Exodus 30:11-16 - Ceremonial or Civil?

This page is part of a series on the so-called "head tax" in Exodus 30:11-16.

On one side of the debate is R.J. Rushdoony, who said that the passage was the only Biblical tax that could be levied by "the State."
On the other side of the debate is Gary North, who, following James B. Jordan, says the passage is part of the "ceremonial law."
Robert Fugate has recently entered the debate, with a series of articles published by Chalcedon.
We take sides with North and Jordan, who do not take sides with us on much of anything.

Here's how James Jordan sets out the passage:

11. The LORD also spoke to Moses, saying,
12. When you take a census [literally, sum] of the sons if Israel to number them [lit., for their being mustered], then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself [lit., his soul or life] to the LORD, when you number [muster] them, that there may be no plague among them when you number [muster] them.
13. This is what everyone who is numbered [who passes over to the group which is mustered] shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty geras), half a shekel as a contribution [heave offering] to the LORD.
14. Everyone who is numbered [who passes over to the group which is mustered], from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution [heave offering] to the LORD;
15. The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall not pay less than half shekel, when you give the contribution [heave offering] to the LORD to make atonement for yourselves [your souls or lives].
16. And you shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel, and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves [your souls or lives].

The Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) has
Shemot 30:15
The oisher (rich man) shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give a terumah (offering) unto Hashem (יהוה), to make kapporah (atonement) for your nefashot (souls).

I added the links to an online lexicon so the reader can see how those Hebrew words are used elsewhere in Scripture. At first glance, this surely appears to be a part of "the ceremonial law."

There is no longer a literal "tabernacle of meeting" (v.16) to fund.

The concept of "mustering" relates to the issue of "Holy War." That issue is discussed here. We won't really be discussing that issue. We'll pretty much limit the issue to funding the tabernacle/temple. Both sides agree that this is the core issue. Here's how I phrase it:

Exodus 30 commands those being mustered into holy war to make an offering for their atonement (failure brings a plague), and directs that offering to be used to maintain the tabernacle/temple. Was this passage intended to give Barack Obama revenue-raising authority for the State?

Let's look at the passage in a little more detail. Just read all the verses, and then ask if Exodus 30, in its Old Covenant context, is "ceremonial" (and not a part of contemporary statecraft) or "civil" (and a legitimate source of revenue that the State can draw upon).

¹¹The Lord said to Moses, ¹²“When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the LORD when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them.

Ransom

Numbers 35:31
Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.

Numbers 35:32
And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.

Numbers 35:33
So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

Plague

If the State fails to collect the Exodus 30 "offering" for "atonement," will there be a plague?

Exodus 12:13
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

Exodus 30:12
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.

Numbers 8:19
And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an atonement for the children of Israel: that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary.

Numbers 16:46
And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.

Numbers 16:47
And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people

Joshua 22:17
Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the LORD,

Isaiah 8:14
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹³Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the LORD.

¹⁴Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD's offering.

Mustering

We're skipping this issue for now

offering, or "heave offering"

Should this "heave offering" be required by today's civil magistrate?

Strong's #8641 - תְּרֻמָה - allotment, contribution, contributions, heave offering, - Old Testament Hebrew - Bible Lexicons - StudyLight.org

Sample:

Numbers 5:9
And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.

Numbers 6:20

And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD: this is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder: and after that the Nazarite may drink wine.

Numbers 15:19
Then it shall be, that, when ye eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up an heave offering unto the LORD.

Numbers 15:20
Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering: as ye do the heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it.

Numbers 15:21
Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the LORD an heave offering in your generations.

Numbers 18:8
And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever.

Numbers 18:11
And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

Numbers 18:19
All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute forever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

Numbers 18:24
But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit :therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

Numbers 18:26
Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.

Numbers 18:27
And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.

Numbers 18:28
Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD'S heave offering to Aaron the priest.

Numbers 18:29
Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.

Numbers 31:29
Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for an heave offering of the LORD.

Numbers 31:41
And Moses gave the tribute, which was the LORD'S heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Numbers 31:52
And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the LORD, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.

¹⁵The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the LORD's offering to make atonement for your souls.

Fugate claims:

The scholarly Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament understands the Hebrew word translated "atonement" in Exodus 30:15f. (kaphar) to denote a "registration fee"¹⁶-- not priestly atonement.

Footnote 16 is fatal to Fugate's interpretation. See here.

Atonement

Strong's #3722 - כָּפַר - appease, atone, atoned, atonement is made, atonement - Old Testament Hebrew - Bible Lexicons - StudyLight.org

Occurrences of this word too numerous to mention

Exodus 29:33
And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.

Exodus 29:36
And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it.

Exodus 29:37
Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

Exodus 30:10
And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.

Exodus 30:15
The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.

Exodus 30:16
And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.

Exodus 32:30
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

¹⁶You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting,

Does the "tent of meeting" still need to be serviced in our day?

Strong's #3725 - כִּפֻּרִים - atonement - Old Testament Hebrew - Bible Lexicons - StudyLight.org

Leviticus 23:27
Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Leviticus 23:28
And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.

Leviticus 25:9
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

Numbers 5:8
But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.

Numbers 29:11
One kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and the meat offering of it, and their drink offerings.

that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the LORD, so as to make atonement for your souls.”

Occurrences of this word too numerous to mention
Strong's #3722 - כָּפַר - appease, atone, atoned, atonement is made, atonement - Old Testament Hebrew - Bible Lexicons - StudyLight.org

If you would like to jump in and follow this debate, click here.