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Deuteronomy 26 describes a tithe in the third year to support marginalized people, but the Greek Septuagint translator may have misunderstood two Hebrew words, resulting in a translation influenced by the later idea of a “second tithe.”
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 26:12
Hebrew Bible
11 You will celebrate all the good things that the Lord your God has given you and your family, along with the Levites and the resident foreigners among you. 12 When you finish tithing all your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages. 13 Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten your commandments.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Deuteronomy 26:12
Septuagint
11 and you shall rejoice in all the good things, which the Lord your God has given you, you and your family, and the Levite, and the stranger that is within you. 12 And when you shall have completed all the tithings of your fruits in the third year, you shall give the second tenth to the Levite, and stranger, and fatherless, and widow; and they shall eat it in your cities, and be filled. 13 And you shall say before the Lord your God, I have fully collected the holy things out of my house, and I have given them to the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, according to all commands which you commanded me: I did not transgress your command, and I did not forget it.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The rendering of the LXX is based on a wrong grammatical combination of two words, שֵׁנִת המעשר, yet the retroversion itself is well-founded. The translator must have known the concept of a “second tithe”, known from rabbinic literature referring to the tithe of Deuteronomy, while this term is not used in Scripture. However, the ungrammatical retroversion is probably based on the combination of two words that were understood wrongly ..."
Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, 3rd ed. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 85.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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