Digest of Biblical Civil Law

God's laws on inheritance (Num. 27:8-11, 2 Cor. 12:14, Deut. 21:15-17) require capitalization solely of the family. State seizure of inheritance and property is explicitly prohibited in Ezek. 46:18: “The ruler must not take any of the inheritance of the people, driving them off their property. He is to give his children their inheritance out of his own personal property, so that none of My people will be separated from his property.” Scriptural inheritance is not a mindless dispensing of capital: it is forbidden to give an inheritance to wicked children (Josh. 15:16-19, Judges 1:13-15). Inheritance tax is a violation of biblical law and an assertion by the state that it is the family's firstborn to whom the largest portion of inheritance is due.  The Bible gives the family and its God-fearing children the highest priority for a healthy social order.
- Martin G. Selbrede, Taxation, Liberty, and the Bible (October 30, 2008), at http://www.chalcedon.edu/papers/Taxation.pdf.