Banks during time of Jesus

MANILA, Philippines — Yuletide is undeniably the busiest time of the year.

You know that ‘tis the season when the lines are unusually long at the banks and at the automated teller machines: People are extra generous with their earnings and buy gifts for their family, friends, and colleagues in the spirit of Christmas.

This makes you wonder, were there banks during the time of Jesus?

According to Benjamin Bromberg, who wrote an article for The Economic History Review entitled “Temple Banking in Rome,” banking is one of the oldest institutions known to man.

“Its history is lost somewhere in remote antiquity,” Bromberg said. “But this much is definitely known: Banking was born in the temples consecrated to the gods and goddesses of mythology in the Mesopotamian area thousands of years before the rise of Christianity.”

Bromberg explained that this custom of  “sanctuary depositories” eventually spread to the other ancient civilizations in Europe — including Ancient Rome, which at the time of Jesus was the most powerful empire on earth.

He added that there were about a thousand “religious sanctuaries” in Ancient Rome, and the larger ones served as repositories.

The historian Herodian, in his “History of His Own Times,” described the greatness of the banking Temple of Peace: “...it was made a public receptacle of treasures, and every one carried to it his most valuable effects, as to a depository of unquestioned security.”

Unfortunately, according to Herodian, a great fire broke out in this sanctuary in A.D. 191 and “...many who just before were exceedingly wealthy were now reduced to poverty. So that there was universal lamentation, all in general bewailing the public misfortune; and each in particular mourning his private loss.”

Bromberg said that the Roman sanctuaries did not lend any money at all — and this stood true from the early Roman times to the later stages of Roman economic development.

He explained that the reason behind this was the notoriety of ancient Roman bankers.

 “We know that the banker of Roman antiquity was not so highly respected….. In fact, the ancient financier was a rather highly despised member of the economic community by reason of his usurious practices,” Bromberg said.

In short, usury was synonymous to the “mean employment of banking” during the Roman times, Bromberg explained.

This probably explains why in the New Testament, all four evangelists reported the incident of Jesus chasing the money lenders out of the temple.

It would be interesting to note that the modern word “bank” originated from a simple Italian word, “banca,” which means bench.

This etymology, as discussed in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ “The General Banking Law Annotated: Book 2,” came from a curious Italian practice during the middle ages. The practice involved money changers bringing actual benches to the marketplaces, and conducting their business on these benches.

From the temple banks of Ancient Rome, to the bancas in Italy during the Middle Ages, to the eventual establishment of the Bank of England (which is considered as the prototype of  central banking), it is indeed remarkable how the concept of banking has evolved to the type of banking we know today.