TRIBUTE, Tributum; in Greek, Phoros; in Hebrew, Mas;1 which is derived from the Verb Masas, to melt, or liquify. The Hebrews acknowledged none for Sovereign over them, but God alone: Whence Josephus2 calls their Government a Theocracy, or Divine Government. They acknowledged the Sovereign Dominion of God by a Tribute, or Capitation, of half a Exod. xxx. 13.Shekel a Head, which every Israelite paid him yearly. Our Saviour, in the Gospel thus reasons with St. Peter: What thinkest thou, Matth. xvii. 25.Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Meaning, that as he was the Son of God, he ought to be exempt from this Capitation. I do not find that either the Kings or the Judges of the Hebrews, when they were of that Nation, demanded any Tribute of them.
Solomon, at the Beginning of his Reign,3 compelled the Canaanites, who were left in the Country, to pay him Tribute, and to perform the Drudgery of the Publick Works he had undertaken. And as to the Children of Israel, he would not suffer one of them to be employed therein, but made them his Soldiers, his Ministers, his chief Officers, to command his Armies, his Chariots, and his Horsemen. Yet however, towards the End of his Reign, he imposed a Tribute upon them, and made them work at the Publick Buildings;4 which much alienated their Minds from him, and sowed the Seeds of that Discontent which afterwards appeared in an open Revolt, by the Rebellion of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat. He was at first indeed obliged to take shelter in Egypt; but afterwards the Defection became general, by the total Revolt of the ten Tribes. Hence it was, that the Israelites said to Reboboam the Son of Solomon; Thy father made our yoke grievous; now therefore, make 1 Kings xii. 4.thou the grievous service of thy father, and the heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.
‘Tis needless to observe, that the Israelites were frequently subdued by foreign Princes, who laid great Taxes and Tribute upon them; to which, Fear and Necessity compelled them to submit. Yet in the latter Times, that is, after Archilaus had been banished to Vienne in France, in the 6th Year of the Vulgar Æra, and after Judæa was reduced to a Province, Augustus sent Quirinius into this Country, to Josephi Antiq. l. 17. c. 15.take a new Poll of the People, and to make a new Estimate of their Substance, that he might thereby regulate the Tribute that every one was to pay to the Romans. Then Judas, surnamed the Galilean, or the Gaulonite, because he was a Native of Gamala in Galilee, in the Canton of Gaulonitis, formed a Sedition, and made an Insurrection, to oppose the levying of this Tribute. His Pretence was, that it was not lawful to pay any Tribute to Foreigners; that it was the Badge of a real Servitude, and that it was not allowed them to own any for their Masters, who had not the Lord for their God. This was the Origin of the Sect of the Galileans, or of the Herodians, of whom we have spoke under the Article JUDAS the Galilean, and that of the HERODIANS.
See in St. Matthew xxii. 16, 17, 18, &c. the Answer that Jesus Christ returned to the Pharisees, who came with an insidious Design of tempting him, and asked him, Whether or no it was lawful to pay Tribute to Cæsar? And in St. John, viii. 33. where the Jews boast of having never been Slaves to any body, Nemini servivimus unquam, of being a free Nation, that acknowledges God only for Master and Sovereign. As at that time there were many Jews who had imbibed the same Principles as Judas the Gaulonite, and who infused into the People the same Notions of Independence, and a vain Shew of Liberty; so on the contrary, the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, in their Epistles, have always endeavour’d to recommend and inculcate to the faithful Christians, Submission and Obedience to Princes, and a conscientious Discharge of their Duty, in paying them their Tributes. See Rom. xiii. 1.---- 8. 1 Pet. ii. 13.
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