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chapter talks about
how
to be rich. It
does not condemn the wealth itself.
Again in the Phillips translatfon, be–
ginning in verse 17, let's read a sum–
mary of the principie: "Tell those
who are rich in this present world not
to be contemptuous of others, and not
to rest the weight of their confidence
on the transitory power of wealth but
on the living God, who generously
gives us everything for our enjoy–
ment."
Remember that in the same exam–
ple Jesus gave to the disciples to ex–
plain the difficulties a rich man
would have in gaining the Kingdom,
He also said that "with God
al!
things are possible"
(Matt. 19:23-
26).
Why All the Mystery?
Money is mysterious to many. It's
simple enough to see that if you have
enough of it you can buy anything
(almost) that you want. But what is
money? Why do sorne people have
more than others? Just how compli–
cated is the system? What's the his–
tory of the mystery?
As with nearly every major facet
of our society- medicine, education,
law, farming, government-banking
finds its recorded beginnings in Bab–
ylon, inextricably entwined with reli–
gion because
priest-kings
ruled in an–
cient times.
In an agricultura] economy, barter
was sufficient as a means of ex–
change. As men gathered themselves
into cities and began to deal with one
another in many capacities, they no
longer raised flocks, herds and crops.
So they needed something to repre–
sent wealth-something portable,
precious, protectable.
Gold .and silver quickly carne to
represent ,
in certain weights, a given
number of cows, sheep, donkeys, etc.
Words you may be familiar with
such as "capital," "capitalism,"
"fee," " rupee" are all words which
derive from " cattle," or a cow-stan–
dard society. Many other forms of
representation have been used- salt,
feathers, dogs ' teeth, fishhooks.
In today's modero world we may
enjoya laugh at someone who would
think salt was money (are you worth
your salt?), until we would try to
convince him that a column of fig-
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1979
ures in the electronic memory of our
local bank's computer is what repre–
sents our true wealth!
Back to the Beginning
As people gathered into Cities and
their borde of
representative
wealth
(gold and silver) became larger, pro–
tecting it became a problem. Many a
house had a secret chamber for the
master's money- perhaps in a hole
dug into the floor, perhaps a secret
hiding place behind a tree, under a
hedge, three feet deep in the earth of
the little walled garden to the rear.
At any rate, it was secr.eted in as safe
a place as the master could think
of-you can bank on that!
BANK?
Right, you guessed it! Look up the
word in the big dictionary of the local
library sometime. A
bank
is a mound
or rise of carth. One basic meaning of
the word is also " to cover"-you
bank a fire by covering it with ashes
so it won't all burn up while you
sleep. Then when you want to start
the fire in the morning you remove
the covering-you make a withdraw–
al from your fire bank. Sometimes
we become ashamed of the humble
beginnings of our dignified institu–
tions~why?
These prívate banks (boles in the
ground) were not as safe as desired.
People didn't respect each other's
prívate property, but being a super–
stitious lot they feared their many
gods and wouldn't think of violating
the temples. So, for a price, the local
high priest would allow the storage of
the representative wealth (money) in
his temple treasury to ensure its safe–
ty. In fact, the very word "money"
derives from .the Latín and comes
from the Roman mythology that
Juno
invented
money.
The truth of the matter is that
both
Juno, with her panoply of gods
and goddesses,
and
the invention of
money carne from Babylon! The Ro–
mans continued the temple-money
practice in the temple of Juno
mone–
ta:
So what was coined became called
"money" and the
place
where it was
coined was called the "mint"!
Back to Babylon
In order to portray graphically how
this whole banking system developed
in history, consider the following
pseudo-historie but wholly possible
scenario of the past.
As the gold or other representative
wealth began to accumulate in the
prívate coffers and under the protec–
tive custody of the high priest in the
temple, the priest-king (let's call him
Baal Nimrud-Rude for short) put
together an interesting plan (about
2200
B.
C.). He noticed that at no one
time did everyone call for the wealth
sequestered in the safety of the tem–
ple vaults. He also noticed that intel–
ligent and capable men who had real
property (land, cattle, houses, slaves)
often lacked the cold gold to finance
aventure that would turn them from
middle-class into rich men.
Putting these two factors together,
he became a banker. He called the
men aside (those whom he had first
checked out to be sure of theír secu–
rities) and told them the deal he had
in mind for them.
Jf
they would
pledge their property in lieu of the
repayment of the gold he would lend
them (should their venture fail),
Rude would finance their plans.
Rude arbitrarily picked thirty per–
cent as the yearly amount of interest
that should be paid to him for the use
of the gold.
The first farmer took the gold
from Rude. After pledging his prop–
erty in lieu of repayment at the stipu–
lated terms, he took the gold to a
local businessman, contracting to
have an irrigation system built and
enough seed supplied to plant a crop.
That businessman took the gold to
the temple for safekeeping.
Rude then offered the same chunk
of gold on the same terms to another
farmer who wanted a house built.
The builder brought the gold to the
temple for safekeeping! Rude then
offered the same piece of gold to a
local merchant, on the same terms, so
he could pick up enough camels to
form a caravan to Egypt. The carne!
dealer brought the gold bar to the
temple and deposited it in the safety
of the sanctuary.
By this time Rude added another
idea to his plan. Since the gold was
heavy, cumbersome to carry- even
dangerous to transport- Rude con–
vinced his next customer (sticking to
the same terms for the loan) that it
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