Why does God endorse slavery?

Question

Exodus Chapter 21, verse 20:

If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.

Leviticus Chapter 25, verse 44:

Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

What in the world? Why does a supposedly loving and just God condone the buying and trading of other humans? Shouldn't he love those people? Discuss.

Answer 1

This is a problem for Christians, who have to do mental gymnastics to try and explain why God put these slavery laws into effect. They will say that God didn't REALLY give these laws, people did--but the Bible clearly says that GOD gave these laws, so they're ignoring the Bible in favor of their own opinion...then, in the next breath, they'll say that the entire Bible is God-inspired and ALL of it is to be accepted as his word! They are confused and don't even know what to believe, thanks to the brainwashing they've endured.

IF God inspired the laws of Leviticus, then God is cold-hearted and cruel. If God is kind, loving, and compassionate, then he could not have inspired these laws. These two outlooks are incompatible, so Christians are going to have to pick one and stick with it.

There is NO biblical law saying, "Thou shalt not own slaves, nor condone the buying and selling of humans as if they are cattle." If God existed, and he cared about humans, he would have made such a law. Paul actually tells slaves to be as obedient to their earthly masters as they are to Christ!

It is interesting that Christians seem to enjoy referring to themselves as "slaves of Christ." What is this obsession they have with bondage, servitude, and slavery? Why do they enjoy the prospect of having no will of their own because someone else controls it? And they have the nerve to talk about "free will," as if they have any! True slaves have NO free will--that is what it means to be a slave. You do what your owner tells you to do, without hesitation or question, because he can punish or even kill you for disobedience.

Answer 2

First and far most, slavery may not be a bad thing of the system in the pass.

Slavery in the pass have a lot of different compare the the black slave in the US.

From the text in the Ancient Near East History, Slave do have salary. Wow. . . some are actually managers, accountant, etc. Slave are but working class. No property. Slave may be much more richer than land owner.

In this chapter, God spell out ways to treat the slave justly. if you understand the concept of Jubilee, you will know that the Lord desire people to free them after certain years, along with the land, debt etc. That was the law that God gave.

So, when we read the text, read it in the context of those days. It is hard. But try not to use the things that are familiar to see how things work in those days. Especially not the thing that happen in US. The slavery there was too evil to even talk about.

Allow me to take another example. In those days, female were not allow to go near to the tent, Tabernacle, or later inside the temple. Why is God so sexist? Why is he lookin down on female?

In todays context, we may view it that way. But in those days, in the country Near East, female prosititute were presence in the temple, serving the male worshiper. Infact, some were male prosititute serving female worshiper.

Thus, in protecting the dignity of female, the Lord God forbide the female to enter the temple.

I encourage you to ask more question. Only when you ask, you will understand. I also recommend you to read this book 'read the bible for all it worth'.

Cheers,

Answer 3

I don't know why he does; however, it looks like he does. Except for murder, slavery has got to be one of the most immoral things a person can do. Yet slavery is rampant throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. The Bible clearly approves of slavery in many passages, and it goes so far as to tell how to obtain slaves, how hard you can beat them, and when you can have sex with the female slaves.
Many Jews and Christians will try to ignore the moral problems of slavery by saying that these slaves were actually servants or indentured servants. Many translations of the Bible use the word "servant", "bondservant", or "manservant" instead of "slave" to make the Bible seem less immoral than it really is. While many slaves may have worked as household servants, that doesn't mean that they were not slaves who were bought, sold, and treated worse than livestock.

The following passage shows that slaves are clearly property to be bought and sold like livestock.

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)

The following passage describes how the Hebrew slaves are to be treated.

If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him. If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I would rather not go free.' If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong to his master forever. (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

Notice how they can get a male Hebrew slave to become a permanent slave by keeping his wife and children hostage until he says he wants to become a permanent slave. What kind of family values are these?

Answer 4

And your point would be? No God doesn't endorse slavery. If you read the book of Exodus. God's people were in slavery. HELLO someone. He rescued them from the slavery. He parted the Red Sea for them to escape. Do you have a clear understanding of God? If not lets start with with how God is? His nature? These verse don't say that God said OH I love slavery. But they deal with the very heart of man. SINFUL. These verse like all that your quoting shows that God allows slavery because of Man's sinful heart. Just as Jesus taught the Pharises that Moses allowed Divorce because of the hardness of man's heart. (Matthew 18:8) I use this point to say that no where in the bible does God Himself endorse slavery or any other sin. It is allowed. Only because of the hardness of men's hearts. ALSO Exodus chapter 12:43 is incorrect. Has nothing to do with slavery. You could be off by one verse. But read in context. You must read Exodus 12:43-51. God is discussing with Aaron and Moses the passover regulations. In Exodus 21, you have to understand the history of the Hebrew nation. People were placed in situations like indentured servatude or slavery. Beacuse they owed money or their nation was conquered. That was the norm for that time. See the book of Philemon. Philemon was a Hebrew slave to another Christian. Paul beseeched the Christian master to be kind to Philemon because he had run away. This does in no way says that God Himself endorses slavery. Please read in context. Which means read the entire chapter and ask the HOLY Spirit of God to guide you into all understanding.

Answer 5

What you should know is that many Israelites sold themselves or their children into slavery because they couldn't afford food or clothes, which is the "temporary residents living among you".. Many times there was an exact money figure, and once that was deemed paid off, the person would go free. You also should remember that the Israelites went into slavery in Egypt, the whole lot of them, and that was basically because of a long period of no rain, and the very real possibity that they'd all starve. You also should remember that this was pre-middle ages, and most people weren't exactly kind in the face of starving faces.

Answer 6

Maybe God just deals with reality. Slavery existed and still exists in some places. People had an option to sell themselves as slaves if they were desperate. The Bible deals with this. If you have a slave you must treat them with respect and dignity.
The old testament bible is applicable to every generation.
The point is, if we are commanded to treat a slave with respect how much more so should we treat each other with love dignity and respect. Unfortunately we find that very hard to keep.

What a lesson for any generation.

Answer 7

According to God and his relationship with his people the Jews (which are the ones who are owning the slaves) There are those who are Gods people, and those who are not. Those who are not were considered less of people, since there was nothing in place to reconcile them to God as people (up until Christ).

Everyone has the opportunity to be equal now. Although some people subject themselves to slavery to different masters these days. Addiction, fear, sickness, poverty.

But anyway, its true, he considered the nations that Israel defeated to be judged, and those who were taken captive and allowed to live were forced into slavery. There are many accounts in the bible of cities that God sent Prophets to in the hopes that they would turn to him and stop worshiping other Gods, some did and they were blessed, others didnt and they were destroyed.

God never changes, but the system of forgiveness did, because it was impossible for people to survive any other way.

Answer 8

In the era that was written some men had no means of feeding themselves, let alone the protection of bankruptcy laws when something went wrong. Slavery was actually a second chance to many and a welcome relief to others. Abuse did happen, but so did rebellious slaves that wanted something for nothing. There were also laws that set the slaves free in due course.

Answer 9

The same reason God turned someone into a pillar of salt, or flooded the earth. God is like a kid with a magnifying glass over an anthill and can do what he wants I guess. And you know what is funny? Those that still have such a huge rememberance of slavery (american slavery) tend to stay in church worshipping that God for many more hours than others.

Answer 10

Its the law from back then. And its at a part of the bible teaching obedience to your leaders, and it strongly addresses the role of the slave, and its the same as the role of a child, obey.

Its clear that to go with the flow is the christian way, unless the man does so much harm to the slave as to kill him, then he is to be punnished, because its vile and wrong.

Slaves are poor uneducated people who find permanent work for their survival. Its not bad for those who know nothing about freedom and a lot about hunger.