Custom
CUSTOM
A very comprehensive term, denoting the manners, ceremonies, and fashions of a people, which having turned into habit, and passed into use, obtain the force of laws. Custom and habit are often confounded. By custom, we mean a frequent reiteration of the same act; and by habit, the effect that custom has on the mind or the body.
See HABIT. “Viewing man, ” says Lord Kames, “as a sensitive being, and perceiving the influence of novelty upon him, would one suspect that custom has an equal influence? and yet our nature is equally susceptible of both; not only in different objects, but frequently in the same. When an object is new, it is enchanting; familiarity renders it indifferent; and custom, after a longer familiarity, makes it again desirable. Human nature, diversified with many and various springs of action, is wonderful, and indulging the expression, intricately constructed. Custom hath such influence upon many of our feelings, by warping and varying them, that we must attend to its operations, if we would be acquainted with human nature. A walk upon the quarter-deck, though intolerably confined, becomes, however, so agreeable by custom, that a sailor, in his walk on shore, confines himself commonly within the same bounds. I knew a man who had relinquished the sea for a country life: in the corner of his garden he reared an artificial mount, with a level summit, resembling, most accurately, a quarter-deck, not only in shape, but in size; and here was his choice walk.” Such we find is often the power of custom.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
custom
In ecclesiastical legislation, is an unwritten law introduced by the long-continued practise of the people with some consent of the competent ecclesiastical legislator. This consent is usually tacit. Custom may be in conformity with the law, when it is said to be the best interpreter of the law (canon 29) or contrary to the law, which it abrogates; or besides and beyond the law, in which case it introduces a new law. To have the force of law a custom must:
(1) be reasonable – a custom reprobated in the law would be but a corruption of it and unreasonable, but no custom can derogate from the Divine law, whether positive or natural;
(2) it must continue uninterruptedly for at least forty years, unless the law forbids a custom, in which case it prescribes against it only after one hundred years.
Like laws, so too customs may be abrogated by later contrary laws or customs; but unless the law expressly states so, it does not abrogate old and immemorable customs; neither do general laws abolish particular customs.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Custom
(Chald. , halak’, a way-tax. i.e. toll, Ezr 4:13; Ezr 4:20; Ezr 7:24; Gr. , a tax. 1Ma 11:35; Mat 17:25; Rom 13:7; , tribute, 2Ma 4:28; , price; 1Ma 10:29), RECEIPT OF (, collector’s office, i.e. toll-house, Mat 9:9; Mar 2:14; Luk 5:27). SEE TOLL. Under the Persian and Syrian supremacy, imposts of various kinds were collected by local agents. Under the Romans, the management of the provincial revenues was generally committed to the Roman knights, who were thence denominated chief publicans, or chief collectors of the taxes; the tax-gatherers or exactors whom they employed were termed publicans. It was different in Judaea, for there the management of the revenues was committed to the Jews themselves, and those who held this office eventually obtained an equal rank with the knights of Rome (Luk 19:2; Josephus, War, 2:14, 9). The subordinate agents, or publicans, in collecting the revenues, took their position at the gates of cities and in the public ways, and, at the place appointed for that purpose, called the receipt of custom, examined the goods that passed, and received the moneys that were to be paid (Mat 9:2; Mar 2:14; Luk 5:27; Luk 5:29). These tax-gatherers, if we may believe Cicero (Pro Flacc. 28), were more inclined to exact too much than to forget the promise which they had made to their masters; and were, accordingly, in consequence of their extortions, everywhere, more particularly in Judaea, objects of hatred, and were placed in the same class with notorious sinners (Mar 2:15-16; Luk 3:12-13). The Pharisees held no communication with them; and one ground of their reproaches against the Savior was, that he did not refuse to sit at meat with persons of such a character (Mat 5:46-47; Mat 9:10-11; Mat 11:19; Mat 18:17; Mat 21:31-32). The half-shekel tax was a tax or tribute to be paid annually by every adult Jew at the Temple. It was introduced after the captivity in consequence of a wrong interpretation of certain expressions in the Pentateuch, and differed from the revenue which accrued to the kings, tetrarchs, and ethnarchs, and from the general tax that was assessed for the Roman Caesars. It was required that this tax should be paid in Jewish coin (Mat 22:17-19; Mar 12:14-15). The prominent object of the temple money-changers (q.v.) was their own personal emolument; but the acquisition of property in this way was contrary to the spirit of the law in Deu 23:20-21. It was for this reason that Jesus drove them from the temple (Mat 21:22; Mar 11:15; Joh 2:15). Messengers were sent into other cities for the purpose of collecting this tax (Mat 17:25). The Jews who collected this tax from their countrymen dwelling in foreign nations transmitted the sums collected every year to Jerusalem. This accounts for the immense amount of the treasures which flowed into the Temple (Josephus, Ant. 14:7, 2). SEE TAX.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Custom
a tax imposed by the Romans. The tax-gatherers were termed publicans (q.v.), who had their stations at the gates of cities, and in the public highways, and at the place set apart for that purpose, called the “receipt of custom” (Matt.9: 9; Mark 2:14), where they collected the money that was to be paid on certain goods (Matt.17:25). These publicans were tempted to exact more from the people than was lawful, and were, in consequence of their extortions, objects of great hatred. The PhariSee s would have no intercourse with them (Matt.5:46, 47; 9:10, 11).
A tax or tribute (q.v.) of half a shekel was annually paid by every adult Jew for the temple. It had to be paid in Jewish coin (Matt. 22:17-19; Mark 12:14, 15). Money-changers (q.v.) were necessary, to enable the Jews who came up to Jerusalem at the feasts to exchange their foreign coin for Jewish money; but as it was forbidden by the law to carry on such a traffic for emolument (Deut. 23:19, 20), our Lord drove them from the temple (Matt. 21:12: Mark 11:15).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Custom
CUSTOM.See Tribute.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Custom
CUSTOM(S) (Mat 17:25, Rom 13:7): receipt of custom (Mat 9:9, Mar 2:14, Luk 5:27).This is to be carefully distinguished from tribute (wh. see). The customs were paid on the value of goods, in Galilee and Pera to the Herods, but in the Roman province of Juda to the procurator as agent of the Roman government. The receipt of custom was the collectors office.
A. Souter.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Custom (1)
kustum (tax): (a) , halakh, Ezr 4:13, Ezr 4:10; Ezr 7:24 the King James Version; (b) , belo, Ezr 4:13, etc.; (c) , telonion, Mat 9:9; Mar 2:14; Luk 5:27, receipt of custom the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) place of toll, the collectors’ office; (d) , telos, Mat 17:25 (the Revised Version (British and American) toll); Rom 13:7; 1 Macc 11:35 (the Revised Version (British and American) tolls; compare 1 Macc 10:31). The tax designated by halakh in Ezr 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 Macc is an indirect tax farmed out to the publicans.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Custom (2)
kustum (usage): In the Old Testament, except, Gen 31:35 where the Revised Version (British and American) renders, better, manner (, derekh, way), the words translated custom are hok, hukkah, statute, and mishpat, judgment. Such passages as Jdg 11:39; Jer 32:11, and especially Ezr 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 Lev 18:30; Jer 10:3 the reference is to heathen religious practices.
In the New Testament Luk 1:9; Luk 2:42; Act 6:14; Act 15:1 (the King James Version manner); Act 16:21; Act 21:21; Act 26:3; Act 28:17 (, ethos), and Luk 2:27 from the same Greek root, refer likewise to definitely established religious practices; in every case except Act 16:21, those of the Jewish law. The Revised Version (British and American) makes the translation of ethos uniform, reading custom in Luk 22:39 (the King James Version wont) and in Joh 19:40; Act 25:16; Heb 10:25 (the King James Version manner). Greek , eiothos, from the same root, is rendered custom in Luk 4:16 by English Versions of the Bible, and by the Revised Version (British and American) also in Act 17:2, its only other occurrence in the New Testament. In Joh 18:39; 1Co 11:16 custom is the translation of Greek sunetheia, in the sense of usage rather than of law.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Custom
The words halak, , apparently allude to the duty paid on merchandise or produce, and should be distinguished from ‘tribute.’ Ezr 4:13; Ezr 4:20; Ezr 7:24; Mat 17:25; Rom 13:7.