And the merchants of the earth weep and
mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver,
jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of
scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly
wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense,
wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and
slaves, that is, human souls.
Revelation 18: 18-13
Conspicuous
by its absence from the goods and services traded by Babylon is money. Trading
was money had been well known for centuries by the time St John saw these
visions, and Jesus refers to it in a couple of parables, although it was not
only illegal across much of the ancient world but it was widely considered immoral.
The
oldest and simplest way of trading in money is to rent it. We do not use the
word ‘renting’ but ‘lending’ and the ‘rent’ we call ‘interest’. Interest used
to be called usury and usury was forbidden in ancient Israel.
- ‘If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.’ (Exodus 22:25)
- ‘Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.’ (Leviticus 25:36-37)
- ‘You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.’ (Deuteronomy 23:19)
Of
course, people did charge interest, and Jesus acknowledged this in a couple of
his parables, but we should not infer from them that Jesus meant to approve of
or legitimise the practice.
There
was one exception to the prohibition. The last of the above quotes continues, ‘You
may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest,
that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that
you are entering to take possession of it.’ This permission should be read in
the light of the other requirements in the Torah to treat the resident
foreigners in the same way as other Jews for civic purposes and conclude that
charging interest was limited to foreign trade.
So how
was money to be loaned if interest was illegal and immoral? The original
purpose of credit was to relieve poverty by financing trade, a need that
predates the creation of money. The first credit was probably a loan of grain to
be repaid by a share in the harvest. Later, money was loaned in the same way,
for a share in the actual profits. I continue this thought tomorrow.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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