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TRIBUTE, TOLL, TAXING
1. In OT the subject is obscure. The word most frequently rendered ‘tribute’ is mas, which denotes a body of forced labourers (2Sa_20:24, 1Ki_9:21 etc.; see RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), and then later ‘forced service’—the feudal corvée. Solomon had a regular system of levying provisions for the maintenance of the royal establishment (1Ki_4:7-19), and labourers for the execution of his vast building schemes (1Ki_5:13 ff., 1Ki_9:15), and also exacted toll from the caravans of merchants that passed through his kingdom (1Ki_10:15). After the fail of the Jewish State, tribute was imposed on the land by its foreign masters (2Ki_23:33, Ezr_4:13 etc.). In the last-mentioned passage (cf. Ezr_4:20, Ezr_7:24) we read of ‘tribute, custom, or toll,’ but have no information as to the precise meanings of the terms and the distinctions between them. Cf. Trade and Commerce, § 3.
2. In NT ‘tribute’ represents 3 Gr. words. (1) phoros is properly a land tax; (2) kçnsos (originally a property register), a capitation or poll tax. Both were direct Imperial taxes payable by the Jews as Roman subjects; the former in kind, the latter in Roman money. In NT, however, the distinction is not carefully observed (cf. Mat_22:17, Luk_20:22). For the ‘tribute money’ of Mat_22:19 see Money, § 7 (b). (3) didrachmon (Mat_17:24, RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘the half-shekel’) was the sum paid by every male Israelite to meet the cost of the daily services in the Temple. See Money, § 7 (d). Toil (telos, AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘custom’; telônion ‘place of toll,’ AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘receipt of custom’) must be carefully distinguished from tribute (cf. Mat_17:25, Rom_13:7). It was not a direct tax like (1) and (2), but an impost on the value of exported goods. For details see artt. Custom (s), Publican. Taxing (apographç, RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘enrolment,’ Luk_2:2, Act_5:37) denotes a registration with a view to taxation for Imperial purposes. See Quirinius.
J. C. Lambert.