Modern taxes are a recent development, but the practice of taxation is an ancient one. The comment, "There is nothing more sure than death and taxes" has won sympathetic agreement down through the ages.

Now, certainly, any thinking person will agree that taxes are a necessity of governmental life, but we seldom approve of the methods for collecting such taxes. We are always sure that there just has to be a better way! And this has been the attitude throughout recorded history. Away back at the time of the division of the kingdom, Adoniram, a tax collector for King Rehoboam, was stoned to death for his activities!

We have mention throughout all of the Bible of the taxes imposed on the people, either by God or by conquering nations, but the title of "tax collector" seems to be a strictly New Testament term. The problem goes back to the Ptolemaic rule over Palestine, after the death of Alexander the Great. Under Ptolemy, the taxation of each city was leased to the highest bidder and that sum was then to be paid to the royal Treasury. If his collection fell below the required sum, the tax collector had to make up the difference. Any amount that he collected above this required sum he was allowed to keep. Although the tax collectors generally had a better than average education, since they had to know how to read, write, and figure sums, they also had to be men who were not above using cunning or violence to collect the taxes.

Many persons tried to cheat them, and used many ingenious ways of doing so, so the tax collector had to be just a little bit smarter, to keep ahead of them. And, if cunning didn’t work, a show of violence could be counted on to do the trick. One tax collector beheaded twenty persons when they refused to pay their taxes, and then confiscated their possessions!

In New Testament times, Roman officials were directly responsible for the collection of regular taxes, such as poll and land taxes. There were many other taxes, however, which were farmed out to private contractors for a period of five years. Usually, these contractors were Romans, but, occasionally, they were Jews.

Tax collectors as a class have never enjoyed a great popularity, but those who operated in early New Testament times were particularly despised. You see, even though the Jews had a long history of domination by others, and, at some periods, had even accepted this domination and had risen to eminence within a captive state, this was never the feeling that they had toward the Romans. It’s true that many Jews recognized the many benefits that they derived from the Roman system, but still their captors were harsh, cruel people, and were held in hatred and fear. So, any Jew who had sold out to the Romans was doubly hated, as an apostate and a traitor, taking away from his own people to give to the hated Romans! The rabbis regarded tax collectors as the same as robbers and refused to allow them to be judges or even to give witness.

We know, of course, that Matthew was a tax collector, and that Jesus often dined at the homes of these men, a fact which the Pharisees played up to full advantage. Zacchaeus was a tax collector who saw the error of his ways and offered to restore by fourfold his deceitful gains and to donate half of his capital to charity!

Although we often grumble about the taxes we have to pay, especially in April of every year, I’m sure we are all aware of the necessity of the taxation procedure to keep the wheels of our governments running smoothly. Today’s tax men, who work for the Internal Revenue Service, are educated, trained men, who are not to be anathematized, even when we might be disgruntled. Rather, they are an important part of our economic picture, and as such we owe them thanks for keeping our country in a state of relative solvency.