Toll

tol: (1) Aramaic middah, "toll" or "tribute" paid by a vassal nation to its conqueror (Ezra 4:20; Ezra 6:8; Neh 5:4); written also mindah (Ezra 4:13; Ezra 7:24). More accurately for halakh, "toll," or "way tax" (Ezra 4:13; Ezra 4:10; Ezra 7:24). In New Testament times the Romans had placed throughout Palestine many toll stations (telonion). Levi the publican was stationed at such a tax office (Matt 9:9; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27); compare telones, a "tax collector" or "publican." The tax which the Jews paid toward the support of the temple, a didrachma, is called telos, "toll" (Matt 17:25), the same as the word rendered "tribute" (Rom 13:7).

Edward Bagby Pollard