In Matthew 23:23, was tithing a lighter commandment?

[tonychanyt]

Mt 23:

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

That's the context; it was about hypocrisy.

For you tithe mint and dill and cumin,

You tithe these little things.

and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.

Was tithing a lighter commandment?

Using precision in my interpretation, I don't think Jesus implied that.

1. Jesus referred not to general tithing but to a specific act of Pharisees' tithing mint, dill, and cumin.
2. The logical negation of "weightier" was "not weightier". It was not necessarily "lighter".

"Weightier" is the comparative form of the adjective "weighty." It is a comparative adjective. I would negate the comparative part of the word. I wouldn't be so quick to change the adjective to "light" which was not in the text.

To conclude that tithing was a lighter commandment would be overgeneralizations of 1 and 2. Furthermore, the point of Jesus was hypocrisy, not necessarily categorizing commandments:

These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Both tithing and justice were important or weighty, but justice > tithing, i.e., justice carried more weight than tithing.

24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

That was Jesus' point. They focused too much on the less weighty commandment of tithing when they should have paid more attention to the more weighty commandments concerning justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It was a matter of priority in what to focus on.

Was tithing a lighter commandment?

I wouldn't put it that way. According to Jesus' wording, tithing was a less weighty commandment.

 

[Reluctant Theologian]

Mt 23:


That's the context; it was about hypocrisy.


You tithe these little things.


Was tithing a lighter commandment?

Using precision in my interpretation, I don't think Jesus implied that.

1. Jesus referred not to general tithing but to a specific act of Pharisees' tithing mint, dill, and cumin.
2. The logical negation of "weightier" was "not weightier". It was not necessarily "lighter".

"Weightier" is the comparative form of the adjective "weighty." It is a comparative adjective. I would negate the comparative part of the word. I wouldn't be so quick to change the adjective to "light" which was not in the text.

To conclude that tithing was a lighter commandment would be overgeneralizations of 1 and 2. Furthermore, the point of Jesus was hypocrisy, not necessarily categorizing commandments:


Both tithing and justice were important or weighty, but justice > tithing, i.e., justice carried more weight than tithing.


That was Jesus' point. They focused too much on the less weighty commandment of tithing when they should have paid more attention to the more weighty commandments concerning justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It was a matter of priority in what to focus on.

Was tithing a lighter commandment?

I wouldn't put it that way. According to Jesus' wording, tithing was a less weighty commandment.

I think Yeshua doesn't necessarily imply tithing as a concept was unimportant, but tithing mint and dill and cumin certainly was less important than justice and mercy and faithfulness. The concept of 'heavy' is equated with 'important' in the Greek here.

Btw in Hebrew the word for heavy is kavod (כָּבוֹד) - but it also means 'significant', 'glory' and 'honour'.

E.g. when saying 'Honour your Father and Mother .... ' it can also be read as 'make them heavy (= feed them properly in their old age)' Nice isn't it?

Be blessed brother !

 

[Hoping2]

Mt 23:


That's the context; it was about hypocrisy.


You tithe these little things.


Was tithing a lighter commandment?

Using precision in my interpretation, I don't think Jesus implied that.

1. Jesus referred not to general tithing but to a specific act of Pharisees' tithing mint, dill, and cumin.
2. The logical negation of "weightier" was "not weightier". It was not necessarily "lighter".

"Weightier" is the comparative form of the adjective "weighty." It is a comparative adjective. I would negate the comparative part of the word. I wouldn't be so quick to change the adjective to "light" which was not in the text.

To conclude that tithing was a lighter commandment would be overgeneralizations of 1 and 2. Furthermore, the point of Jesus was hypocrisy, not necessarily categorizing commandments:


Both tithing and justice were important or weighty, but justice > tithing, i.e., justice carried more weight than tithing.


That was Jesus' point. They focused too much on the less weighty commandment of tithing when they should have paid more attention to the more weighty commandments concerning justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It was a matter of priority in what to focus on.

Was tithing a lighter commandment?

I wouldn't put it that way. According to Jesus' wording, tithing was a less weighty commandment.

Aren't you glad we are now dead to the Law ?

 

[RDKirk]

I think, but I'm not sure, that you're not getting Jesus' meaning correct.

The Pharisees were tithing by the letter of the law in the most precise and complete way possible even down to the smallest items tithing required (kind of like imagining Noah being sure he had both a male and a female mosquito). If the Pharisees were tithing precisely down to the herbs grown in window boxes, they were certainly correctly tithing their cattle and main crops.

But they were missing the point: God's tithe law as all about justice...actually it was about social justice.

Remember that God did not invent the tithe. Before the Mosaic Law, tithing was already being practiced under the laws of men. The Code of Hammurabi, for instance, dictated tithing. But this was always true about man's tithing laws: Man's tithes always flowed from the poor upward to the wealthy. For instance, under the Code of Hammurabi, the sharecropper tithed to the land owner. That's also the basis of Abram's tithe to Melchizedek: A tithe of the gain from the land went to the lord of the land. Man's tithe flowed upward.

God's turned that around. Who got the results of God's tithe? Notice that it wasn't a sacrifice...it was not burned on the altar. It went back to the people in giant national pot luck in which the wealthy contributed much and the poor contributed little or nothing. Or it went to the Levites who had no land of their own. God's tithe flowed downward.

What the Pharisees were not comprehending was the meaning of God's tithe, so that they performed the letter of the Law to the most minute degree...while otherwise still ignoring the poor and destitute. If they had truly understood what God's tithe was all about, they would be working to meet the needs of the poor all year 'round.

No, wait. Considering Jesus' intense rage--He literally cursed them--I think Jesus knew the Pharisees very well understood the justice, mercy, and faithfulness that God required and intentionally ignored Him....but made a grandiose show of piety to impress the people.

When the Lord of all Creation says, "Woe unto you!" the forces of woe stand up to obey.