ABSTRACT
“Usury” is a financial practice in which a borrower pays a lender more than the original sum of the loan. (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin all used the same word to denote interest, both permitted and prohibited. The Oxford English Dictionary [s.v. Interest] explains that the English differentiation between “usury” and “interest,” the first prohibited and the other permitted, is medieval.) In the Hebrew Bible, loans on interest are forbidden. This is usually linked explicitly to care for the poor (Exod 22:25; see also Lev 25:35–37, Ezek 18:17, and Prov 28:8). A similar connection is found in some works from the Second Temple period. Philo of Alexandria associated both the avoidance of interest and gifts to the poor with the civic ideal of philanthrōpia, the love of humankind. 2 In Deuteronomy (23:20), however, usury is disconnected from the poverty laws. The rabbis followed Deuteronomy in sharply de-coupling usury from poverty. Significantly this chapter of the Mishnah, which is devoted to a discussion of interest, does not mention poor people or poverty at all. This text is an exegetical attempt to uncover the difference between the two kinds of interest mentioned in Leviticus 25:26–27, neshekh (which shares a root with the word “bite”) and tarbit (or marbit) translated in the King James Version as “usury” and “increase.” Although the subject of those verses in Leviticus is a destitute Israelite asking for help, the Mishnah says nothing at all about the identity or financial situation of the borrower. “Increase” especially, is portrayed as the province of two players who are equally interested in making a profit from a business venture, the buying and selling of large amounts of food products. 3
