Divinity Atlas
Tithing Differentiates Two of Its Three Religions, and the Third Is the More Striking Gap
Tithing is formally linked to three religions in this atlas: Judaism, Christianity and the Latter Day Saint Movement, all three links carrying no further comment at the religion level. Its own description differentiates the first two directly and says nothing at all about the third, which is the more striking gap of the pair.
Rooted in One Testament, Carried Forward in the Other
The practice is "rooted in the Hebrew Bible, where a tithe of crops and herds was given to the Levites, the temple, and the needy," and "Christianity carried the practice forward as a guide for proportional giving to the church and to charitable works, and many congregations still teach the tithe as a standard of stewardship." Two religions, two different but related accounts of the same tenth.
The Tradition Most Identified With the Tithe Has No Sentence of Its Own
Among the three religions this page actually counts, the Latter Day Saint Movement is widely known outside the atlas for treating a full and literal tenth as a condition of admission to its temples, arguably the single most publicly identified tithing practice of any tradition in the English speaking world. Its own description never names it, and its own link carries no note at all, unlike the denomination level detail attached elsewhere on this same page to specific Jewish and Baptist bodies. What the atlas states plainly about two of its three religions, it states not at all about the third, and this essay reports that gap rather than filling it with what is commonly known outside its own text.
Where To Read More
- TithingCharitable PracticesTwo religions differentiated directly; the third, most publicly identified with the practice, carries no elaboration anywhere in its own text
- JudaismAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Rooted in the Hebrew Bible, a tenth given to the Levites, the temple and the needy
- ChristianityAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Carried forward as a guide for proportional giving and church stewardship
- Latter Day Saint MovementAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Named in this essay's own honest gap, no elaboration anywhere in its own text despite the practice's public association with this movement