Slavery in the Bible
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| − | Female Hebrew slaves were to be treated differently from males. Parents could sell their daughters into slavery. (Exodus 21:7-11 | + | Female Hebrew slaves were to be treated differently from males. Parents could sell their daughters into slavery. (Exodus 21:7-11 NASB) |
| − | '' | + | ''<sup><small>7</small></sup>If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do. <sup><small>8</small></sup>If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her. <sup><small>9</small></sup>If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. <sup><small>10</small></sup>If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. <sup><small>11</small></sup>If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.'' |
===Non-Hebrew Slaves=== | ===Non-Hebrew Slaves=== | ||
Revision as of 17:30, 4 June 2014
| For it is so written in |
| Scriptures |
| Reference |
| Analysis |
In modern times, slavery is generally considered immoral. Historically speaking, on the other hand—in the Roman Empire and in much of Europe and the "New World" between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries—opinions have varied more widely, tending toward a view of slavery as morally acceptable (except possibly by the slaves).
Slavery was also an important facet of life in biblical times. Both the Old and the New Testaments have instructions regarding slaves which most Jews and Christians disregard. However, some fringe Christian Biblical literalists, notably those who believe in Dominionism, argue that biblcal instructions regarding slavery and its institutions are still relevant today.[1] [2]
Contents |
Slavery in the Old Testament
Overview
The Bible identifies three kinds of slaves—female Hebrew, male Hebrew, and non-Hebrew—and these were treated differently.
Male Hebrew slaves were to be released after six years and were treated better. In general, the code for fellow Israelites involved a crude social safety net to prevent extreme and unnecessary hardship; so, if one managed to get into serious financial trouble to the point of being homeless, he could be "debt bound" to another Israelite. While easily translated as "slavery", it was more like getting someone to come work for you for free... oh, wait, that is "slavery". Evangelical Christians, especially those who subscribe to Biblical inerrancy, will commonly emphasize this distinction between debt bondage and race-based chattel slavery when excusing the Bible for endorsing "slavery"; the argument is that it's not real slavery, at least by 19th Century American standards, although this is arguably a distinction without (much of) a difference.
Female Hebrews could be sold by their fathers and enslaved for life (Exodus 21:7-11), but under some conditions.
Finally, according to Leviticus 25:44, non-Hebrews could be subjected to "slavery" in exactly the way that it is usually understood—the slaves could be bought, sold and inherited when their owner died. This, by any standard, is race- or ethnicity-based, and must necessarily involve some sort of slave trade.
So the Bible endorses two types of slavery: indentured servitude and full chattel slavery - both are bad, but the latter worse.
Beating slaves
Beating slaves was perfectly allowable under the following rules:
(Exodus 21:20-21 ESV) When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
(Exodus 21:26-27 ESV) When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.
Male Hebrew slaves
From Exodus 21:2:
“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the door-post and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.
It is interesting to note that if a slave wishes to remain with his wife and family he must submit to his master for life.
On the other hand Hebrew slaves - and only those Hebrew slaves who entered slavery "voluntarily" - got some severance package as described in Deuteronomy 15:12:
If any of your people—Hebrew men or women—sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free. And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.
Female Hebrew slaves
Female Hebrew slaves were to be treated differently from males. Parents could sell their daughters into slavery. (Exodus 21:7-11 NASB)
7If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do. 8If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her. 9If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. 10If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. 11If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
Non-Hebrew Slaves
If the Israelites wanted full slaves they were instructed in Leviticus 25:44-46 (NASB):
44As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. 45Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession. 46You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.
Slavery in the New Testament
The New Testament makes no condemnation of slave ownership but does have advice for Christian slaves and also regulates how Christian slave owners should treat the slaves they own.
(Ephesians 6:5-8 NIV) Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Christian slaves whose masters were also Christian are told:
(1 Timothy 6:1-2 NIV) All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare[a] of their slaves.
There are instructions for Christian slave owners to treat their slaves well.
(Eph 6:9 NIV) And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
(Coll 4:1 NLT) Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Nevertheless in other parts of the New Testament slave traders (i.e. those who kidnapped and sold people as slaves) were considered "lawless and rebellious," and categorized with homosexuals, liars and promise breakers.
"(1Timothy 1:9-11 NIV) We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me"
Moral relativism
This is probably one of the clearest example of religious moral relativism.
Most modern Christians prefer to avoid, or are unaware of, these sections of the Bible. If forced to explain Biblical justification for slavery, they may come up with something, but fortunately Christians as a group think it would be wrong to reintroduce slavery. Christian attempts to justify what is in the Bible can lead to them sanctioning things that most moral humanists, and even most Christians, would say are wrong, as can be seen from the quote below.
Here is a recent Christian attempt to justify slavery:
"They 'shall be of the heathen' is the key phrase here. God approved of slavery in this instance only because it was His hope that those who became slaves of the Israelites from foreign nations might "be saved." Even though they would lose their earthly freedom, God hoped that they would gain eternal freedom by coming to know Him, which is far more important." [3]
Attempts to justify the Bible's slavery passages
Argument 1: "Slavery in the Bible was more enlightened than that of 17th-19th Century America and other Ancient Near East cultures."
- Even granting this point for the sake of argument, this fails to answer the simple question: is owning another human ever moral, or not? The relative kindness of a slave owner does not enter into the basic moral question of owning other humans as property.
Argument 2: "They could be let go after 6 years" or "It was a mechanism for protecting the those who could not pay their debts." (A.k.a. "Debt bondage")[4]
- Only some Hebrew male slaves were to be freed in the 7th year (Exodus 21:26). Slaves from surrounding countries could be kept as property forever (Leviticus 25:44-46). A further exception pertains to women whose fathers sold them into slavery, and for whom there was no release after six years (Exodus 21:7).
Argument 3: The Bible restricted slave owners' actions (Exodus 21:20).
- Exodus 21:20 does mandate punishment for a master who kills a slave with a rod, but the very next verse says "But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property" (NRSV). The NIV, by contrast, translates this verse as "if the slave recovers after a day or two", which changes its meaning. Either way, the emphasis is that the slave is first and foremost property, and therefore the greatest loss is to the owner, whose slave was "as good as money". [5]
Argument 4: "Slavery was allowed, but was not the ideal will of God."
- There are many ways a creative, all-knowing, and all-powerful deity could make it clear that slavery is immoral while, for instance, giving the Israelite economy a grace period to let slavery "wind down", should that be necessary. The passages concerning slavery from the Pentateuch (e.g. Exodus 21:2-7, Leviticus 25:44-46), by contrast, provide guidelines that allow for slavery to continue indefinitely. New Testament writers, too, who had an opportunity to overturn or clarify the Pentateuch's instructions, did not do so.
Argument 5: "The term 'slave' is a poor translation. It should be 'servant'."
- This may be plausible in some contexts, but not for Leviticus 25:46, which specifically allows that slaves are property who may be inherited by the owner's children and kept for life. This passage makes no sense unless they are discussing slavery—permanent ownership of one human by another—as we know it today.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm
- ↑ http://www.theologyonline.com/DEATH.HTML
- ↑ http://christianity.wikia.com/index.php?title=Atheism&oldid=14592#Atheists_may_say_the_Bible_is_morally_deficient
- ↑ http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-slavery.html
- ↑ http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/exodus-21-21.html