Skip to main content

Usury


Money in the ancient world was viewed very differently from what it is in the modern world. Aristotle’s simple but powerful belief that “money was barren” and therefore interest was unjust. This belief is found in various forms both in the Old and New Testaments.[i]

In the ancient world usury was not limited to charging exorbitant interest rates on loans, which is how it is usually understood today. Usury was synonymous with almost any sort of economic exploitation. Charging excessive prices for goods, simply because they had become scarcer naturally or by “engrossing” (buying commodities in such quantities as to raise the price in market[ii]), as well as any form of monopoly or foreclosure, were all deemed to be “usury.”[iii]

In the fourteenth century John Wycliffe preached, “It was their vulnerability to usury that made men curse and hate it more than any other sin.” The prohibition against usury was considered to be a matter of protecting the everyday livelihood of the ordinary village craftsmen and small farmers.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why did they lay their coats at Saul's feet?

The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew   sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the   sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...

Human Lives are Valued more than Religious Institutions and Rituals

Human lives are valued more than religious institutions and rituals by the unnamed god in the first account in Genesis . That message is repeated throughout the  Hebrew Scriptures  and the  teachings of Jesus  in the  Synoptic Gospels. Read the complete short articles at - https://mailchi.mp/2116c809b552/human-lives-are-valued-more-than-religious-institutions-and-rituals

The Moment the Humans Created Shame in the Garden in Eden

For readers of most English translations, this is a story about two naked people who didn’t know they were naked until they ate the forbidden fruit . The reason God told them to not eat that fruit was because he didn’t want them to know they were naked or he was testing their obedience to him . As I pointed out in earlier emails, the serpent wasn’t Satan and this was not a battle between God and Satan over the souls of all people who will ever live. So what did the original author of the story want his readers to learn? Continue to read at - https://mailchi.mp/3e270c10e81d/the-moment-the-humans-created-shame-in-the-garden-in-eden