Usury : $b a scriptural, ethical and economic viewElliott, Calvin
Religion
Usury : $b a scriptural, ethical and economic view
Elliott, Calvin
Usury
"Wot," to know, has become obsolete. Gen. 21:26: "I wot (know) not who
hath done this thing." Ex. 32:1: "As for this Moses, we wot (know) not
what hath become of him." Acts 3:17: "I wot (know) that through
ignorance ye did it."
"Prevent," from its derivation and use, meant, "to go before;" now it
means to hinder. Ps. 59:10: "The God of my mercies shall prevent (go
before) me." Ps. 92:2: "Let us prevent (go before) his face with
thanksgiving." I Thess. 4:15: "We who are alive shall not prevent (go
before) them who are asleep."
Charity, which now means liberality to the poor, and a disposition to
judge others kindly and favorably, was at that time a synonym of love,
and used interchangeably with love in the translations of the Greek.
This is especially noted in the panegyric of love, in the thirteenth
chapter of First Corinthians, and faithfully corrected in the Revised
Version, though some have felt that the beauty and especially the
euphony of the familiar passage has been marred. But the word charity
is no longer equivalent to love, in our language, and could not be
retained without perverting the sense.
Usury, when the version was made, meant any premium for a loan of
money, or increase taken for a loan of any kind of property.
Theological Dictionary: "Usury, the gain taken for a loan of money or
wares." "The gain of anything above the principal, or that which was
lent, exacted only in consideration of the loan, whether it be in
money, corn, wares or the like."
Bible Encyclopedia: "Usury, a premium received for a sum of money over
and above the principal."
Schaff-Herzog: "Usury, originally, any increase on any loan."
This was the usage of the word usury by the great masters of the
English language, like Shakespeare and Bacon, in their day, and is
still given as the first definition by the lexicographers of the
present.
Webster, 1890 edition: "Usury, 1. A premium or increase paid or
stipulated to be paid for a loan, as for money; interest. 2. The
practice of taking interest. 3. Law. Interest in excess of a legal
rate charged to a borrower for the use of money."
Interest is comparatively a new word in the language meaning also a
premium for a loan of money. It first appeared in the fourteenth
century, as a substitute for usury, in the first law ever enacted by a
Christian nation that permitted the taking of a premium for any loan.
The word usury was very odious to the Christian mind and conscience.
Interest was at the first a legal term, used in law only, and it has
always been applied to that premium or measure of increase that is
permitted or made legal by civil law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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