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Bible Dictionaries
Tribute
Morrish Bible Dictionary
or Various Hebrew words are thus represented, but the signification in general is that which one nation or people paid to another, either in money or kind (2 Kings 3:4 ), in order to be left in peaceable possession. Some of the Canaanites were not driven out of the land, but they paid tribute to the Israelites, and Solomon put others under tribute. Joshua 17:13; 2 Chronicles 8:7,8 . Afterwards, because of their sin, Israel had to pay tribute to Assyria, Egypt, etc., and in the N.T. the Jews paid tribute to the Romans in the shape of taxes. Luke 20:22 . These were farmed, which led to abuses: cf. Luke 3:12,13 .
The word 'tribute' is used in the A.V. in another signification, as when the Jews asked Peter if his teacher paid 'tribute.' Here the word is διδραχμον (double drachma), and signifies the sum each Jew paid to the temple. It was about 15d. The fish Peter caught had in its mouth a stater of the value of about 2s. 6d., which paid for the Lord and for Peter. Matthew 17:24-27 . The Lord refers to what the kings of the earth did in ordinary tribute, in order to show that Himself and Peter as sons of the King of the temple could have claimed exemption, though they did not. Cf. Matthew 21:13 . The institution of this yearly payment apparently began in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It is introduced with the words, "We made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God." Nehemiah 10:32 . It was so far a voluntary arrangement.
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Morrish, George. Entry for 'Tribute'. Morrish Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/mbd/t/tribute.html. 1897.
