Why doesn't the new or old testament discourage something as obviously immoral as slavery.?

Question

The bible actually supports the rights of slave owners in several passages. If this isn't an obvious sign that the new and old testament are not the inspired word of a god, then what is?

Answer 1

Because the bible was written by men with agendas of thier own. If they didn't like something they wrote it in as a sin if they liked it well it wasn't sin. Even Paul had slaves it sems, but because an idea is popular doesen't make it right. God would never approve of slavery so just to show ya the Bible isn't inspired.

Answer 2

very rarely does the bible support the rights of slave owners. in almost all cases, it is supporting the rights of slaves.

you really need to read between the lines of the bible to see what it really has to say about slavery. most of the commands in the bible are there to help slaves get basic rights that they did not have in any other society at that time and even for a long time afterwards. the bible gives a lot of excuses to let a slave go free - if you knock out so much as their tooth, you had to set them free. if it was a hebrew slave, you had to let him go after six years. if a slave flees his master and comes to you, you were commanded not to return him to his master, you had to instead let him live among you as a freeman and you were not allowed to "oppress him." if a master killed a slave, the punishment was the death penalty. all these rules are very progressive and ahead of the bible's time. even american slavery just a few hundred years ago did not give slaves any of these basic rights, but three thousand years earlier in an even less civilized society the bible was trying to protect all of the people. so while the bible does permit slavery, it still reflects that slavery is not the ideal situation.

if the bible had tried to do away with the institution of slavery altogether, nobody would have listened. to put it simply, the world at the time was just not ready for that kind of change. slavery was very entrenched in ancient culture and you simply can't make such a huge and sudden change without first changing the underlying factors leading to the problem.

this is the step the bible tries to take. in ancient times, slaves were just property with zero rights. the bible, rather than stupidly telling people that the institution of slavery which they were so dependent on had to be scrapped immediately, instead chose to take the subtle path, by implementing laws giving slaves rights, thereby making society aware that slaves are more than just property. once this awareness of slaves as human beings who deserve rights is introduced and accepted by society, they can then be made aware that perhaps there shouldn't be slavery at all. but the fact is that you can't climb a staircase without covering all the steps. in order to get to the top, you need to start at the bottom and work your way up. and to put it frankly, the bible comes from a time when people were at rock bottom.

Answer 3

If you continue to read on there were instructions on how to treat a slave, and it wasn't the barbaric force that is used with the modern day slavery. People became slaves for all types of reasons. Some were poor, so they opted out to work for free to have shelter and food. Some owed debt. The list was endless. But the slave owner still had a moral obligations to treat that person as a human being, not an animal.

Answer 4

Are you talking Old Testament? If you are then you need to read further because there are very strict rules ascribed to the way "slaves" were to be treated. They were also given the opportunity to choose freedom. If they chose to remain slaves they were to be treated as a member of the household.

If your talking New Testament your forgetting that the Epistles were written to Greek and Roman churches. Slavery in those cultures was normal. The matter had to be address for both the slave and master who converted rather than leave them to their own devises. The slave had the responsibility to work for his master in a manner honoring Christ. The master had the responsibility of treating his slave well. As a matter of fact many masters who converted to Christianity freed their slaves and paid them wages to remain in their service.

Maybe it's time to stop trying to make the Bible into something it's not and start understanding what was going on in the context of the cultures and times.

Answer 5

The way I see it, the Bible was still written by men who had prejudices, beliefs, and their own ways of living. The men and women who wrote the books of the Bible were also products of their time. During that time, slavery was not necessarily seen as a bad thing.

You still have to look at the Bible from a historical standpoint, look past the arbitrary details for the most important messages.

Answer 6

In my opinion and to my knowledge, slaves back then were not enslaved for the same reason and purposes, as they were in the western hemisphere, in the 16-18 hundreds. They were not enslaved because of skin color or racial inferiority, often times they were enslaved because it was a way of paying off a debt, or being punished for a crime. Almost anyone could become a slave if the person commited a crime, or could not pay off a debt to someone. Back then that was their form of a judicial system. And kings and other people of higher rank, more often had servants rather then slaves.

Answer 7

Good question which is why we can't take the
Bible literally....Men had more than one wife, too. That's why I just try to focus on the things that Jesus himself said and did. Remember, one of the reasons he came was because people were not understanding the books of the Bible; they were living life like a recipe with all the rituals and everything that he said was wrong.

Answer 8

Either that of God is down with slavery.

This is a very good point you are raising, as it's one of the many areas of morality where we did NOT get our moral compass from the Bible.

We figured out on our own that slavery is bad. The bible didn't help us, since it endorses the concept.

People who claim all of our morality comes from the Bible are simply misinformed.

Answer 9

because then it was not immoral.

the bible sets the basic level of human morality.

No one ever says we can not go above and beyond that.

remember the concept that slavery is wrong is historically new. For all we know in the future people will believe that life imprisonment for a heinous crime is immoral and cruel.

Answer 10

two thousand years ago it wasn't immoral. Morale's change throughout history. Men use to be more barbaric for the most part. There are still a few third world nations which are barbaric.