Christ teaches that, as He is the Mediator between God and man, intercession must be offered through Him. He is the Intercessor, and our intercessions can avail only because He intercedes, presenting our prayers to the Father. He prayed for His disciples and for all who through their word might believe, and now He prays within the veil, carry- ing forward the intercession begun on earth. This comes out clearly in His 'Intercessory Prayer' (Jn 17), or, as it has perhaps been more fittingly designated. His ' High Priestly Prayer.' Reading it in the light of the happily correct rendering of KV, we see that He is speaking as if He had already entered into the glory, and w ere looking back upon His earthly course. In the joy of His anticipated triumph He presents Himself before the Father and pleads for the fulfilment of the Father's will. Christ's intercession for mankind which was begun on earth is continued in heaven, and our prayers for others are presented by Him in virtue of His mediation. At the same time, this prayer attbrds an unfailing guide to our prayers of intercession, teaching us that prayer is to be ottered for the ingathering of men into the King- dom, for the unity of the Church of God, for the perseverance of believers, and for the sanctifica- tion, for all these ends, of those who are engaged in the Church's work.
3. The seope of intercession. — Our Lord is careful to tell His disciples to pray for their enemies (Mt 5"), and in so doing He bids them remember in prayer those whom they might not have thought of including, assuming that they would, without being specially directed, pray for all others. He
INTEREST
INVITATION
837
thus teaches both by direct precept and by iiuplica- tion that intercession is to be full and universal. The only other special direction He gives in tliis con- nexion is that they are to pray for labourers to be sent into the Lord's harvest (Mt ff", Lk 10-). Christ gives these few general directions as to the scope of intercession, leaving it to time and growing ex- perience to suggest their amplification. The scope of Christian intercession must always be widening.
■ It grows with the growth of the Church and her needs ; it grows with the growing complexity of human society as new classes and new objects rise up to claim its help. . . . Interces- sion is also an ever widening element in each individual life ; as a man's interest and experiences widen, so must his prayers ' (Frere, Sursum Corda^ p. 1).
i. The conditions of intercession. — Two distinct, though sometimes confused, conditions of accept- able intercession are laid down bjr Christ. (1) In Mk 11** He shows that eft'ectual intercession pre- supposes a forgiving spirit. Those who pray for others through Christ must have the spirit of Christ. (2) In Mt S^--* the disciples are taught that a condition of acceptable prayer is that they must seek reconciliation with any one who regards them (rightly or wrongly) as having done him a •wrong (see Zahn, ad loc). There must be a re- moval of the sense of injury from his mind as well as forgiveness to those who have wronged them- selves. He who prays for others must be in peace and charity with all men.
Literature. — Most of the modem popular books on Prayer are astonishingly silent as to Intercession. In many of the so-called 'divisions of prayer' Intercession does not even find a place. But in Matthew Henry's Method of Prayer, a book little used now. Intercession is prominent. Of the few modern books in which the subject is dealt with, mention may be made of Worlledge on 'Prayer' in the Oxford Library of Practical Theology ; Frere and llling^vorth's Suramn Corda ; Reid's Chris- tian Prayer ; Rendel Harris' Union with God, pp. 41-64.
J. Cromarty Smith.
INTEREST 'Interest,' found twice in RV of
the Gospels (Mt 25=^, Lk 19^=) instead of 'usury' of AV, represents the Greek t6kos which in the LXX is the equivalent of the Heb. neshekh in the whole of the eleven passages in which the latter occurs (Ex 22^5, Lv 25^« etc. ). Now neshekh is rightly ren- dered ' usury,' the reference being to the interest, often exorbitant, charged by money-lenders in the ancient East. In the NT t6ko!, though often used in contemporary Greek in the sense just defined, clearly signifies ' interest on deposit paid by a banker.' There were many banks in tne Roman period scattered over the Groeco-Roman world, some called 'public banks' and others private firms (e.g. 'Theon & Co.,' ' Herodes & Co.,' at Oxyrhynchus). These, however, seem, from a lately discovered text, to have farmed fi'om the government, in Egypt at any rate, the right of administering business ; the Roman authorities, it would appear, following in some degree Ptole- maic precedent \Papyri of Oxyrhynchus, No. 513, vol. iii. : cf . the note on p. 248 f. ). Not much seems to be known about the deposit department of ancient banking. The technical term for a deposit on which interest was paid was creclitum. The amounts lodged in Roman banks towards the end of the Republic and under the Empire must have been, in some instances, very large. About the rate of interest paid to depositors there seems to be little or no information. The statement of Suetonius, that Augustus branded some people with infamy [notavit) because they borrowed at low interest and invested at high (Octavius, 39), may hint how the bankers made money out of the funds entrusted to their care. The usual rate of interest on loans under the Empire seems to have been one per cent, per month, or twelve per cent. ]ier annum. This rate is repeatedly mentioned in the Papyri of Oxyrhynchus {No. 243 of A.D. 79, and No. 270 of A,D. 94, etc.). The rate paid to deposi-