Christian Origins: Tithing and Story Telling
September 4, 2026
by William P. Meyers

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How the Christian sects were built

To tithe is to give 10%, or one-tenth, of what you earn or own as a donation or tax.

Christians of most denominations are familiar with tithing. In modern times the idea is to give 10% of your income. It is not clear if that is income after taxes (take home income) or income before taxes.

It is not entirely clear when tithing began within the various early Christian groups (later sects). The gospels don't mention Jesus demanding tithes, in fact they have him giving food away as part of his miracle work. By the time the gospels were written in their modern form, say 150 A.D., we can guess tithing had become customary. But in Acts of the Apostles there is an indicator that in the earliest church groups tithing was insufficient. To join the group everything one had was donated. We see this when the apostles or disciples murdered Ananias and Sapphira for failing to turn over all their property.

Here I will treat tithing as a given, and the main reason for the growth of Christianity. The other contender for the main reason for growth is story telling. The combination of motivation, monetary, to tell stories that would encourage people to join the group, and tithe, kept the early Christians in growth mode until other religious groups were outlawed by the Roman Empire.

If a man (or a woman; there is considerable evidence that there were female leaders of the sects until at least about 200 A.D.) can gather ten people (or households) into his flock, he can have what passes for a livable income in that setting. With 20 households each donating a tenth of their income, the sect leader can have twice the average income. With a sufficiently large congregation, perhaps even approaching a modern megachurch, a priest, presbyter or bishop might live quite well, have servants to help to attend the flock, and even give charity back without endangering his own lifestyle.

How to achieve that? The carrots and sticks available in the early church were mainly verbal. There is now considerable debate now among scholars of the Bible and Christian history about the origins of the Church. Many still take the gospels as gospels, actual histories, but at the other end of the range there is a consensus that Jesus was an apparition, a revelation, rather than a flesh and blood man. We can't be sure, and I only spend so much time on the issue, but a fair guess is that Jesus was a Jewish story teller. His stories attracted disciples. When he died (or perhaps even before) his leading disciples continued telling his stories and embellishing them. Many of the stories were of older origin, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, or Canaanite. The ideas of heaven and hell, of God or gods mating with people to produce godlike children, were in no way new. But the early Christian leaders were better than the priests of older sects at promoting themselves and the blessings of believing in Jesus and spending your money on tithes instead of beer or wine.

So the tales of Jesus grew over time. Did he really give the sermon on the mount? Perhaps, since it echoes earlier poetic wisdom, biblical and otherwise. Did he argue with Jewish priests? Did he promise heaven, or an era of righteousness on earth? Did he heal the sick? Raise the dead? Ascend bodily into heaven.

Until Constantine the Bloody (or the Great, or Saint Constantine) came along the number of priests, believers in Jesus, and sects with varying stories about Jesus grew. Then all was consolidated into the standard Scriptures we know (in translation) today. By putting the Gospels first (and selecting only four of the many then available), the scriptures seemed like a history. Then the realistic sounding Acts of the Apostles, mainly of Paul. Then Paul's letters. Letters from James and Peter next, then final letters written by John and Jude. Finally the Revelation of Saint John, which seems to cap it all off, but which most critical scholars now think was written first. These scholars think you can tell how old a document is, in part, by how much it relies on Old Testament (Jewish) stories and how little the facts of the life of Jesus are mentioned. Those facts were made up long after he was dead, or at least risen into heaven, promising to return, but not returning so far.

Tithing appears only as an afterthought is Scripture, but in fact I believe it was the driving force. Surely to have a kingdom on earth, you must have taxes? Even the early apostolic letters indicate there were beggars posing as priests who moved around from church to church, sponging off the locals, because they did not have a flock of their own to con out of hard earned wages or wealth.

Call me a Cynic. I don't mind.