Ancient practices: first fruits, tithing, divine treasures, iron use

 

 

For Shabbat , September 5, 2020

Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26-29:8)

By Irv Jacobs, M.D. 

Irv Jacobs

LA JOLLA, California — From this parasha, I have chosen four passages concerning first fruits, tithing, divine treasures, and iron use for comparison, from the internet, with ancient Israel’s neighbors.

I. Deuteronomy 26:1-3 “…enter the land…take some of every first fruit of the soil…to the place…your God will choose…to the priest…”

The ancient Canaanite calendar had a festival, “the Feast of the First Fruits of Wine.” It forms the second of three festivals in a 150 day cycle, this one devoted to the presentation of agricultural first fruits. The earlier first festival in this period, was the “Feast of the First Fruits of Grain.” The third and last festival in the cycle was the “Feast of the First Fruits of Oil.” These festivals were 50 days apart. [1]

Believe it or not, there are ‘Heathen celebrations’ carried out today! Lammas, a group in England, celebrates a wheat harvest.

Freyfaxi, the holiday of the first fruits by the Asatru in Iceland, is named after a horse, from a tragic tale unrelated to the harvest!

Haustblot and Alfablot are local festivals, variable as to season and places. They involve spirits and celebrate harvests, opposing inhospitable agents. {2]

II. Deuteronomy 26:12-13 “…set aside…the tenth part of your yield…the tithe…given to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, just as You commanded…”

Multiple pagan nations had tithing, which generally amounted to 10% or even up to 1/6 of a givers’ income of goods, to the gods. This included spoils of war.

Egypt’s tithing goes back to 2500 BCE. Inscriptions describe gifts from the Pharoahs themselves. These essentially went to the temples. Particularly during building activity, gifts included slaves, cattle, precious metals, even lands.

Babylonian nations also tithed, generally 10%. Nebuchadnezzar adorned temples with war spoils. Numerous cuneiform tables document others’ grants, specifying in shekels of gold and silver. Also two or more individuals could unite in tithing.

Akkadian and Assyrian tablets from before 2200 BCE and after confirm tithes. Documents from ancient Chaldea confirm more of the same.

Of interest is that Cyrus of Persia felt obligated to pay tithes, even to the gods of conquered nations!

Phoenicians/Canaanites who settled on the east Mediterranean coast gave tithes, and extended the same practice to their colony of Carthage (900 BCE), today in Tunisia, North Africa.

As for the later civilizations of Greece and Rome, Greek tithing goes back to its legendary times, c. 1300 BCE, or 60 years before the Trojan War. [3]

III. Deuteronomy 26:18-19 “…you are…his treasured people…He will set you, in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations…”

Ugarit, a small coastal empire, became a reliable vassal to the Hittite king following its alliance with the Hittite king in the Battle of Kadesh (vs.Egypt 1274 BCE). Kadesh is near today’s Lebanon-Syrian border on the Mediterranean coast. [4]

The Hittite king called the king of Ugarit, among other things, ‘his treasure. In another document, in a Syrian royal seal, the king is described as the treasure of a god.’ [5]

IV. Deuteronomy 27:5-6 “…you shall build an altar to the Lord…of stones. Do not wield an iron tool…the altar…of unhewn stones..”

To this day, this passage has uncertain intent. The Mishnah explains that ‘iron was created (via its use in weapons) to shorten man’s days, while the altar was created to lengthen man’s days,’ i.e. a conflict of values. Some modern scholars note that some ancient religions prohibited use of iron materials in religious ceremonies, i.e. in belief that this innovation evoked displeasure of the gods.

Note that by the time of Deuteronomy, iron was widely used for cutting tools, e.g. chisels, plows, sickles. [6]

I could find no objection to iron among pagan cultures at the advent of the Iron Age, c. 1200 BCE. Iron in fact had uses in limited amounts as early as 2500 BCE. The iron used then came mainly from meteorites, which also contained nickel, and had a lustrous look. That made it attractive in jewelry, and in fact iron was considered a precious metal during the Bronze Age. It was inferior in tools to bronze, which had better durability and strength.

Around 1200 BCE, it was discovered that heating iron with carbon created steel. Iron soon supplanted bronze in tools, plows, chariots, and weapons of war.

This period coincided with a general collapse of major civilizations all around the Eastern Mediterranean. The cause remains unclear to this day, the speculation being a succession of severe droughts over a 150-year period from 1250-1100 BCE. There were also earthquakes, famine, sociopolitical unrest, and invasions by nomadic tribes.

Some experts believe that a disruption of trade routes may have caused shortages of the copper and tin used to make bronze. This in turn induced metalsmiths to experiment with iron. [7]
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NOTES
[1] https://jstor.org/stable/1518725?read-now=18seq=1#metadata _ info_lab_contents
[2] whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/4094/heathen-celebrations-late-summer-early
[3] Tithe-Giving Amongst Ancient Pagan Nations, Reverend Henry Landell, DD, Dec. 6, 1897
[4] Encyclopedia. com/Encyclopedia Judaica Rainey, Anson
[5] The JPS Torah Commentary, Deuteronomy, Jeffrey H. Tigay, Jewish Publication Society, 1996, p. 87
[6] ibid. p. 249
[7] https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/iron-age

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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.