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•TAXES first mentioned in the command (Exodus 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 Chronicles 24:6; Matthew 17:24).
Afterwards, when the people had kings to reign over them, they began, as Samuel had warned them (1 Samuel 8:10-18), to pay taxes for civil purposes (1 Kings 4:7; 9:15; 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 (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13, 14). Mention is made of the tax (telos) on merchandise and travellers (Matthew 17:25); the annual tax (phoros) on property (Luke 20:22; 23:2); the poll-tax (kensos, “tribute,” Matthew 17:25; 22:17; Mark 12:14); and the temple-tax (“tribute money” = two drachmas = half shekel, Matthew 17:24-27; comp. Exodus 30:13). (See TRIBUTE.)
•TAXING (Luke 2:2; R.V., “enrolment”), “when Cyrenius was governor of Syria,” is simply a census of the people, or an enrolment of them with a view to their taxation. The decree for the enrolment was the occasion of Joseph and Mary’s going up to Bethlehem. It has been argued by some that Cyrenius (q.v.) was governor of Cilicia and Syria both at the time of our Lord’s birth and some years afterwards. This decree for the taxing referred to the whole Roman world, and not to Judea alone. (See CENSUS.)
•TEBETH (Esther 2:16), a word probably of Persian origin, denoting the cold time of the year; used by the later Jews as denoting the tenth month of the year. Assyrian tebituv, “rain.”
•TEIL TREE (an old name for the lime-tree, the tilia), Isaiah 6:13, the terebinth, or turpentine-tree, the Pistacia terebinthus of botanists. The Hebrew word here used (elah) is rendered oak (q.v.) in Genesis 35:4;