CUSTOM (1)

kus'-tum (tax):

(a) halakh, Ezra 4:13, 10; Ezra 7:24 the King James Version;

(b) belo, Ezra 4:13, etc.;

(c) telonion, Matthew 9:9 Mark 2:14 Luke 5:27, "receipt of custom" the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "place of toll," the collectors' office;

(d) telos, Matthew 17:25 (the Revised Version (British and American) "toll"); Romans 13:7; 1 Maccabees 11:35 (the Revised Version (British and American) "tolls"; compare 1 Maccabees 10:31).

The tax designated by halakh in Ezra 4:13, etc., is usually taken to mean a road tax, a toll, from root halakh, but compare Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, II, 463, which derives from root ilku, a command, a decree, hence, an imposed tax. Belo from root yabhal is supposed to be a tax on merchandise or produce (as distinguished from "tribute" or the tax on houses, lands and persons), usually paid in kind and levied for the support of the native or provincial government. See Ryle, Cambridge Bible, Ezra-Nehemiah, in the place cited Telos in New Testament and Maccabees is an indirect tax farmed out to the publicans.

Walter R. Betteridge

CUSTOM (2)

kus'-tum (usage): In the Old Testament, except, Genesis 31:35 where the Revised Version (British and American) renders, better, "manner" (derekh, "way"), the words translated "custom" are choq, chuqqah, "statute," and mishpaT, "judgment." Such passages as Judges 11:39 Jeremiah 32:11, and especially Ezra 3:4 (the King James Version "custom," the Revised Version (British and American) "ordinance"), illustrate the difficulty of deciding upon the proper translation, in cases where "custom" might become "statute," "usage" establish itself as "law." In Leviticus 18:30 Jeremiah 10:3 the reference is to heathen religious practices.

In the New Testament Luke 1:9; Luke 2:42 Acts 6:14; Acts 15:1 (the King James Version "manner"); Luke 16:21; Luke 21:21 (ethos), and Luke 2:27 from the same Greek root, refer likewise to definitely established religious practices; in every case except Acts 16:21, those of the Jewish law. The Revised Version (British and American) makes the translation of ethos uniform, reading "custom" in Luke 22:39 (the King James Version "wont") and in John 19:40 Acts 25:16 Hebrews 10:25 (the King James Version "manner"). Greek eiothos, from the same root, is rendered "custom" in Luke 4:16 by English Versions of the Bible, and by the Revised Version (British and American) also in Acts 17:2, its only other occurrence in the New Testament. In John 18:39 1 Corinthians 11:16 "custom" is the translation of Greek sunetheia, in the sense of "usage" rather than of "law."

F. K. Farr

RECEIPT OF CUSTOM

re-set.

See CUSTOM.