[Chills]

Why did early Christians denouce usery or not practice it?
Is there biblical reasons for not engaging in it?
When did they accept the behavior and begin engaging in it?

[Meg]

Chills, according to the Online Bible, the word "usery" is not found in the Bible. Can you use a different word for this and I will search. :tup:

[Potemkin]

It is spelled "usury".

[Brihard]

Usury is charging exorbitant interest rates. 'Loan sharking', basically. I think it would be a given that it wouldn't be acceptable in a just society. Then again, VISA and Amex seem to get along just fine at 18%... I'm not entirely sure where the legal line is drawn these days, but it probably varies from nation to nation.

[Chills]

duh........... sorry for the spelling error...

and thanks...

[Chills]

Exodus 22:25 If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.

Leviticus 25:36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

Leviticus 25:37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

Deuteronomy 23:19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:

Deuteronomy 23:20 Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

Nehemiah 5:7 Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.

Nehemiah 5:10 I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.

Psalm 15:5 He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

Proverbs 28:8 He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.

Isaiah 24:2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

Jeremiah 15:10 Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

Ezekiel 18:8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man,

Ezekiel 18:13 Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.

Ezekiel 18:17 That hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath not received usury nor increase, hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.

Ezekiel 22:12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

[calliope]

Usury originally applied not to excessive interest, but to the taking of interest at all. It was not only considered uncharitable to exploit the poor, but usury was considered a violation of natural law since the usurer didn't do anything to earn the interest it represented an unnatural growth of the money supply. Although usury was universally condemned in the ancient world, it was mostly image over substance. Cicero put usurers in the same category as child molesters and during the Middle Ages the penalties for usury were much more severe than for sodomy. Usury was also an offense punishable by the Inquisition. It wasn't until the Catholic majority became more and more involved in interest banking in the 14th century that the sin of usury was expediently redefined as charging "excessive" interest.

And there is this from McKenzie's Dictionary of the Bible:
Before the invention of minted money, loans in kind were much more common than loans of hard metal; the ancient laws and records of Mesopotamia show loans of both kinds in the earliest periods. The laws of Eshnunna and of Hammurabi both contain laws regulating the rate of interest; this suggests that rates had reached a point considered intolerably high. Since the rates of which we have information were quite high by modern standards, the rates before regulation may have reached 50% or 75% or even more. The interest to be paid in kind was higher than the interest to be paid on hard metal. In Babylonia the rate on payment in kind was about 33 1/2% and on hard metal about 20%. The Assyrian rates were higher, about 50% on payment in kind and about 25-33 1/3% on hard metal. The code of Hammurabi contains some laws which were evidently intended to restrain moneylenders and creditors and help the debtor. The debtor was released from payment of interest in crops and produce if the yield was destroyed by a year of flood or drought. A debt in grain was annulled if the creditor exacted payment by forced seizure of the grain. Loans of hard metal could be repaid in grain. An investment was remitted if the debtor took an oath that the goods were taken or destroyed by "an enemy," a term which probably included both hostile troops and brigands. The debtor's pledge could be seized by the creditor if the pledge were a person--wife, child, or salve--not, apparently, if it were an animal, and the person of the debtor seems to have been immune from seizure.

The attitude of the Old Testament toward loans is expressed in Dt 28:12, 44: it is a blessing to be a creditor and not a debtor. A number of laws restraining creditors suggest that the reality of debt was grim. The cloak (Ex 22:25), other garments (Am 2:8), the ox and the ass (Jb 24:3), and children (Jb 24:9) were given as pledges; the pledging of animals does not appear in Mesopotamian law. The millstone, without which the family food of the day could not be prepared, was prohibited as a pledge (Dt 24:6), nor could the lender take the garment of a widow. If the cloak were pledged, it had to be returned at sunset that the borrower might sleep in it (Ex 22:24 f). Enslavement of the debtor is clearly mentioned in Lv 25:36 ff; Am 2:6; this may be the debtor himself or members of his family. The lender may not enter the house of the borrower in order to collect his pledge (Dt 24:10). There are a number of passages both in the laws and in other books which present it as an obligation or as an ideal to lend without interest; the Israelites may exact interest from foreigners, but not from each other (Dt 23:20). It appears that this was far more of an ideal than a real practice. The same is to be said of the exhortations to the creditor not to exact the pledge when the debtor is unable to pay (Ezk 18:16). Ne 5:1-13 exhibits practically all the abuses which are mentioned above. In the Jerusalem community debtors pledged their lands and their children, who were enslaved when the debt was not paid, and were being charged interest; Nehemiah persuaded the creditors to remit their demands, but he appeals to no law nor even to any tradition.

[H2O]

Hey Chills
Now that we seem to have the low down on usury...
Can I barrow about 100grand..... :beer:

No I did not re-edit this and clean up my bad taste and little comment here.

PS Chills its ok to comment in my threads, I may answer your reply in such a way as to really get ya boiling.... :cool:

[calliope]

P.S. Early Christianity considered Jesus's command to lend hoping for nothing (Luke 6:35) as extending the Levitical prohibition of usury to Christianity.