TAXES (taks-82), (from Heb. 12F, aw-rak', to value).
(1) Origin. These must have been coeval with the origin of civilized society. The idea of the one is involved in that of the other; since so ciety, as every organization, implies expense, which must be raised by the abstraction of prop erty from the individuals of which it consists, either by occasional or periodical, by self-imposed, or compulsory exactions.
(2) Under the Mosaic Law. Accordingly we find a provision of income made at the very com mencement of the Mosaic polity. Taxes, like all other things in that polity, had a religious origin and import. As a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, every Israelite was to pay half a shekel yearly, from twenty years old and upward, the rich not giving more, the poor not giving less, for the service of the Tabernacle (Exod. xxx :12, sq.; 2 Chron. xxiv :6). From the latter passage it appears that the law appointing this payment was in force in the days of Joash (B. C. 878). This half shekel was the tribute which our Lord was asked if he paid (Matt. xvii :24).
(3) The Temple Tax. A special provision seems to have been made under peculiar circum stances, of one-third of a shekel yearly, 'for the service of the house of our God' (Neh. x :32). The Jews at times found the taxes they had to pay very oppressive. The ten tribes complained that they had found David's yoke heavy, and en treated Rehoboam that he would lighten it. And the stoning to death of Adoram, who 'was over the tribute,' shows to what an extent the ques tion of taxes entered into the causes of the re volt of the ten tribes (1 Kings xii:4, 18).
(4) Under the Romans. When the Romans became masters of Palestine the unhappy Jews had a double yoke to bear ; while it appears from Josephus that the yoke of the native princes was anything but light.
(5) Miscellaneous Taxes. Besides the regu lar half shekel there was a considerable income derived to the temple from tithes, firstlings, etc. (2 Kings xii:4). Considering the fertility of the land we cannot account these religious imposts as heavy. If we turn to the civil constitution. we find taxes first instituted at the time of the introduction of regal power, whose exactions are forcibly described by Samuel (1 Sam. viii :1o, sq.). They consisted partly in personal service, partly in tithe in kind. Occasionally a heavy poll tax was imposed—'on all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver' (2 Kings xv:20). On other occasions an assessment was made, and a tax raised from the people of the land generally (2 Kings xxiii :35). Both these last cases, however, were provisions for a special need. Presents constituted a source of abundant income, and can hardly be regarded in any other light than as a sort of self-imposed tax (1 Sam. x :27; KVi.:20; 1 Kings x :25 ; 2 Chron. xvii :5). Royal demesnes supplied resources (I Kings iv: 22, sq.). There was also a transit-tax 'of the merchantmen, and of the traffic of the spice-mer chants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country' (1 Kings x:15). Ships and other public property belonged to the king (r Kings x:28; ix :26; xxii :49) : the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year (inde pendently of several sources) was 676 talents (t Kings x :14). J. R. B.