merous references to tithes of the annual harvest and to tithes
of spoil taken in battle are known. Delphi, Delos, and Athens
are mentioned as recipients of tithe offerings made to the
gods. The offering of firstfruits and of tithes seems to have
been quite closely associated.
As a part of the Jewish legislation, the tithe becomes
fixed and indeed extends beyond the original prescription.
The tractates Terumot and MaDaserot, along with other tal-
mudic collections, give particulars on postbiblical under-
standings. The Book of Tobit (second century BCE) offers
important testimony of the changes in the understanding of
the tithe. Tobit reports that when he was a young man, prior
to his having been taken captive by the Assyrians and trans-
ported to Nineveh, he brought firstfruits, tithes of the pro-
duce, and first shearings to Jerusalem. He also gave three
tithes: he presented the first tenth to the Levites (as required
by Nm. 18), offered the second tenth in Jerusalem (as re-
quired by Dt. 14), and gave the third tenth to the needy (as
specified in Dt. 14 as well).
In the early church, tithing became a means of securing
a livelihood for church leadership, although in the earliest
days of the Christian movement tithing seems to have been
abandoned entirely in many Christian circles as a practice
not in harmony with the Christian divergence from Jewish
observances. The tithe remained of great importance for the
church as a means of securing a stable institution, providing
for ecclesiastical establishments, and offering resources for
the care of the poor and the needy. In Judaism the tithe
helped the community meet human needs, although com-
plaints were voiced that a “second tithe,” amounting to 20
percent (as apparently demanded by the different specifica-
tions in Nm. 18 and Dt. 14), was too heavy a burden on the
community. Christian understanding of the tithe has had to
combat both an overzealous application of the law of tithing
(as some communities have understood it) and the supposi-
tion that to provide a tenth of one’s goods to the church or
to charitable purposes meant that the remainder of one’s
goods could be used in complete disregard of the claims of
Christian stewardship.
SEE ALSO Israelite Law, article on Property Law; Levites.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Eissfeldt, Otto. Erstlinge und Zehnte im Alten Testament. Götting-
en, 1916. The classic work, a benchmark in the study of the
subject.
Guthrie, Harvey H., Jr. “Tithe.” In Interpreter’s Dictionary of the
Bible, vol. 4. New York, 1962; reprint, Nashville, Tenn.,
1976.
Levine, Baruch A.. Leviticus = Vayikra: The Traditional Hebrew
Text with the New JPS Translation. Philadelphia, Pa., New
York, Jerusalem, 1988. See especially pp. 199–200.
Levine, Baruch A. Numbers 1–20: A New Translation with Intro-
duction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 4A. New York,
1993.
Milgrom, Jacob, Leviticus 23–27: A New Translation with Intro-
duction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 3B. New York,
- See especially his study of Leviticus 27 and the extend-
ed comments at the end of the volume.
Tigay, Jeffrey H. Deuteronomy = Devarim: The Traditional He-
brew Text with the New JPS Translation. Philadelphia, Pa.,
New York, Jerusalem, 1996.
Vaux, Roland de. Les institutions de l’Ancien Testament. 2 vols.
Paris, 1958–1960. Translated by John McHugh as Ancient
Israel: Its Life and Institutions. 2d ed. New York, 1961; re-
print, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997. See especially
pp. 140–141, 380–382, and 403–405.
Vischer, Lukas. “Die Zehntforderung in der Alten Kirche.”
Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 70 (1959): 201–217. Trans-
lated by Robert C. Schultz as Tithing in the Early Church.
Philadelphia, Pa., 1966. Particularly good on the theologians
of the early church, but sketchy on the biblical evidence.
Weinfield, Moshe. “Tithe.” In Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 15. Je-
rusalem, 1971. A thorough and excellent treatment. See also
the accompanying article, “Church Tithes,” by Bernhard
Blumenkranz.
WALTER HARRELSON (1987 AND 2005)
TIV RELIGION. The Tiv, who live in the central
Benue valley of Nigeria, have a name for God, Aondo (sky),
but are not much interested in him because they say that he
is not much interested in them. God, in their view, created
the earth and everything within it—including the forces of
evil. Then he walked away—the Tiv do not ask where God
went.
The Tiv are concerned with health (and with death, the
ultimate manifestation of poor health), with fertility of crops,
animals, and themselves, and with social harmony. To be
healthy, to have plenty, and to live in harmony are natural
states. Although the Tiv have some lore about spirits, no spir-
its manipulate the forces that interfere with these desirable
states; Tiv respect their ancestors, but no ancestors manipu-
late the forces. Rather, the acts and devices of living human
beings activate the forces of evil. Tiv ritual is designed to
overcome these forces.
The Tiv say that some people grow a substance called
tsav on their hearts that acts much like a physical organ. Tsav
is both a sign of and source of special talent or ability, wheth-
er musical and artistic, social and political, or the ability to
live to old age. One such special talent is to manipulate the
forces that repair the society ritually.
Tsav is not present in all people. It becomes enlarged
and nefariously powerful in any person who eats human
flesh. Tsav itself does not tempt its bearers to eat human
flesh—but lust for power may. Cannibalism is a metaphor
for antisocial misuse of other people, their property, and sub-
stance.
The Tiv postulate that some of those with the special
talents of tsav meet at night as an organization to keep the
social and cosmic forces working for the benefit of society9210 TIV RELIGION