Oh you mean the bit where it says the maasa sheni belongs to the LORD. Don't see anywhere where it says paying tithe to the church (unless you read king james which of course was made up by a fringe lunatic with a printing press to please the church).Originally Posted by Hitcher
Or maybe its the bit where it says
When you have finished taking all the [tithes] of your grain for the third year, which is the special tithe year, you must give them to the Levite, and to the foreigner, orphan and widow, so that they will eat their fill in your settlements.
Thats from an earlier bible, but certainly not the hebrew bible.
You see, ma'aser is made from a babylonian root word - it 'aser' means 10 and ma means part. So you get 10th part. Certainly not tithe which is a greek word and means tax. Apart from the fact that the greek word tithe wasnt inserted into the bible until the christians [greeks] added it in about 500AD, it means tax and the bible explicity does not reference giving of taxes to the LORD. If that happened the romans would have crucified everyone. The bible is also pretty clear that you should only give stuff you own and have no need of from your own free will.
So - giving a 10% tax is a christian bastardisation of the old babylonian system of taking 10% tax, when the bible states quite clearly that it should only be a 'part of whatever bounty you have' and as stated above should be given to the levites.
Also, further proof is that abraham and co, spoke a version of babylonian - not greek - so they would have used the term 10th part, not tax (tithe). Two different meanings.
In actual fact, the Torah that the phrase comes from originally talks about the 7 year cycle where years one and two are the Maaser Sheni which is where the 10th part of the produce is eaten in jerusalem, year three is the maaser ani where a 10th part is given to the poor and year 4 the maaser rishon (only 9%) is given to a levite (of which none now exist) - note that in the phrase above it says the after the special year (maaser ani) you do the maaser rishon (give to the levites).
Now the old testiment (the holy writ of israel) refers to the period 1800BC (greece helanistic dark ages) to 700BC (the rise of athens) or thereabouts.
In 1800BC the hebrews settled in palistine then ran out of food and buggered off into egypt. Egypt got conqured by the Hyksos who then later got beaten up by the egyptians (1700bc) who promptly enslaved the hebrews. 400 years later moses got fed up with all the hard work and buggered off back to palistine and made all the people worship yahweh. [no greeks]
Problem is, another lot of people who north of palistine (in lebanon) didnt like the idea of their new neighbours and invaded (these folks were called by the greeks phonecians and their land canan - they were refered to in other names as the cannanites). [no greeks]
Anyhow - cannanites (now called palistinians I think) - hebrews (and related tribes)- didnt like each other. So they had a battle at a place called armageddon (of which on the hill is a little tourist shop - quite nice). Anyhow, the hebrews were bossed around by a woman called deborah who was so bossy that the hebrews went out and won the war is shear fear of what she would do to them if they lost. [no greeks]
Shortly after than (about 1100bc) the philistines turned up with their iron weapons and stole the ARK (see raiders of the lost ark - early greek play with the greek hero indianus joanus). [still no greeks - they are all at troy]
In about 950BC some little kid known as david really pissed off the philistines by beating their big fullah who was called goliath, nicked back the ARK and stole a city called Jerusalem from the cananites and built a temple to house the ark (see the greek play indianus jonus and the temple of doom).
Not much happened after that, soloman became king in 922BC buggered it up an split the empire in two the south were jews (judean peoples front - the splitters [monty python]) and the north (isralites). [nup - still no greeks - they are having a dark age]
720BC - really important. The Assyrians captured the north (isralites) inbred with them creating the samaritans. Later in 586BC they nicked the south from the jews (starting another exile) and lived there for ages until about 530BC when the persians let them go home. After that the greeks and romans took over (about 500bc). [Thar be greeks]
Anyhow - the purpose of that history was to prove yet again that THERE WERE NO GREEKS IN ISRAEL during the period of the old testament - hence 10th Part - not Tax (tithe). The latter word couldnt be used until at least 500bc.
Although, at this time i'll probably give you that that the final version of the old testament was drafted by the rabbis in 9AD - so there would have def. been a greek translation or two written between 500bc and then - but the hebrew version still used the babylonian word maaser (and still does today) and the greek version would have used the word tithe. The christian version comes from the greek. Which is probably how it was all buggered up - especially since ancient hebrew is a dead language, it would have had to have been the greek translation christians used - ancient hebrew is still being translated today.
So anyhow, first two years, eat 10% of your produce in jerusalem, 3rd year give it to the poor, 4th year, give to levits, 3,6 year, eat it again - 7th year - keep it.
No tithe or tax.
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