival, and could be converted to money and spent on whatever they liked when they arrived.
  • Malachi 3:10 is addressed to priests who were keeping the good animals and offering the blind and crippled ones.
  • Jesus mentions tithing once, to rebuke men who counted herb seeds while neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness.
  • Paul asks for giving that is weekly, personal, proportional and decided in advance, and never names a percentage.

The tithe was never ten per cent of anything. Israel paid three separate tithes — one to the Levites every year, one the family carried to a festival and ate themselves, and one collected every third year for the poor. Added up across the cycle it comes to something nearer a fifth of everything than a tenth. No New Testament letter asks a church for a tithe at all, and the only time Jesus discusses one he is rebuking men…

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Bibliography (Click to show)

Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.

The three tithes: to the Levites (Numbers 18:21), eaten at the festival (Deuteronomy 14:22-27), and collected every third year for the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow (Deuteronomy 14:28-29).

The permission to convert the festival tithe to silver and buy what one chooses is at Deuteronomy 14:24-26.

Malachi’s charge against the priests is at Malachi 1:6-14.

Jacob sets his terms at Genesis 28:20-21.

The measure Jesus has in mind at Luke 6:38 is set out at Luke 6:37.

The collection Paul is raising runs from 2 Corinthians 8:1 to 9:15 and is described again at Romans 15:25-27.

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