Nehemiah 10:32

A poll-tax of ⅓ of a shekel imposed for the maintenance of the service of the Temple

32. we made ordinances for us The verse shows that Ezra and his colleagues, although establishing the authority of the written law, were ready to expand or modify it according to the requirements of the time a significant indication of the way in which the numerous instances of minor variation in the laws of the Pentateuch may reflect changes and qualifications required at different epochs. -Ordinances." The plural shows that the reference is not to be limited to the Temple tax.

the thirdpart of a shekel See Exodus 30:11-16; in which passage every Israelite, -from twenty years old and upward," is required to give -the offering of the Lord," i.e. - half-a-shekelafter the shekel of the sanctuary:" -the rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the Lord, to make atonement for your souls." The sum of -half a shekel," or two drachmæ, is mentioned as the regulation tax in Matthew 17:24, -Doth not your master pay the half-shekel?" (didrachma). Cf. Josephus B. J.vii. 6. 6, -The emperor commanded every Jew to pay the two drachmæ annually to the Capitol which they had before been accustomed to pay to the Temple at Jerusalem."

A poll-tax of ⅓ shekel for the services of the Temple differs both from the regulation of Exodus 30 and from the later Jewish custom. In Exodus 30:11-16 a tribute of ½ shekel is to be levied, not annually, but on the occasions when the census of the people was taken. From Josephus we learn that the contribution of ½ shekel was annually levied from every Jew. Here the Jews charge themselves with an annual tribute of ⅓ shekel.

In order to explain this apparent discrepancy, some scholars maintain that the tax mentioned in Exodus, being only occasional, has no connexion with the annual poll-tax, and that the ⅓ shekel was in later days raised to ½ shekel when the Jews were wealthier, in order to assimilate the annual tax to the sum of the occasional ransom tax mentioned in the Pentateuch. It is an objection to this view that (1) there is no reference here to the occasional tax, (2) we have no mention anywhere of the coexistence of two taxes, one occasional and the other annual, for the maintenance of the Temple, (3) the reference in 2 Chronicles 24:5-9 to the Mosaic law seems to contemplate a regular and not an occasional tax.

Others have conjectured that the requirement of the ½ shekel in Exodus 30 is an interpolation later than the time of Nehemiah, made in the interest of the priests. To this it may be replied that, if such an interpolation had been made, it would surely also have been directed towards securing an annual tribute, instead of a payment to be made only at the time when the people were numbered.

It is more probable that the discrepancies reflect the gradual growth of the custom. The law in Exodus 30:11-16 goes back to the days when to number the people was associated with human presumption, for which expiation was to be made. Cf. 2 Samuel 24. The necessities of the Temple service caused this occasional tax to become a regular one under kings favourable to the priests (2 Chronicles 24). After the Return the poverty of the Jews made it difficult to maintain the Temple services. The regular contributions promised by the Persian king (Ezra 7:2-23) ceased, or were only for a short period. The imposition of an annual poll-tax of ⅓ shekel would be cheerfully accepted at the time of religious reformation under Ezra. In later times, when the power of the High-priest became more absolute and the prosperity of the Jews grew, the tax was raised from ⅓ to ½ shekel, in imitation of the occasional -census" tax which had become obsolete, but whose memorial existed in Exodus 30. [3]

[3] An interesting explanation has recently been suggested: "In Exodus each male Israelite contributed a bekah, or half a shekel (of the Sanctuary) to defray the cost of the Tabernacle: this half-shekel was a drachm of about 65 grs. Troy.… The Babylonian silver stater of [the age of Nehemiah] weighed about 172.8 grs. This formed the standard of the Empire, and doubtless the Jews of the Captivity employed it like the rest of the subjects of the Great King. The third part of this stater or shekel weighed about 58 grains; so that practically the third part of the Babylonian silver shekel was the same as the half of the ancient light shekel, or shekel of the Sanctuary." (Ridgeway's Origin of Currency and Weight Measures, p. 281.)