Interesting Scripture in regards to usury

[Dominus Fidelis]

In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Jesus said, "Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest." (v. 17)

I guess it could be argued that this was just a parable, but it seems a wee bit like the Lord is permiting usury.

Also on usury, we have Deuteronomy 23:19-21: "You may charge interest to a foreigner," indicating that interest-taking is not presented as inherently evil or sinful. And that was in the strict days of the Mosiac Law.

 

[Dream]

In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Jesus said, "Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest." (v. 27)

Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers: and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. (Matthew 25:27)

Usury
A very graphic word, meaning first child-birth, and then offspring. Hence of interest, which is the produce or offspring of capital. Originally it was only what was paid for the use of money; hence usury; but it became synonymous with extortionate interest. Rev., better, with interest. The Jewish law distinguished between interest and increase. In Rome very high interest seems to have been charged in early times. Practically usury was unlimited. It soon became the custom to charge monthly interest at one per cent a month. During the early empire legal interest stood at eight per cent., but in usurious transactions it was lent at twelve, twenty-four, and even forty-eight. The Jewish bankers of Palestine and elsewhere were engaged in the same undertakings.

 

[NDIrish]

Well, to further your point, the D-R actually uses the term "usury":

26 And his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

Anyway, I'm trying to write up a Catholic answer to the usury question...can anyone fill in the blank below...

--

Many theologians condemned usury on the grounds that inanimate things cannot grow and increase. So, the Church used to forbid anyone's taking of interest from loans. The reason being that money was seen as unable reproduce itself. For example, a cow can be bred and can produce a calf. Money was seen as dead, meaning it can't produce anything beyond its own fixed value.

But over time the nature of money changed from being purely a sterile medium of exchange into something able to produce more of itself. This change in the nature of money was caused by _______.

Over time, the application of usury came to be applied not to the mere attachment of interest to a loan, but to the demand for excessive interest on a loan.

 

[Dream]

Did you check out NewAdvent yet?

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15235c.htm