Talents parable and usury laws

[ltravis]

Hi all,

In light of a recent gospel at mass, I was thinking about the jewish law against usury, and wondered why Jesus implied it was acceptable in his parable of the talents. Here is the quote I am referring to, in Matthew 25:26,27:

His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?

Now, as I understood it, Jewish law was pretty strict against usury, and that charging interest was prohibited. I was just wondering how the example in the parable is acceptable. It was just a question the hit me. I am already aware that usury laws don’t apply the same in our time since interest is a fair compensation now to a lender who would otherwise be able to create his own wealth with the money he lent. Since wealth was assumed fixed in O.T. times, this wasn’t considered. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. I was just wondering, in the context of the time of Jesus, why did his parable allow usury, when current law at the time was against it?

Thanks!
LT

 

[Tantum_ergo]

My understanding is that the Master was not Jewish, therefore usury laws did not apply to him. Certainly I believe that Gentiles allowed for ‘reasonable’ interest just as is done today, or should be (are you listening to me, credit card companies? )

 

[ltravis]

My understanding is that the Master was not Jewish, therefore usury laws did not apply to him. Certainly I believe that Gentiles allowed for ‘reasonable’ interest just as is done today, or should be (are you listening to me, credit card companies? )

Thanks, the master not being Jewish clears it up. That was easy!

LT