I might be willing to grant that we should follow Jacob's example if the rest of Scripture were silent on the subject of financial stewardship. This isn't the case of someone saying, "Tithe to God and God will bless you," but rather "God, you first bless me and then I will tithe to you." Second, we have no good reason to believe that Jacob's act is to be taken as normative for all believers in every age. Is this a solid biblical reason why we should do the same? First, note well that this is a vow made upon the condition that God would bless Jacob. (4) The other example of pre-Mosaic tithing is found in Genesis 28:22 where it is said that Jacob promised to give a tenth of all he had to God. It is exegetically tenuous, then, to appeal to this text in defense of contemporary tithing. 6:20), is greater than any and all priests of the order of Aaron and Levi. Therefore, Jesus, who is our high priest “after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. And if Melchizedek was greater than Abraham, his priesthood must be greater than a priesthood which traces its descent from Abraham” (Hebrews, 139-40). but in the account of his interview with Melchizedek, it is Melchizedek who appears as the greater of the two. Bruce, is this: “Abraham was a great man. Our author then says that, in a certain sense, Levi also paid a tithe to Melchizedek because he was in the loins of his great-grandfather Abraham when the incident recorded in Genesis 14 occurred. 7:7 states, "the inferior is blessed by the superior. It was Melchizedek who blessed Abraham, not the other way around. Remember, it was Abraham who paid a tithe to Melchizedek, not the other way around. He does this by proving the superiority of Melchizedek to Abraham. There the author is determined to prove the superiority of the New Covenant priesthood of Jesus Christ to the Old Covenant priesthood. The only other reference to this incident is in Hebrews 7. And as far as I can tell, there’s no evidence that Abraham ever tithed to anyone again. We should also note that he didn’t tithe to God but to a man, Melchizedek. Nothing is said about his tithing from his yearly income.
There is no command associated with this incident or any other evidence indicating that what Abraham did on this one occasion is binding and normative for all believers in every age.Ībraham tithed out of the spoils or booty of war (see the preceding context in Gen. There is nothing in the OT which indicates that Abraham ever received divine or revelatory instructions concerning tithing.
We don’t know whether Abraham tithed because of some divine mandate that was binding on all God's people at that time, or because he was following a common ancient near-eastern custom. We read in Genesis 14:18-20 that Abraham gave “a tenth of everything” to Melchizedek. (3) There are two examples of pre-Mosaic tithing. Other extra-biblical documents indicate that tithing was commonly practiced throughout the ancient world among such people as the Syrians, Lydians, and Babylonians. One need only read Genesis 47:24 where the Egyptians were required to pay 20% of their harvest to Pharaoh. Giving a portion of one's income either to a pagan deity or to the governing authority was a widespread custom. (2) In ancient times tithing was not restricted to religious people, such as the nation Israel. Does the Bible legislate to believers under the New Covenant a specific percentage of their income that they are to give? The answer, I believe, is no. The question is whether Christians are obligated to tithe of their income.
#Mosaic law free#
(1) The question is not whether Christians are free to tithe of their income. The question, rather, is whether New Covenant Christians are biblically and morally obligated to give according to Old Covenant laws. 2 Corinthians 8-9, as well as other texts, make it quite clear that we are. The question before us is not whether Christians are responsible to be generous with their wealth in giving back a portion of it to support the work of the ministry. Today we take up the issue of tithing, especially as it was mandated under the Law of Moses.
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