Herbert Armstrong - Is Tithing Required on Money Incomes?
Tithing in the Old Testament is an interesting study. What becomes immediately clear is that it never applied to wages, trade income, craftsmanship, fishing, commercial profit, or any other form of monetary earnings. Money certainly existed, and the monetary economy was substantial - merchants, traders, craftsmen, builders, fishermen, and labourers, including agricultural labourers and many others too numerous to list, formed a significant and essential part of Israel’s society - yet none of these were ever tithed. Towns, fortified cities, royal centres, and trade hubs had significant numbers of non‑agricultural workers. Even rural villages had essential trades (smiths, carpenters, potters, weavers, builders, transport workers, fishermen, merchants). The Bible itself depicts frequent monetary transactions, which presuppose a functioning monetary economy. The biblical tithe was restricted solely to agricultural increase and herds and flocks from the land of Israel, as laid out in Leviti...