Debt

VIEW:42 DATA:01-04-2020
DEBT
1. In OT.—Loans in the OT period were not of a commercial nature. They were not granted to enable a man to start or extend his business, but to meet the pressure of poverty. To the borrower they were a misfortune (Deu_28:12; Deu_28:44); to the lender a form of charity. Hence the tone of legislation on the subject.
Usury is forbidden in all three codes (Exo_22:25 [JE [Note: Jewish Encyclopedia.] ], Deu_23:19, Lev_25:36 [H [Note: Law of Holiness.] ]); it was making a profit out of a brother’s distress. In Dt. it may be taken from a foreigner. Pledges were allowed, but under strict limitations (Deu_24:10, Job_24:3). In Deu_15:1-23 is a remarkable law providing for the ‘letting drop’ of loans every seventh year (see Driver, ad loc.). Its relation to the law of the Sabbatical year in Exo_23:10 (JE [Note: Jewish Encyclopedia.] ), Lev_25:1 (H [Note: Law of Holiness.] ) is not clear, but the cessation of agriculture would obviously lead to serious financial difficulties, and debtors might reasonably look for some relief. This consideration makes for the modern view, that the passage implies only the suspension for a year of the creditor’s right to demand payment. It must be admitted, however, that apart from a priori considerations the obvious interpretation is a total remission of debts (so the older, and Jewish commentators). Foreigners do not come under the law. The other codes have no parallel, except where the debt may have led to the bondage of the debtor’s person.
Historically the legislation seems to have been largely ignored. In 2Ki_4:1-7 a small debt involves the bondage of a widow’s two sons (cf. Isa_50:1, Mat_18:23), and Elisha helps her not by invoking the law, but by a miracle. In Neh_5:1-19 mortgaged lands and interest are restored under the pressure of an economic crisis. Nehemiah himself has been a creditor and taken usury. There is an apparent reference to Deu_15:1-23 in Neh_10:31. In later times the strictness of the law was evaded by various legal fictions: Hillel introduced a system of ‘contracting out.’ That loans played a large part in social life is shown by frequent references in the Prophets, Psalms, and Proverbs (Isa_24:2, Psa_15:5; Psa_37:21, Pro_19:17; Pro_28:8). Jer_15:10 shows that the relation between debtor and creditor was proverbially an unpleasant one. In Psa_37:21 it is part of the misfortune of the wicked that he shall be unable to pay his debts; there is no reference to dishonesty. Pro_22:7, Sir_18:33 warn against borrowing, and Sir_29:1-28 has some delightful common-sense advice on the whole subject.
2. In NT.—Loans are assumed by our Lord as a normal factor in social life (Mat_25:27, Luk_16:5; Luk_19:23). Luk_6:34-35 suggests that the Christian will not always stand on his rights in this respect. Debt is used as a synonym for sin in Mat_6:12 (cf. the two parables Mat_18:23, Luk_7:41; and Col_2:14). The context of these passages is a sufficient warning against the external and legalistic view of sin which might be suggested by the word itself. Christ does not imply that it is a debt which can be paid by any amount of good deeds or retributive suffering. The word is chosen to emphasize our duty of forgiveness, and it has a wide meaning, including all we owe to God. The metaphor of the money payment has ceased to be prominent, except where it is implied by the context.
C. W. Emmet.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


Because debts place a person under obligation to his creditors, Paul sometimes used the word ‘debt’ to refer to a person’s spiritual obligations. Paul considered that his obligation to preach the gospel was a debt he owed to people everywhere (Rom_1:14; 1Co_9:16). He believed also that Gentile Christians, having received the gospel by way of the Jews, owed a debt to their Jewish brothers. The Gentiles had an obligation to help the Jews in their poverty (Rom_15:27).
More frequently, however, the Bible uses the illustration of debt to refer to something bad, such as sin in general (Mat_6:12; Mat_18:32-35) or bondage to the sinful human nature (Rom_8:12). Debt in this sense is a reminder of the difficulties of life in the everyday world, where debts can easily bring a person to ruin. The poor can easily be exploited, and for this reason Israelite law aimed at protecting them from greedy money-lenders. (For details see LENDING.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


Debt
(נְשַׁי, neshi', 2Ki_4:7; מִשָּׁאָה, mashshaah', Pro_22:26; נשֶׁא, noshe', a creditor, 1Sa_22:2; elsewhere, יָר, hand, Neh_10:31; δάνειον, loan, never debt, Mat_18:27; ὀφειλή, Mat_18:22, a due, as rendered Rom_13:7; ὀφείλημα, something owed, Mat_6:12; Rom_4:4). The Mosaic law very strongly recommended willingness to loan (Deu_15:7 sq.; comp. Psa_37:26; Mat_5:42). Interest (נֶּשֶׁךְ, “usury”), however, could only be exacted by capitalists from foreigners, not at all from Israelites as co-religionists (in Neh_5:11, a percentage is mentioned; but it does not appear whether this was in money, Heineccii Antiq. Rom_2:15; Rom_2:19, as generally among the Romans, or a yearly rental; comp. Appian, Civ. 1:54); also a vendue of loaned natural products (see, however; Baba Mezia, v. 1) was forbidden (Exo_22:25; Lev_25:37 sq.; Deu_23:20). The agrarian regulation of the state, secured each one, in the last resort, from the rapacity of the creditor; probably by this very arrangement moneyed men were restrained from depending upon loaned money for a subsistence, and were. thus induced to turn their attention to agriculture or other useful occupations. See LAND. In this way, however, wholesale business, which was incompatible with the isolation-system of the Jewish law-giver, was rendered rare, or rather impossible (see Michaelis, Syntagm. commentt. 2:1 sq.; Mos. Recht, 3, 87 sq.; Jahn, Bibl. Archeol. II, 2:325 sq.; on the Talmudic prescriptions, see Selden, Jus. Heb_6:9). Usury incurred the deepest scorn (Pro_28:8; Eze_18:8; Eze_18:13; Eze_18:17; Eze_22:12; Jer_15:10; Psa_15:5; Psa_109:11), but no other civil penalty was annexed to it (according to the Talmud, it involved a forfeiture of redress; on the whole subject, see Marezoll, De usuraria pravitate, Lips. 1837).
Written notes of obligation (χειρόγραφα, signatures; Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 921, finds such evidences of debt in the מִשָּׁאיָדor מִשֵּׁהיד, q. d. note of hand, Deu_15:2 : the Talmudic precepts on such paper are given in the Mishna, Baba Bathra, c. 10) were, at least in the post-exilian period, regularly in vogue (Tob_1:17; Josephus, Ant. 16:10, 8; War, 2:17, 6; comp. 18:6, 3; Luk_16:6 sq.). Distraint was allowed, but under certain restrictions (Exo_22:16 sq.; Deu_24:6; Deu_24:10 sq.). See PLEDGE. Severity against debtors being regarded as imperious among the Israelites (comp. Job_22:6; Job_24:3), especially in the collection of debts, the law scarcely enjoined anything directly on the treatment of bankrupts; it is merely indicated that he who was totally insolvent might be sold into temporary bondage in order to satisfy the debt by his wages. (On the rigor towards this class among the Romans, see Heineccius, Antig. jur. Rom. 3, 30, 2. They were often subjected to the harshest usage as slaves, Livy, 2:23; 6:36; Gell. 20:1, 19; Appul. Ital. 9, p. 40, ed. Schweigh. In Athens, before Solon's time, the creditor could even lay claim to the person of his debtor, Plutarch, Vit. Sol. c. 15; later, there prevailed a summary process of seizure, which the creditor himself was authorized to execute [see Schlager, De delictore, etc. Helmstadt, 1741]. Yet certain mitigations, not unlike the Mosaic, existed; see Heffter, Athen. Gerichtsverf. p. 455 sq. On the Egyptian legislation, see Diod. Sic. 1:79; Wilkinson, 2:49 sq.) This rule was often still further exercised in practice with such hard-heartedness as to involve wife and children in the poor debtor's fate (2Ki_4:1; Neh_5:5; Isaiah 1, 1; Mat_18:25); nay, the sureties likewise were exposed to the same mode of reparation (Pro_20:16; Pro_22:26 sq.; Pro_27:13). Debtors were liable to punishment by imprisonment (Mat_5:26; Mat_18:30), probably a Roman usage. The Talmudic rules concerning debt are mild (Baba Mezia, 9:13). On the Sabbatical year (q.v.) all pecuniary obligations were cancelled (Deu_15:1; Deuteronomy cf., 9). SEE LOAN; SEE DEBTOR; SEE USURY; SEE CREDITOR, etc.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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