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Smith's Bible Dictionary
The Publican
The class designated by this word in the New Testament were employed as
collectors of the Roman revenue. The Roman senate farmed the vectigalia (direct
taxes) and the portorin (customs) to capitalists who undertook to pay a given sum
into the treasury (in publicum ), and so received the name of publicani .
Contracts of this kind fell naturally into the hands of the equites , as the richest
class of Romans. They appointed managers, under whom were the portitores , the
actual custom-house officers, who examined each bale of goods, exported or
imported, assessed its value more or less arbitrarily, wrote out the ticket, and
enforced payment. The latter were commonly natives of the province in which they
were stationed as being brought daily into contact with all classes of the
population. The name pubicani was used popularly, and in the New Testament
exclusively, of the portitores . The system was essentially a vicious one. The
portitores were encouraged in the most vexatious or fraudulent exactions and a remedy
was all but impossible. They overcharged whenever they had an opportunity, (Luke
3:13) they brought false charges of smuggling in the hope of extorting
hush-money (Luke 19:8) they detained and opened letters on mere suspicion. It was the
basest of all livelihoods. All this was enough to bring the class into ill favor
everywhere. In Judea and Galilee there were special circumstances of
aggravation. The employment brought out all the besetting vices of the Jewish character.
The strong feeling of many Jews as to the absolute unlawfulness of paying
tribute at all made matters worse. The scribes who discussed the question, (Matthew
22:15) for the most part answered it in the negative. In addition to their
other faults, accordingly, the publicans of the New Testament were regarded as
traitors and apostates, defiled by their frequent intercourse with the heathen,
willing tools of the oppressor. The class thus practically excommunicated
furnished some of the earliest disciples both of the Baptist and of our Lord. The
position of Zacchaeus as a "chief among the publicans," (Luke 19:2) implies a
gradation of some kind among the persons thus employed.
Taxes
I. Under the judges, according to the theocratic government contemplated by
the law, the only payments incumbent upon the people as of permanent obligation
were the Tithes, the Firstfruits, the Redemption-money of the first-born, and
other offerings as belonging to special occasions. The payment by each Israelite
of the half-shekel as "atonement-money," for the service of the tabernacle, on
taking the census of the people, (Exodus 30:13) does not appear to have had the
character of a recurring tax, but to have been supplementary to the freewill
offerings of (Exodus 25:1-7) levied for the one purpose of the construction of
the sacred tent. In later times, indeed, after the return from Babylon, there
was an annual payment for maintaining the fabric and services of the temple; but
the fact that this begins by of a shekel, (Nehemiah 10:32) shows that till then
there was no such payment recognized as necessary. A little later the third
became a half, and under the name of the didrachma , (Matthew 17:24) was paid by
every Jew, in whatever part of the world he might be living. II. The kingdom,
with centralized government and greater magnificence, involved of course, a
larger expenditure, and therefore a heavier taxation, The chief burdens appear to
have been-- (1) A tithe of the produce both of the soil and of live stock. (1
Samuel 8:15,17) (2) Forced military service for a month every year. (1 Samuel
8:12; 1 Kings 9:22; 1 Chronicles 27:1) (3) Gifts to the king. (1 Samuel 10:27;
16:20; 17:18) (4) Import duties. (1 Kings 10:15) (5) The monopoly of
certain-branches of commerce. (1 Kings 9:28; 22:48; 10:28,29) (6) The appropriation to the
king’s use of the early crop of hay. (Amos 7:1) At times, too, in the history of
both the kingdoms there were special burdens. A tribute of fifty shekels a head
had to be paid by Menahem to the Assyrian king, (2 Kings 16:20) and under his
successor Hoshea this assumed the form of an annual tribute. (2 Kings 17:4) III.
Under the Persian empire the taxes paid by the Jews were, in their broad
outlines, the same in kind as those of other subject races. The financial system
which gained for Darius Hystaspes the name of the "shopkeeper king" involved the
payment by each satrap of a fixed sum as the tribute due from his province. In
Judea, as in other provinces, the inhabitants had to provide in kind for the
maintenance of the governor’s household, besides a money payment of forty shekels a day. (Nehemiah
5:14,15) In Ezra 4:13,20; 7:24 We get a formal enumeration of the three great branches
of the revenue. The influence of Ezra secured for the whole ecclesiastical
order, from the priests down to the Nethinim, an immunity from all three (Ezra
7:24) but the burden pressed heavily on the great body of the people. IV. Under
the Egyptian and Syrian kings the taxes paid by the Jews became yet heavier. The
"farming" system of finance was adopted in its worst form. The taxes were put
up to auction. The contract sum for those of Phoenicia, Judea and Samaria had
been estimated at about 8000 talents. An unscrupulous adventurer would bid double
that sum, and would then go down to the province, and by violence and cruelty,
like that of Turkish or Hindoo collectors, squeeze out a large margin of
profit for himself. V. The pressure of Roman taxation, if not absolutely heavier,
was probably more galling, as being more thorough and systematic, more
distinctively a mark of bondage. The capture of Jerusalem by Pompey was followed
immediately by the imposition of a tribute, and within a short time the sum thus taken
from the resources of the country amounted to 10,000 talents. When Judea became
formally a Roman province, the whole financial system of the empire came as a
natural consequence. The taxes were systematically farmed, and the publicans
appeared as a new curse to the country. The portoria were levied at harbors,
piers and the gates of cities. (Matthew 17:24; Romans 13:7) In addition to this
there was the poll-tax paid by every Jew, and looked upon, for that reason, as the
special badge of servitude. United with this, as part of the same system,
there was also, in all probability, a property tax of some kind. In addition to
these general taxes, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were subject to a special house
duty about this period.
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Bibliography Information
Smith, William, Dr. "Entry for 'Publican and Taxes'". "Smith's Bible
Dictionary", 1901.