@carnold03 I am not sure what usury is in this context. In this case, I took it to be "unfair as opposed to fair trade in currency" If they wanted the official money, they had to pay for a incorrectly weighed measure of silver (not the true shekel weight) with a fair measure (which in those days the denarius was, it was only later that we got rampant Roman seignurage).

To take more than a fair share is greedy, is that the connection you mean?

I have often thought that unfairness is not a deadly sin and why not? To me the problem with the money changers was their unfairness to other men as opposed to their desire for money itself.

I think the answer lies in the 7 deadly sins being really about doing illicit and inappropriate things -things beyond the covenants of Yahweh- with the good things that Yahweh has provided for men. To greatly "lust" after sex with your new wife is not the sin of lust at all (unless at certain points in the church's history it was during a fast) its actually god's will that you want to mate with her and procreate. However to desire sex with the hot girl next door is illicit and no matter how much she would like it too and even if you use no birth control, its a sin. To relax on the sabbath is good. To relax when you should be working is sloth. To enjoy the fruit of your labour at the table is a good thing, to eat far more than you need in wasteful way is gluttony. To be angry at the burning of a church by infidels is virtue, to rage at your neighbour's bonfire is wrath and so on.

The 7 deadly sins are really all the same thing -the incorrect or excessive application of desire that can be good in the right place and time. This is not so much about fairness. Unfairness instead goes against the concept of treating your neighbour as yourself, which is half of the law.

@First-light

I thought the problem with the money changers was that they had a closed market. The temple only accepted the temple shekel, which was of no use anywhere else because it was actually underweight for the price sold.

Jesus at the Temple

12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[a] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’[b]”

14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’[c]?”

17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

― The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), Matthew 21:12–17

I prefer John 2:13–16 myself simply because there's something hardcore about a priest taking off his belt and proceeding to whip Jewish degenerates. However, this leaves me curious to ask a serious question. Do you understand what usury is and the significance of its connection to the third of the seven deadly sins?

@Typo-MAGAshiv female friends, its practically an oxymoron that can only be resolved be re-defining friend to "Useful and pleasant acquaintance that I do not intend to bang"

This definition does the job when applied to male friends but good ones still have something else to offer -a brotherly love, the certainty in your mind you can trust them to look out for you in a disinterested way, the un spoken rule of every man trying to contribute equally in finance and effort unless his fellows relieve him of the obligation and even then he will feel some regret he could not make it.

Or if you drew a Venn diagram, you could decide to put some females who would not belong in the "want to bang circle" in the circle marked "friends" but not inside a smaller inner circle marked "true friends". There should, however, never be an intersection between "friends" and "want to bang" Whereas there can be an intersection between "acquaintances" and "want to bang"

Whether or not you make an exception on the venn diagram for your wife/ mother of your children depends on what she shows you over the years. On good days I start to think an exception should be made but when bad ones come along I start to think I am dumb.