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CHAP. II.

OF THE PUBLICANS.

BEFORE we treat of the publicans, or tax-gatherers, it will be proper to premise something concerning the Jewish taxes.

Of the Taxes.

It was observed in a former lecture, that as the law of Moses was the only codex juris, or body of law, enacted by God, the king of Israel, for the government both of church and state; and as the priests were appointed to dispense it; they are properly to be considered as ministers of state, as well as of religion; and therefore the tithes, and the portion of sacrifices, which the law assigned for their maintenance, were in the nature of taxes, payable for the support of the government. Besides these we read of no other stated taxes, appointed by the law; except a poll tax of half a shekel, which, when they were numbered in the wilderness, was levied upon every man from twenty years old and upwards; and it is said to be designed for "a ransom, or atonement for his soul," and to be " appointed for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation," Exod. xxx, 12-16. It is not provided that this tax should be paid annually; but being intended for the ransom of their souls, or as an act of homage, and acknowledgment to God, of their being his redeemed people, there was equal reason, in the opinion of the Jewish doctors, for its constant subsistence, as for its original appointment; and being devoted to the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, by which they understand their daily sacrifice and offerings, salt for the sacrifices, wood for the altar of burntoffering, incense, show bread, &c., which were constant national charges; from hence they infer, that the tax to support

them must be national, and annual, or stated. But Grotius is of opinion, that this poll tax, at least in the former ages of the Hebrew commonwealth, was not annual; but only levied on peculiar exigencies; as when the free-will-offerings, dedicated by the princes and people to maintain the house of the Lord, were not sufficient (for we read of large donations for that purpose in David's time, which seem to render the poll tax needless, 1 Chron. xxvi, 26, 27); or, when some extraordinary expense, about the sanctuary and its service, occurred; as for repairing the temple in the reign of King Joash; who " gathered the priests and the Levites, and commanded them to collect from all Israel money to repair the house of the Lord from year to year;" and, on account of their dilatoriness, the order being repeated, "proclamation was made through Judah and Jerusalem to bring in the collection that Moses, the servant of God, laid upon Israel in the wilderness," 2 Chron. xxiv, 5, 6, 9. Now one can hardly suppose this tax would have been levied by proclamation, unless it had been occasional, and not stated and annual. In Nehemiah's time it was also levied by a new ordinance; for which there would have been no occasion, if the law of Moses had made it perpetual*. On account of the people's poverty, it was, at this time, lowered from one half to one third of a shekel, Nehem. x, 32, 33. This third of a shekel Aben-ezra will have to be an additional voluntary contribution, over and above the annual tax of the half shekel. But considering the low circumstances the Jews were now in, and how they had been impoverished by the late captivity, that is not probable+.

If we suppose this poll tax was not, by divine appointment, stated and annual, but only levied, on public exigencies, we may, perhaps, be able to account for David's numbering the people being represented as so heinous a sin, 2 Sam. xxiv; 1 Chron. xxi; for which different interpreters have given very different reasons.

The common opinion is, that his sin consisted in his pride and vanity, which made him desirous of knowing how populous and powerful his country was. Ralbag, who is followed by Abarbanel, conceives it lay in making flesh his arm, and con

*See Lowman's Civil Govern. of the Hebr. p. 96, et seq. See Aben-ezra in loc. and Grotius on Mat. xvii, 24.

fiding in the multitude of his subjects. Some make it consist in infidelity, and mistrust of God's promise to Abraham, that he would "increase his seed like the stars of heaven, which no man should be able to number," Gen. xv, 5.

However, if Grotius be right about the poll tax, it may incline one to adopt Dr. Lightfoot's opinion, that "God gave up David to a covetous thought, to number the people that he might lay a tax upon every poll*." And if so, we cannot wonder his sin is represented as so heinous: the guilt was very complicated, being, besides avarice, a contradiction to the law of God, in levying the tax when there was no occasion for it, and an act of tyranny and oppression on the people. But to return:

However it was in former times, this tax certainly became annual and stated in the later ages of the Jewish commonwealth; having, perhaps, been made so by the Asmonean princes; who being high priests, as well as possessed of the sovereign civil authority, would very likely be for increasing the ecclesiastical revenues, by converting that occasional tax into a stated one. We have the testimony of Josephus, that this tax was paid annually; for he saith, Vespasian commanded every Jew to pay the annual tribute of two drachmæ to the capitol, which had been formerly paid to the temple at Jerusalem. Now Bishop Cumberland informs us, that the attic drachm answered to the fourth part of the Jewish shekel, which weighed half an ounce avoirdupois‡; two drachms, therefore, answered to the half shekel, being in value of our money a little more than one shilling and two pence. Mr. Selden§ thinks, that this was the tax Cicero refers to, when, in his oration pro Flacco, he speaks of "Gold, sent every year in the name of the Jews out of Italy, and all the provinces, to Jerusalem." This I take to be the tribute which was demanded of Christ, Matt. xvii, 24; not only because it is called didpaxua, which signifieth two drachms, and so answereth

* Harmony of the Old Test. sub anno mund. 2988. Davidis, 39. + De Bell. Jud. lib. vii, cap. vi, sect. vi, edit. Haverc.; see also Dion Cassius, lib. lxvi, cap. vii, p. 1082, edit. Reimari, 1752.

See his Essay on Jewish Weights and Measures, chap. iv.

§ De jure nat. et gent. lib. vi, cap. xviii, apud opera, vol. i, tom. i, p. 691, edit. Londini, 1726.

Ciceronis Oper. vol. v, sect. xxvii, p 345, edit. Olivet. Genev. 1758.

to the Jewish half shekel; but because the reason, which he allegeth, why he might have excused himself from paying it, ver. 25, 26, shows, it was a tribute paid, not to the Roman emperor (as Salmasius thinks*), but to God for the service of his temple: so that Christ, being the son of God, might have pleaded an exemption.

It may possibly be objected, that if this tribute was a stated annual tax, payable by every Jew, how came the collectors to inquire of Peter, "Doth not your master pay tribute?" To this it is replied,

1st, They might be in doubt, whether he would choose to pay it at Capernaum, where at that time he was, which, very likely, they could not have obliged him to do; or at his own town of Nazareth, or at Jerusalem. Or,

2dly, The meaning of the question may be, whether he would pay it then, on the spot. For the doctors tell us, that on the first day of the month Adar notice was given, throughout all the country, for men to make this payment; and officers were appointed to sit in every city of Judea, to receive it; yet nobody was obliged to pay it immediately; but if they did not pay it in a certain prefixed time afterwards, they were then compelled.

These taxes, namely, the tithes, the sacrificial offerings, and the poll tax of the half shekel (whether annual or occasional), are all the taxes expressly levied by the Mosaic law. We read, indeed, of an extraordinary contribution for the building of the tabernacle, which God ordered Moses to recommend to the people, Exod. xxv, 2; and which they made so liberally, that their lawgiver thought proper to restrain them by proclamation, Exod. xxxvi, 3-7. However, this was not in the nature of a tax, but a free gift, every one giving as he pleased.

As for the expenses of war, in which the Israelites were often engaged, it is to be considered, that they held their estates by military tenure; for it appeareth from the exemptions allowed some persons on particular occasions, from attending military service, Deut. xx, 5, &c., that all others were bound to attend. So that the Israelitish troops were a militia, * Salmasii ad Johannem Miltonum responsio, p. 272.

† See Lowman's Civil Government of the Hebrews, chap. iv, p. 52.

maintained at their own expense; which was the reason of Jesse's sending provisions to his sons in Saul's army, 1 Sam. xvii, 17, 18. There was ordinarily, therefore, no need of taxes to defray the charges of war.

When the Israelites came to be governed by kings, who, like other monarchs, affected pomp and magnificence; no doubt, some taxes were necessary to defray that extraordinary expense, and to support the dignity of the crown: and though these taxes were not properly of God's appointment, any more than the regal government itself; yet the Jews look upon this law in the book of Deuteronomy, "Neither shall the king greatly multiply to himself silver and gold," Deut. xvii, 17, as implying a permission to levy necessary taxes on the people; only God foreseeing they would in time change the form of government which he had appointed into a monarchy, like that of other nations, restrains their kings by this prohibition from levying expensive taxes on the subject.

It should seem, Solomon did not sufficiently regard this restraint; for he multiplied to himself, not only "horses and wives," contrary to the law, ver. 16, 17; but also "silver and gold;" so that the people groaned under the burthen of taxes; which proved the immediate occasion of the revolt of the ten tribes from his son and successor Rehoboam, 1 Kings xii, 4. How these taxes were levied does not appear in the scripture history.

After the captivity the Jews were tributary to the Persians, as is plain from the letter which their enemies wrote to Artaxerxes, to prevent the rebuilding of Jerusalem; in which they inform him, that if the city be built and fortified, then the Jews "will not pay toll, tribute, and custom,” Ezra iv, 13. We have no account how the toll, tribute, and custom, here mentioned, were levied. By the first of these words Grotius understands a poll tax; by the second, a duty upon commodities and merchandise; and by the third, a tax upon their land: but Witsius, a land tax, or rather a tax on property in general, by the first; a poll tax, by the second; and a toll collected on the road from merchants, who travelled with their goods from place to place, by the third *. However that be, it

* Miscell. tom. ii, exercitat. xi, sect. xxi, p. 289.

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