Jesus did not Tithe

Jesus Did Not Tithe
Jesus did not pay tithe! Blasphemy? Not at all. The titles of this chapter come as
a real surprise to most tithe-advocates. The simple reason for these true statements
is found in the biblical defi nition of the tithe as explained in chapter one. The
Bible clearly teaches that only Israelite landowners and Israelite herdsmen inside
Israel were required to tithe their increase. This very narrow, but true, defi nition
eliminates all non-landowners, all tradesmen, and all who were too unfortunate to
afford raising stock animals for a living in Israel. Neither was this narrow defi nition
of tithing ever changed among Jews for over a thousand years; it was still the
defi nition during the time of Jesus.
Jesus Did Not Pay Tithes with His Disciples; Matthew 12:1-2; Mark 2:23-24;
Luke 6:1-2
Matt. 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain; and
his disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the heads of grain, and to eat.
Matt. 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Behold, your disciples
do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.
Jesus did not qualify as a person required to pay tithes! Jesus had been a carpenter
and many of his disciples had been fi shermen. If none of his twelve disciples were
farmers or herdsmen, then none were required by the law to pay tithes—only
freewill offerings. In addition, the above incident of the gleaning is noteworthy.
First, since this was neither a sabbatical year nor a Jubilee year, this incident must
have reference to the gleaning laws. Second, gleaning laws were specifi cally for the
poor. Third, the Pharisees did not rebuke Jesus and his disciples for not being too
poor to glean. Fourth, the Pharisees did not rebuke Jesus and his disciples for not
paying tithe on their harvest! The only accusation is that they performed work on
the Sabbath day.
In conclusion, since the poor were not in possession of land, and, since the
poor actually received tithes, God did not request, or require, the poor in the Old
Testament to tithe. They neither owned farmland nor (substantially) raised herds,
and, since God is full of grace and mercy, it is not within the scope of his divine
holy character to ask a poor person to tithe and deprive himself and his family of
the basic necessities of life. There is not a single Old Covenant text which commands
the poor to tithe. God was satisfi ed to accept their freewill offerings.

Those who tell the poor to give ten percent of their gross income to the church
and thus cause those same poor to be deprived of basic necessities are simply not
teaching either Old or New Covenant principles of grace and freewill giving.