This topic was begun in “Money (1) – Anciently, Shekel Metal”. This Part 2 is a continuation. The material presented in (1) will be further developed & expanded here in (2).
Money functions as a: medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, commodity.
Part 1 defined forms of money…commodity money, representative money, fiat money. It identified things used as money in ancient Mesopotámia and Egypt. Silver money was the commercial standard in Abraham’s time (Ge.23:14-18), ca 2000 BC. Part 1 ended with verses about God’s prescribed standard for ancient Israel, the “shékel of the sanctuary” (e.g. Le.27:25). That shekel was a weight of silver.
Smith’s Bible Dictionary: Money “The shekel weight of silver was the unit of value through the whole age of Hebrew history, down to the Babylonian captivity.” It was God’s standard, in the holy place.
Silver and gold were used as money in Israel and the Ancient Near East (ANE). A few examples to illustrate: De.22:29 a man who had relations with an unbetrothed virgin in Israel must pay her father 50 shekels of silver; she could become the man’s wife. Jsh.7:20-21 in the Land of Canáan at Jericho, Achán coveted 200 shekels of silver (LXX Greek Strongs g694 “silver”) and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels. 1Sm.9:8 Saul’s servant had ¼ of a shekel (Hebrew Strongs h8255) of silver as payment.
Later, Mal.3:3 is the prophecy about Christ/Messiah the Judge as the figurative purifier of silver.
Silver is commodity money, having other useful purposes. e.g. Ex.27:11 the curtains in the Lord’s tabernacle were to be hung on hooks overlaid with silver (g696 “silver metal”). Silver is durable.
Money is a means of account and is used in measurement. e.g. the Pound Sterling, the world’s oldest currency still in use, implies weight. Historically in Great Britain, it was the value of a pound of silver.
There are several verses in the Bible where God commands honest weights & measures to be used. Le.19:35-36 “Do no injustice in measures of length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and weights.” Gill Exposition Le.19:35 “As money in former times, as well as various sorts of goods.”
The weight of the “shekel of the sanctuary” was prescribed by the Lord. Le.27:25 “Every valuation of yours shall be set by the shekel [h8255] of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be 20 geráhs [h1626].” Thus God specified the standard shekel. It was basic to honest weights & measures.
Pr.11:1 “The Lord detests dishonest scales, but a just weight is His delight.” Goods were weighed on balance scales to determine price/value. The silver (h3701 kéhsef) shekel in the holy place (e.g. Ex.38:25) was a just weight. Pulpit Commentary Pr.11:1 “The standard weights and measures were deposited in the sanctuary.” Ezk.45:12 “The shekel shall be 20 gerahs. One miná [h4488] will equal 60 shekels.” Stones of incremental weights (e.g. 2Sm.14:26), based on the shekel, were used for weighing in the balances. Pr.16:11 “Honest scales and balances are from the Lord.” The Lord, not man, had stipulated the basic weight for Israel! Pr.20:23 “Double standards of weights are an abomination to the Lord.” JFB Commentary Pr.20:10 “Various measures, implying that some are wrong.”
Honest weights & measures must be used for a society to function well in trust. De.25:13-15 “You shall have a full and just weight…and measure; that your days may be prolonged in the land.” For other warnings from the Lord about this matter, ref Am.8:4-7 and Mic.6:10-13.
Je.32:8-10 “I bought the field at Anathóth from my cousin Hanamél, and weighed out to him 17 shekels of silver [h3701]. I signed and sealed the deed, took witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances.” (Thus Jeremiah himself kept the property in the family.) Benson Commentary Je.32:9 “In ancient times, all money was paid by weight.” Prior to coinage in Judah (before 500 BC).
But false weights are too often used today. Jeremiah Project: Just Weights and Measures “On a national scale, false weights and measures are used to dominate and oppress whole classes of people. Wars and ‘bread and circus’ welfare programs are not cheap, and outright taxation has never been popular. As a way around this, dishonest rulers have sought to indirectly confiscate wealth by debasing money and issuing a decree that the money had to trade at full value. This is known as ‘fiat money’, it can either be a dishonest coin or something like a piece of paper that has no intrinsic value at all….Since ancient times, whenever a coin circulated through the treasury of an unjust ruler, he would either shave off portions of the coins, using techniques known as clipping or sweating, and mint more coins with the shavings. Or he would re-mint every coin, debasing it by mixing a less valuable metal with the precious metal. For example, at the time of Christ, the Roman denarius was about 97% pure silver. By 253 AD, it was [only] 35%. Their silver had literally become dross (Isa.1:22). Dross is a symbol of impurity.”
Is.1:22 dates from the 700s BC in Israel. “Your silver has become dross.” Impurity was then the rule. They’d replaced a silver shekel with silver-coated alloys, a shekel of base metals. Barnes Notes “Dross – baser metal which is separated from the purer in smelting. It has little or no value.” Andy Frith What Does the Bible Say About Sound Money? “Isa.1:22…This is a process that has occurred throughout history, where the state reduces the silver or gold content of the coins, and replaces it with base metal. Today, the same process takes place with the printing press and electronic money creation. All dilute the value of the currency.” (Money and debt in our present day will be addressed later in this series.)
Let’s now address the concept of interest or usury. Among the ancient Sumerians, loans were given with attached interest of 20% per annum (Interest Rates in Ancient Mesopotamia). Tyndale Bible Dictionary: Debt “Clay tablets from Núzi in NE Mesopotamia indicate interest rates of even 50%.”
What is interest? Wikipedia: Interest “The payment from the borrower to the lender of an amount above repayment of the principle sum (i.e. the amount borrowed). It is distinct from a fee the borrower may pay the lender or some third party. Interest differs from ‘profit.” Interest used to be called usury. Wikipedia: Usury “Originally, usury meant interest of any kind. Historically in Christian societies, and in many Islamic societies today, charging any interest at all would be considered usury.” It demands a return greater than the borrowed amount. A usurer (or ‘loan shark’) is a person who practices usury.
The word usury is from the Latin usura. The Hebrew root term for interest/usury is nawshák, h5391. It means ‘to bite’! Interest can inflict pain on the wallet & budget of the payee, and cause much anxiety. It’s been said, “Money is the lifeblood of civilization, and usury is the poison that kills it”!
Usury in the Ancient Near East “In general, interest was allowed everywhere in the ANE, except in Israel.” Ancient Israel was the Lord’s theocracy. But interest was practiced in ANE dealings.
In God’s theocracy, loans to ancient Israelites at interest were forbidden! De.23:19 “You shall not charge interest to your countrymen; on silver [h3701], food, or anything lent upon interest [h5391].” Charging any interest to one’s brother was wrong…not just exorbitant interest. Ellicott Commentary Ezk.18:8 “In Scripture usury does not mean excessive interest, as often in modern legislation, but any interest at all.” Gill Exposition De.23:19 “This takes in all sorts of usury.” On food or grain too.
But God allowed for interest to be charged to foreigners. De.23:20 “To a foreigner [h5237 nokrée] you may charge interest [h5391], but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest [h5391]; that the Lord may bless you.” JFB Commentary “The case was different with foreigners, who, engaged in trade and commerce, borrowed to enlarge their capital, and might reasonably be expected to pay interest on their loans.” Also, usury can be a form of economic sanction or penalty in dealing with unfriendlies.
“Interest” in Hebrew is néhshek h5392 (“usury”). The term is seen in: Ex.22:25, Le.25:36-37, De.23:19, Ps.15:5, Pr.28:8, Ezk.18:8, 13, 17, 22:12. (Also ref LXX: Ps.54:11 and Je.9:6.)
Ezk.18:11-13 “….He has lent upon usury [h5392] and taken increase. Will he live? He will not! Because he has done these abominable deeds he will surely die. His blood shall be upon him.” Here, usury in Israel is related in terms of capital crime. Matthew Poole Commentary Ezk.18:8 “Biting usury, which no doubt is prohibited because of the injury it does to the borrower, and the undue gain it brings to the lender.” Pulpit Commentary Ezk.18:8 “Usury was altogether forbidden in loans to Israelites.”
Usury was unjust gain, and disallowed them. Jeremiah Project: Just Weights and Measures “Ancient Israel had no lending institutions or banks in the modern sense.” Je.15:10 KJV Jeremiah wrote, “I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury”. Jeremiah himself wasn’t party to usury.
Especially the poor in Israel weren’t to be exploited by charging him interest. Le.25:35-37 “Take no usury of him.” The poor man often has more need to borrow; treat him with respect too. Pr.28:8 YLT “Whoso is multiplying his wealth by biting and usury, for one favoring the poor doth gather it.”
The Lord said in Ex.22:25, “If you lend money to any of My people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor; neither shall you charge him interest”. Unlike most modern lending institutions.
Ne.5:1-12 reflects the bondage of mortgage interest. v.4 returning Jews had borrowed upon their property to pay taxes, and were paying interest on the loan. Nehemiah exhorted in v.7-10, “You are exacting usury, each from his brother….Please let us stop this usury.” For today’s average American, mortgage interest is the most burdensome type of debt. It can financially cripple a family for years.
Again, charging any interest (not just excessive interest) to your brother or countryman is wrong; but it was okay to charge interest to foreigners. Pulpit Commentary Ex.22:25-27 “There does not seem to have been any rate of interest which was regarded as excessive, and ‘usurious’, in the modern sense. In scripture usury means simply interest.” (Nowadays, usury usually refers to ‘excessive interest’.)
Let’s now turn to the New Testament (NT). In NT times, there was no longer a theocracy of Israel in the Holy Land. Banking with interest existed among the gentiles. The Land was provincial to Rome.
Jesus upbraided the lazy servant in Mt.25:24-26. “You wicked lazy servant, if you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I didn’t scatter seed…” As a thief. A banker charging interest may reap where he hasn’t sown. v.27 “Then you should have deposited my money to the exchangers [bankers], and when I returned I would have received my money with interest.” In other words…“Since you thought I was like a usurious banker, why didn’t you act on your professed opinion of Me? As the servant of a (thieving) ‘hard man’ (v.24), why didn’t you put your Master’s money at interest?!”
Pulpit Commentary Mt.25:27 “These money changers or bankers were a numerous class in Palestine, wherever the Jewish community was established. They received deposits at interest, and engaged in transactions such as are usual in modern times. With usury (interest). At one time, law had forbidden usurious transactions between Israelites, though a Gentile was left to the mercy of his creditor (De.23:19-20)….The rate of interest varied from 4% to 40%.” It seems those 1st century exchangers or bankers could charge what they wanted, sometimes with high exchange rates! Somewhat like modern-day bankers within legal limits and Federal Reserve controls? Jesus wasn’t approving their practice.
Gill Exposition Mt.25:27 “This is said [by Jesus] not so much to encourage usury…but to reprove the sloth and inactivity of this servant.” The servant had “buried his talent” (v.18). Clive Beed Jesus on Lending, Debt and Interest “No insinuation can be drawn that Jesus approved the payment of interest or that He was providing guidelines for how Christians should run their economic life….Jesus’ teachings reflect the Mosaic Law’s normative position on lending and interest….Jesus is talking about tasks and abilities and endowments bequeathed to the disciples and what they do with such opportunities.” Spiritually speaking, it’s useless to bury one’s “talent”. Roman rule didn’t obey the Lord. Jesus wasn’t abolishing the guidelines He’d commanded Moses/Israel about usury! As Lord, He expects obedience.
Mt.21:12-13 “Jesus entered the temple area and overturned the tables of the moneychangers.” (also ref Jn.2:14-15.) The only times Jesus the man used physical force was against the moneychangers or usurers! Barnes Notes Mt.25:27 “The ‘exchangers’ were persons who were in the habit of borrowing money, or receiving it on deposit at a low rate of interest, to be loaned to others at higher interest. They commonly sat by ‘tables’ in the temple, with money ready to exchange or loan.” This angered Jesus!
Usury was also forbidden by the early Christian church. Michael Hoffman Usury in Christendom: The Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not, p.32 “According to that Faith, all charging of interest on loans of money is theft.” Usury in Christian History “Several councils of the Church condemned usury for centuries. With Christians banned from lending money at interest, and Jews barred from many professions by Christian monarchs, moneylending was undertaken by Jews in much of Europe.”
Jews practiced it, as had their 1st century moneychangers in Jerusalem. Since the early church didn’t practice usury, Jewish usurers had very little competition in medieval Christian lands, and could charge high interest. The Mishnah Baba Metzia also indicates the Jews found a loophole to evade the Lord’s commands for His people…by making interest-bearing loans to a fellow Israelite via a 3rd party non-Israelite foreigner.
The apostle Paul wrote in 1Ti.6:10, “The love of money is a root of evils”. Money of itself isn’t evil; but the love of money and the wrong use of money is a cause of evils.
Jesus said in Lk.16:10-14, “He who is faithful in least, is faithful in much….No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and riches. But the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were scoffing at Him [Jesus].” The Pharisees were covetous, lovers of money…g5366 philárguros; arguros is silver. In this passage, Jesus indicates that servants of God are to use money wisely, but aren’t to give both riches and God an equal place in their heart. Christian brothers didn’t loan at interest.
What about Christians investing today? Wikipedia: Usury “Outlawing usury [in Christianity] did not prevent investment, but stipulated that in order for the investor to share in the profit he must share the risk. In short, he must be a joint-venturer. Simply to invest the money and expect it to be returned regardless of the success of the venture was to make money simply by having money and not by taking any risk or by doing any work or by any effort or sacrifice at all, which is usury.” It’s wrong for man to exact money for nothing…a form of unjust gain.
Beed op. cit. “In the ideal scenario for today, money could still be loaned….For commercial loans, the lender and borrower would share the operation of whatever venture was planned with the loan proceeds. The lender would work in the project. This would be a partnership in which risks were shared, akin to, but not identical to venture capital. Profit/loss share would be on an equity, not debt, basis.” Associated efforts may be exchanged for money. Continuing with Bede, “Interest is usually derived from not doing work but lending in the expectation of return. The interest rate is not tied to the return earned by the loan.” Such interest isn’t the result of labor or risk.
This series on money is continued and concluded in “Money (3) – Debt from the Bible”.
Bible Topic Exposition 