Hypocritical world religions: God and money

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State greed: painting by the Dutch master Marinus van Reymerswaele (16th century)

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Scala / bpk

The announcement is unmistakable: "If you lend money to one of my people", it says in Exodus (chapter 22, verse 24), "you should not act on him like a usurer."

What threatens those who violate this prohibition becomes clear in the book of Ezekiel (18:13): "He should not live, but ... die to death."

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These passages from the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, had consequences until today.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam - the so-called Abrahamic religions, which have their common roots in the Middle East - have always had a hard time lending money, at least when interest was involved.

However, the question of whether a general prohibition of interest can be derived from this was answered differently by the religions in the course of their history.

Everyone was confronted early on with the fact that an economy in which increasingly large quantities were traded over long periods and distances required instruments such as credit.

Because something like this can often only be financed in anticipation of expected profits.

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