Does the Bible condone slavery?
Mark Silbernagel
Does the Bible condone slavery? Recently, Exodus 21 verses 1-6 were cited
as an example that it does, since it speaks of provisions related to
slavery without saying "it is bad".
>da...@silicon.csci.csusb.edu (Dave Choweller) writes:
>Even though the following verses use "servant," it's clear that
>the word means "slave," from reading the verses.
>Exodus 21: [vs 1-6 included here]
Your comments are solicited.
My response to the question, in general, is that the Bible deals more
with the heart of mankind, since our actions are based upon the
principles and beliefs we have. A focus upon the symptoms would not be
effective; demanding that most of the known world at that time reject
slavery entirely would be asking too much until they had a different
basis from which to view and choose their actions.
In Exodus (and elsewhere), I believe that God's Law addressed the worst
abuses and evils of slavery, so they would not be present amoung the
Jews. Among them, slavery itself had virtually disappeared by the time of
Christ and His diciples. Slavery under the gentile nations was altogether
different from that practiced under Mosaic Law.
Exodus 21, in particular, can be described as part of the "civil" law
given by God for the nation of Israel to obey in order to enjoy His
blessing. Also speaking to the same issues are parts of Leviticus and
Deuteronomy.
Consider the "rights" given the slave by the Law:
Among the Hebrews themselves, they were not allowed to be bondservants
(slaves), rather, hired servants (Lev 25:39,40).
And, "Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shall fear thy God"
(Lev 25:43)
Ordinarily, such slavery was caused by poverty, i.e. debts a man could
not meet (Lev 25:39); or by theft, i.e., because of restitution a man
could not pay (Exod 22:2,3)
Such a Hebrew could be redeemed by relatives at any time (Lev 25:48, 49).
If not redeemed, he was set free after six years of service and was sent
away with presents of cattle and fruit (Deut 15:12-14).
A Hebrew slave could choose out of love for his master not to be free in
the seventh year, becoming the lifelong servant of his master (Deut
15:17).
There was a fugitive slave law, which provided protection from oppression
(Deut 23:15,16). In this case, the runaway was protected rather than
being sent back for punishment or worse.
All the religious privileges enjoyed by free Israelites were assured to
their slaves, including rest on the Sabbath (Exod 20:10), the right to
attend the national festivals (Deut 16:10,11), and the right to attend
the gathering of the people to hear the reading of the Law (Deut
31:10-13).
A last note, from the new testament, 1 Cor 7:21,22 shows that slavery was
not of consequence to the mission of Christs diciples. This is consistent
with the focus upon the spiritual mission they were on. In fact, the
verse notes His followers are to be servants of God rather than servants
of men.
Slavery referred to in Exodus 21 is far from the world's forms of
slavery, where Roman law would crucify a slave for almost any reason,
such as stealing. They could be branded with the letters C.F (Cave furem,
meaning "Beware the thief"). If he ran away, he could be branded, given
more labor, or put to death. Roman law did provide for intercession on
the behalf of a slave. This is what Paul did in Philemon's behalf, asking
Onesimus for pardon.
I don't believe you find support for either condoning or endorsing
slavery in the book of Exodus, and, it seems clear that what they call
slavery is not at all the same as was common outside of Israel.
Taken as a "whole", the Bible, to me, seeks to change the hearts of men
such that most of the things we recognize as evils would cease to be. Of
course, we would have to actually live as we are instructed.
Mark Silbernagel | "It has yet to be proven that
Mentor Graphics Corporation | intelligence has any survival value."
8005 S.W. Boeckman Road | - Arthur C. Clarke
Wilsonville, OR 97070-7777 | (whoa - it's me, not Mentor)
(503) 685-4738 | mark_sil...@mentorg.com
D. C. Sessions
group but set followups to <or.general> where most of us couldn't
possibly see it. I took the liberty of spinning an AM thread off
of a prefatory comment:
In <1993Aug17....@news.mentorg.com>, mark_sil...@mentorg.com (Mark Silbernagel) wrote:
# My response to the question, in general, is that the Bible deals more
# with the heart of mankind, since our actions are based upon the
# principles and beliefs we have. A focus upon the symptoms would not be
# effective; demanding that most of the known world at that time reject
# slavery entirely would be asking too much until they had a different
# basis from which to view and choose their actions.
Odd notion. The Torah deals almost exclusively with actions,
which kind of shoots down this thesis right from the start.
So much of Western civilization is based on Greek concepts that
we often forget that they are NOT the only way of looking at
things. The Greek myth of primacy of thought over action is
an excellent example. When Xtianity grafted elements of
Judaism onto a Greek conceptual base, it locked Western culture
into this belief for two thousand years. Its power as an
unquestionable axiom is illustrated by MS (above), where he
can't even see the text before his eyes because it doesn't fit
into the Greek conceptual mold.
It's worth noting that Judaism never bought this idea the way
Xtianity did. Interestingly, it has been only very recently
that research in psychology has challenged earlier theories
founded on the Greek view.
--- D. C. Sessions Speaking for myself ---
--- Note new network address: d...@witsend.stat.com ---
--- Author (and everything else!) of TMail (DOS mail/news shell) ---