(5) As applied to the manner or course of life : Lk 15'^ fiDi' do-aiTws, ' with riotous living ' (cf. Jos. A7it. XII. iv. 8, dcrdiTUjs i:rjv). Contrast ' holy living.' From this phrase is derived the title 6 dawros w6s, flius ijrodigus, by wliicli this pai'able is generally known (Trench, Par.^ 393 ; Jiilicher, Gleichnisr. 337, 341).* See also art. Life.
Literature. — In addition to the reff. in this art., see Dale, The Living Christ and the Four Gospels ; Forsyth, The Holy Father and the Living Christ ; van Dyke, The Reality of Religion, p. 121 ; Liddon, Passiontide Sermons, p. 244.
James Donald. LOAF (fipros). — The Eastern loaf is not at all like the bread in use among ourselves. The Pass- over loaf — a large round thin cake — probably pre- serves the shape of the loaf in use among the Jews of our Lord's time. The same shajie of loaf is found to-day among the Bedawin and fellahin as well as in many villages and towns. The loaves are of considerable size, — 18 in. or more in diameter, — and are of an extreme tenuity and of a peculiar but not unpleasant toughness. They are baked usually on a convex girdle, very often on the im- plement which is used for roasting coffee — hence the name ' girdle bread.' They may also be baked on heated stones or on the outside of a jar within which a fire has been kindled. Such without doubt would be the kind of bread baked by the
* Chrys. {de Poenitentia, Horn. i. 4) calls the young-er son 0 io-aiTo;, but the Sermon u; tou oco-oitov uiov referred to by Jiilicher is omitted as spurious, ed. Montfaugon (Paris, 1839).
children of Israel in their desert wanderings. And at the present time one may see this loaf in almost every part of Palestine. Even where other kinds of bread are used, this is still highly relished. If there is a guest in a native house, the loaves are often folded up in quarter size and laid beside his plate, and more than one European ti'aveller has mistaken them, Avhen so placed, for table najjkins !
In all probability the loaves in Mk 6^^ 8**, etc., were of this kind, inasmuch as such bread is almost always caiTied on a journey, and by workmen, be- cause of its keeping properties. The loaf is never cut ; it is broken or torn asunder. Small scoops are made of the portions, with which the meat, rice, or Icben (curdled milk) is scooped up — spoon and contents being eaten together. A man will eat three or four of these loaves at a meal (Lk 11^).
Another loaf in common use at the present day is smaller in circumference and considerably thicker, and very much resembles in appearance the ' scones,' baked on a girdle, so common in some parts of Scotland. Bread of this kind is found only in towns where there are public ovens. See also art. Bread. J. Soutar.
LOANS. — There are frequent references to money, and many illustrations suggested by financial obli- gations, in the teaching of Jesus. These have been gathered together as indications of ' the economic background of the Evangelical history ' (Haus- rath, NT Times, i. p. 188 f., quoted also in full by Bruce in Parabolic Teaching, p. 243 f . ). We learn from Tacitus that the year 17 was marked by great discontent in Judwa and throughout Syria, on account of the burdensome taxation, and that the year 33 was one of financial crisis throughout the Empire. There is tiius full justification for the numerous Gospel intimations of hardship and debt, and impoverishment generally. See Debt.
But the relation of del)tor and creditor is so obviously adaptable to moral obligations, that under any social condition the use of tliis figure is to be expected. The very terms for financial obligations are freely used to express the obliga- tions of moral life. Thus the same Gr. verb (6(f>d\o3) is variously rendered in the RV ' owed,' ' owest,' ' that was due ' (Mt 18-«- »»• '^^ Lk 7" 165- ■? of financial obligation) ; ' debtor ' (Mt 23i«- ^^ [AV 'guilty']), 'duty' (Lk 17'«), 'ought' (Jn 13" 19"), ' indebted ' (Lk ll"* ; all of moral obligation) ; and the noun (o^etXexT^s) is translated 'owed' (Mt 18-'^ of money debt), ' debtors ' (Mt 6''^ of moral debts), ' offenders ' (Lk 13'' [AV ' sinners '] of guilt before God). Financial obligations afford also a ready measure of moral indebtedness ; our sins against one another are as debts of £50 or £5 (Lk 7^'), but our .sin against God runs into ' millions sterling ' (Mt 182*).
The very naturalness of these illustrative uses of money values and financial relations makes it obviously wrong to press them into the support of economic theories, e.g. the justification of com- mercial loans from ' Thou oiightest therefore to have put my money to the bankers, and then at my coming I should liave received back mine own Avith interest ' (Mt 252^ = Lk 19-»). In parables any relations may hold which the story demands. In Ciiristian economics only moral relations are to be tolerated. Because tlien, in the Gospel narratives, debtors and creditors, borrowers and lenders figure largely, we are not able to say that the teacliing of Jesus eitiier supports or condemns modern com- mercial arrangements. The true basis of Christian economics must be found in the ethical teaching of the Gospels as a Mdiole.