The Temple Tax as One Source of Income for the Temple Sample Clauses

The Temple Tax as One Source of Income for the Temple. Collected as Passover approached (m.

The Temple Tax as One Source of Income for the Temple. Collected as Passover approached (m. #eqal. 1:1; 1:3; cf. Matt 17:24) and required from nearly all male Jews, the half-shekel temple tax contributed to the large sums stored in the temple treasury.224 As Sanders succinctly puts it, the temple Gospels [First and second series; New York: Ktav, 1967], 1:86). While impossible to verify, it would make sense for temple officials to have a high degree of control over the collection of the temple tax. The temple was very organized with administrating its finances (keeping a roster of treasurers dedicated to this task; see n. 101 below) and the temple tax was an important component of its income. M. #eqal. 1:6, which rules that in certain cases the surcharge for changing one’s money into shekels could be waived, supports Bauckham’s hypothesis as well. If these stipulations were at all followed in the first century, why would independent merchants waive the surcharge that constitutes their income? The temple treasury, on the other hand, would benefit from waiving the surcharge, since it would act as an incentive for people to contribute when they were not legally bound to do so (as m. #eqal. 1:6 presumes). Bauckham’s supposition cannot be proven, but at any rate, as was the case with the dove-merchants, there developed a close relationship between moneychangers in Jerusalem and the temple. 224 According to Exod 30:13–15, the tax had to be paid by every free male of at least twenty years of age (cf. Ant. 3.193–196; 18.312–313; J.W. 7.218), whether rich or poor (Exod 3:15). Josephus claims that, according to Moses, men over the age of fifty were not subject to the temple tax (Ant. 3.196). The Mishnah specifies Levites, Israelites, proselytes, and freed slaves as required to pay the tax (m. #eqal. 1:3).