Interest on money, once the deadliest sin in three religions.
Documented
Condemned in Exodus, Aristotle, and canon law
Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy restrict interest among brothers; Aristotle called money-breeding unnatural; medieval canon law banned it outright, which pushed lending to those outside the church's protection. Islamic finance still structures around the prohibition today.
Assessment: Documented across three civilizations and three millennia. The anti-interest consensus is one of the longest-running legal agreements in human history.
Stories
The word did not change, the definitions did
The story told by historians of finance: usury was not abolished but redefined, first as excessive interest, then as interest above a statutory cap, then as whatever exceeds the rate set by people who borrow at the lowest rates themselves. The sin was legalized by adjective.
Assessment: Documented legislative history. Calvin's acceptance of moderate interest in the sixteenth century is the usual hinge. The archive notes that the folk version of this story is simply what the records show.
Interesting claims
Debt as the real constitution
The radical reading, from Graeber onward: debt predates money, morality, and most law, the word for sin and debt overlapping in several languages, and every legal system since has primarily existed to make debts collectible. Usury law was never about protection but about allocation.
Assessment: Armed with real anthropology and argued seriously. The archive files it as the strongest available frame, while noting that a frame is not a verdict, even when it explains the furniture.
Sources and further reading
Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:36, Deuteronomy 23:19
Aristotle, Politics I.10, on unnatural wealth-getting
Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011)
Worth asking
Which definition of usury does your credit card use, and who signed that dotted line?