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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 25:27 - 25:27
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27. τὸ ἀργύριόν μου. It was not thine own.
τοῖς τραπεζίταις. To the bankers, who set up tables or counters (τράπεζαι) for the purpose of lending or exchanging money. In the cities of eastern Russia Jewish bankers (τραπεζῖται) are still to be seen seated at their tables in the market-place. Such bankers’ tables in the ἀγορὰ were places of resort. Socrates asks his judges not to be surprised if he should use the same arguments, διʼ ὧνπερ εἴωθα λέγειν καὶ ἐν ἀγορᾷ ἐπὶ τῶν τραπεζῶν, Apol. Socr., p. 17; cp. also κἀμοὶ μὲν τὰ προειρημένα διείλεκτο ἐπὶ τῇ φιλίου τραπέζῃ, Lysias, IX. 5, p. 114.
σὺν τόκῳ. τόκος, lit. ‘offspring,’ then the offspring of money ‘interest,’ or usury. Aristotle playing upon the word argues against usury as being a birth contrary to nature (παρὰ φύσιν), Arist. Pol. I. 10. 5. Shakespeare has the same thought when he calls ‘interest’ ‘the breed of barren metal,’ and Bacon who terms it ‘the bastard use of money.’ The high rates of interest in the ancient world and the close connection between debt and slavery naturally brought usury into odium. The Jew was forbidden to lend money upon usury to his brother (Deu 23:20); in later times, however, the practice of usury was reduced to a system and carried on without restriction of race. See Bib. Dict., Articles ‘Loan’ and ‘Usury.’
This was the very least the slave could have done: to make money in this way required no personal exertion.