Today, we shall examine the topic of slavery in the Old (and New!) Testaments of the Bible. This is a topic I’ve seen some apologists (Notably Matt Slick of carm.org) defend the practice as put forth by the Bible as being more humane and therefore somehow more morally acceptable than how others practiced it. This absolutely blows my mind. That Christians haven’t had a Third Council of Nicaea to shove the offending scriptures down the Memory Hole is astonishing. Nevertheless, I’ll try to take a skeptical look at the Biblical passages that allow slavery, and not be influenced by the fact that these passages have throughout history been used to oppress and bind entire classes of people.1
First and foremost, let us start from the premise that non-consensual slavery is absolutely morally indefensible, and is perhaps one of the most immoral things a person can be complicit in, excepting murder. I specify the “non-consensual” because the Bible has some other passages that we will examine that specifically deal with selling one’s self into slavery. I believe that these days we would call that “a comfortable middle management job”, but we’ll deal with that issue at another time.
Slavery was a common practice during the time the Bible was written – in fact, it’s been a common thread throughout most of the earth’s history, found in almost every civilization including Egypt, Greece, Rome, and others. Even at the time of Plato and Socrates, slavery was such an accepted institution, even by philosophers, that nobody so much as batted an eye.
Slavery in the Old Testament
Slavery is, today, universally condemned as a crime against humanity. For the Bible to show itself as something more than a product of the time and place in which it was written, we’d need to see evidence that God had social rules that transcended the time and the rules of the other societies of the day. Does He?
There is good evidence that He does not. Leviticus 25:44-46, for instance, God delivers instructions on the buying and selling of human beings:
However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
This is nothing more than the sanctioning of treating human beings, including children, like livestock, or sacks of grain. Further, the Biblical instructions regarding the treatment of slaves is appalling:
When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB, emphasis mine)
Further, and in keeping with the general social views at the time, the Bible condones and regulates the practice of selling one’s daughter in sexual slavery:
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
Hebrew slaves had it a little better in the OT. The length of their bondage couldn’t last longer than six years (Or until the next year of Jubilee) – for males, anyway, not females. These slaves were to be treated as extended family, could not be compelled to work with rigor, and debtors who sold themselves as slaves to their creditors had to be treated the same as a hired servant. When released, they were to be given gifts to help them succeed financially – grain, livestock, and wine. Non-Israelite slaves, on the other hand, could be enslaved indefinitely and were to be treated as inheritable property.
Slavery in the New Testament
By the time we get to the NT, things have improved, albeit very marginally. Jesus, as the founder of all Christian moral thinking, had the perfect opportunity on countless occasions to denounce the entire institution of slavery, but tellingly, never did so – and neither did any of the writers of the NT.
Peter and Paul both exhort slaves to be “be obedient to your earthly masters” (Ephesians 6:5 NLT) and at one point, Paul even sends an escaped slave to go back to his slavery in the Epistle to Philemon. Paul does, in this letter, exhort Philemon to treat Onesimus as a brother in Christ, but misses a fantastic opportunity to denounce the institution entirely.
Further, a response to the most common apologist claim about Biblical slavery – that the rules for Hebrew slaves applied to all. A reading of the above passages shows clearly that they did not. It is true that Israelite slaves were entitled to special privileges, but these privileges were not enjoyed by all slaves that the Israelites kept. In short, the Bible does not regard slavery as a universal abomination, and regulates its practice. In some instances, it compels the enslavement of others.
With regard to slavery, the Bible clearly shows itself as a product of social and economic customs and forces of the time. It is neither socially radical or even moderately progressive in its rules regarding human rights. Despite the various semantic hoops that apologists try to jump through, the inescapable fact is that the Bible condones, regulates, and sometimes compels the practice of depriving other human beings of their freedom. What I find most disturbing, however, is that apologists attempt to defend these verses, though I understand that to fail to do so would lead to some fairly severe cognitive dissonance. And it is on this basis that I conclude that Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a far more moral code to live by than Leviticus or Exodus:
“
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
”
Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Exit, stage left.
Sparks
1: You have no idea how hard it was to write this without it quickly degrading into outright mockery. It took genuine effort.