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Usury in Greek, Roman And Rabbinic Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Robert P. Maloney*
Affiliation:
Mary Immaculate Seminary, Northampton, Pa.

Extract

The Christian teaching on usury did not develop in a vacuum. Christianity was born in a semitic milieu and spread rapidly through the Graeco-Roman world. Naturally, its ancestry and its environment influenced its moral thinking. The Fathers of the Church were well acquainted with the thought of others about usury. Besides many references to the clear Old Testament usury prohibition, the writings of the Fathers reflect and interact with attitudes toward interest-taking in Greece and Rome and in early rabbinical literature. It will thus be helpful to examine those strains of thought that existed side by side with the early patristic teaching and influenced it.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

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66 Klingmüller (n. 64) 2192. The base for computing the interest is not certain; therefore, either annual rate is possible. Google Scholar

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72 Tacitus, , Ann. 6.16; Appian, , Bella civilia 1.54. The Lex Marcia, probably from the same period, also gave the debtor legal action against the usurer. Gaius, Institutiones. 4.23, relates: ‘Other statutes, however, set up procedure by manus iniectio, … the Marcia, L. against usurers provided that if they had exacted interest, proceedings by manus iniectio should be taken against them for repayment' (de Zulueta transl.).Google Scholar

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110 Interestingly, when the ecclesiastical prohibition of usury finally entered oriental imperial law, it was a disaster. In his Prochiron legum, Basil the Macedonian (867-886) decreed: ‘Even though many emperors before us deigned to allow interest-taking, perhaps because of the incorrigibility and crassness of creditors, nevertheless we judge that it ought to be repudiated as unworthy of our Christian state because it is prohibited by divine law. Therefore, Our Majesty decrees that no one has the power to receive interest for any reason whatsoever, lest, while we seem to keep the law of God, we should transgress his precept. But if anyone should receive anything anything, let it be imputed as a debt to the creditor’ ( Prochiron legum 16.14, ed. Brandileone, B. and Puntoni, B. [Rome 1895]; translation mine). Basil's decree caused such havoc that his successor, Leo the Wise (886-911), abrogated it (with great delicacy) and set the maximum rate of interest at 4%. ‘Certainly it would be excellent and salutary if the human race, being conformed to the laws of the Holy Spirit, had no need for human regulations. Nevertheless as it is not granted to all to be raised up to the heights of the Holy Spirit and to hear the echo of the divine law, but actually there are very few who arrive there through the practice of virtue, we ought to be quite happy if men at least live conformably to human laws. The judgment of the Holy Spirit condemns in an absolute fashion what is called interest on loans of money, and knowing that, the Emperor of eternal memory, our father, decided to forbid, by a special measure, the receiving of interest. But that prohibition became, because of extreme poverty, a cause, not of betterment, as was the legislator's aim, but of perversion …’ Leo explained that those who would formerly have lent to the poor, because they could no longer make gains from their loans, became hard and inhuman toward those who needed their help (cf. the same problem in Dt. 15.3 f and in Shebi'it X 3-5). Moreover, the law led to perjury and, because of the perversity of human nature, to increased misery. Leo concluded: ‘Without wanting to condemn the law in itself (something which would not please God), granted (as I have said) that human nature cannot attain the sublimity of the law, we abrogate this enactment which was too perfect, and we permit, on the contrary, a return to the practice of loans of money at interest, as the ancient legislators had authorized’ (Nov. 83, ed. Noailles, P. and Dain, A., Les Novelles de Léon VI le Sage [Paris 1944]; translation mine).Google Scholar

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T1: First Generation of Tannaim — before a.d. 90

T2: Second Generation — 90-130

T3: Third Generation — 130-160

T4: Fourth Generation — 160-190

T5: Fifth Generation — 190-c. 220.

For a comparable relative chronology, cf. the index volume of the Soncino Talmud (London 1935).

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126 Siphre on Deuteronomy 262 (on 23.20); henceforth, SD.Google Scholar

127 SD 263 (on 23.21) (my transl. from the French of Bonsirven, J., Textes rabbiniques des deux premiers siècles chrétiens [Rome 1955] 76).Google Scholar

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129 Cf. BM 5.4. Google Scholar

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131 BM 5.3. Google Scholar

132 BM 5.4. Google Scholar

133 Cf. The Talmud (London 1935) ‘Nezikin II: Baba Meẓi'a’ 5.361 f.Google Scholar

134 Cf. TBM 4.3.Google Scholar

135 Baba Bathra 86b87a; henceforth, BB.Google Scholar

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137 Baba Kamma 103a; henceforth, BK.Google Scholar

138 BM 5.11. Google Scholar

139 JBM 5.10. Google Scholar

140 Mekiltha on Exodus (Ex. 22.24) 3.149.Google Scholar

141 Cf. Epstein, I. (ed), The Babylonian Talmud (London 1948-52), or Danby, op. cit. Google Scholar

142 BM 75b (my transl. from Bonsirven 462). Google Scholar

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144 SD 263 (on 23.21); also, 113 (on 15.3). Google Scholar

145 TBM 5.15-17, 19-21. Google Scholar

146 TBM 5.20. Google Scholar

147 Cf. the comments of Lagrange, M.-J., Le Judaïsme avant Jésus-Christ (Paris 1931) 520.Google Scholar

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151 JBM 5.10 b (my transl. from Bonsirven 460). Google Scholar

152 BM 71a (my transl. from Bonsirven 461). Google Scholar

153 JBM 5.10 (my transl. from Bonsirven 462). Google Scholar

154 Sanhedrin 74a. Google Scholar

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157 Aboda Zara 58b.Google Scholar

158 Tosephta to Aboda Zara 1.1011.Google Scholar

159 Temurah 6b.Google Scholar

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161 Philo, , De specialibus legibus 2.7477 (Loeb transl.).Google Scholar

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165 Sanhedrin 3.3.Google Scholar

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168 TBM V, 2125.Google Scholar

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172 BK 30b; BB 94b. Google Scholar

173 BB 94b. Google Scholar

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175 BB 94b. Google Scholar

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179 Cf. Benoit, P., Milik, J., and deVaux, R., Discoveries in the Judean Desert II: Les Grottes de Murabba'at (Oxford 1961) II 100 f.Google Scholar

180 Cf. Lev. 5.16, 24; 27.27.Google Scholar