Taxes
First mentioned in the command (Ex 30:11–16) that every Jew from twenty years and upward should pay an annual tax of “half a shekel for an offering to the Lord.” This enactment was faithfully observed for many generations (2 Chr 24:6; Matt 17:24).
Afterwards, when the people had kings to reign over them, they began, as Samuel had warned them (1 Sam 8:10–18), to pay taxes for civil purposes (1 Kgs 4:7; 1 Kgs 9:15; 1 Kgs 12:4). Such taxes, in increased amount, were afterwards paid to the foreign princes that ruled over them.
In the New Testament the payment of taxes, imposed by lawful rulers, is enjoined as a duty (Rom 13:1–7; 1 Pet 2:13, 1 Pet 2:14). Mention is made of the tax (telos) on merchandise and travellers (Matt 17:25); the annual tax (phoros) on property (Luke 20:22; Luke 23:2); the poll-tax (kensos, “tribute,” Matt 17:25; Matt 22:17; Mark 12:14); and the temple-tax (“tribute money” = two drachmas = half shekel, Matt 17:24–27; comp. Ex 30:13). (See Tribute.)
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
