Why was slavery promoted in the Old Testament?

Question

I think almost all reasonable people nowadays agree that slavery is immoral. The Old Testament, though, is full of verses that condone it. Why?

Answer 1

It seems god was not powerful enough to get people to stop doing it.

Some people will claim it wasn't really slavery, more like a long term contract, but they're wrong.

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?



The following passage describes the sickening practice of sex slavery. How can anyone think it is moral to sell your own daughter as a sex slave?



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)



So these are the Bible family values! A man can buy as many sex slaves as he wants as long as he feeds them, clothes them, and screws them!



What does the Bible say about beating slaves? It says you can beat both male and female slaves with a rod so hard that as long as they don't die right away you are cleared of any wrong doing.



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)



You would think that Jesus and the New Testament would have a different view of slavery, but slavery is still approved of in the New Testament, as the following passages show.



Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)



Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts. Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy 6:1-2 NLT)



In the following parable, Jesus clearly approves of beating slaves even if they didn't know they were doing anything wrong.



The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. "But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given." (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

Answer 2

Condone isn't really the word I would use. At the time the old testament was written slavery was a very common practice in most cultures, and because it was God gave people guidelines. It's not that he condoned it or that it was an ideal situation it just reflected the times for which it was written. The Bible mentions about alot of things that were not on par with Godly principles especially in the OT but that doesn't mean God is condoning those practices many of these are examples for people to learn from so they don't repeat those mistakes in their own lives.

Answer 3

First of all, the Bible is a very old book- you need to acknowledge that society today is radically different from what it was back in the days of Moses or King David.

Second of all, the Bible does discuss "slavery", but it is most certainly not the type that you are thinking of.

In ancient Israel, a man could sell himself into servitude to work off debts that he had accumulated. He was still a legal citizen with full rights and privileges, however, and the servitude was only for a certain period of time.

The Mosaic Law carried very strict guidelines on how servants and workers were to be treated by their masters. They were fed, clothed, paid a salary, given a home and allowed to worship in the way the Law dictated.

Slavery, as you call it, was common in the surrounding lands and was not regulated, thus giving us two forms: indentured servitude and actual slavery.

Answer 4

Jehovah God does not approve of 'man dominating man' through abusive slavery. However, he did --at one time-- allow slavery among his people. Yet, the slavery that existed in Israel was vastly different from the tyrannical forms of slavery that have become so well-known throughout history.
The type of slavery practiced by the israelites is explained in much more detail in the on-line article:

Did God Condone the Slave Trade?
- Slavery and the Israelites
- Slavery and Christians
http://watchtower.org/library/g/2001/9/8a/article_01.htm
The Bible's Viewpoint, series

Answer 5

The slavery practiced by Hebrews was not the same slavery practiced in colonial times, or done to the Hebrews during the time of the Egyptians. Slaves were simply foreign servants, these servants were what the Jews called "Gentiles" thus they were not allowed to practice the Jewish faith. These servants usually were either prisoners of conquests (read the Bible, the Israelites are very often at war) or actually were sent there by Phoenicians, Lydians, and Assyrians as a sort of punishment.

But it is not the same as what probably comes to your mind when you think of the world slave. Also virtually all legal codes of the time period IE. Hammurabi's had similar institutions at the time it was not thought of as barbaric is what actually humane if you look at other punishments that could be given.

Answer 6

It doesn't promote slavery, especially as we view it now. What happened to the Africans that were brought to the southern plantations was unequivocally wrong, but that is not what slavery was in biblical times. Even so, the culture of the times didn't live up to the ideals laid out for them. "Slavery" was really supposed to be more "indentured servitude." People would willingly sell themselves into slavery to pay a debt or they would be prisoners of war paying the debt of the war off. Slaves were to be released and debts erased every Year of Jubilee, which was supposed to happen every 7 years.

Additionally, it doesn't say that slavery was a positive institution. It gives guidelines for the proper treatment of slaves and proper behavior if you are a slave. Servants seem to be a part of the human culture. A lot of slaves probably had it better than the people who work at McDonalds.

Answer 7

Actually, slavery was used in many societies during the times of the Old Testament. Slavery was issued to people that were conquered, owed heavy debts, or for punishment of certain crimes. Such were the ways of those governing bodies then. Those that wrote the Bible knew of these things and expected them to happen, but they did'nt necessary agree with them.
During times of war, when the people of God were conquering lands that were inhabited by "those that were against God," Gods people not only would take over these lands, but they were under command to kill every last man, woman, and child in these lands. No prisoners were taken as slaves. Slavery was not a Bible based practice.
Obedience to the governments of those times, like the Roman government, was recommended, unless it interfered with God's laws. Since slavery was widely used with the govt., then God's people had to go along with it, whether they approved or not. Bummer huh?

Answer 8

In the days that the Bible was written, slavery was a part of life, the slaves were not treated the way we have a concept of slaves and for instance some were actually with their masters to pay off debts. Once it was payed off they were free to go. There is also a stipulation of time, 6 years and they were aloud to go free, and others to many to mention here.
There are two books, which have a lot to say about slavery, but it also puts stipulations, read it some day, Deutoronomy and Leviticus, hard to read, but answer your questions.
God bless and continue to look for the truth, I just pray that one day when Truth finds you, you are ready.

Answer 9

The Old Testament is just a chronicler of what transpired in that certain period of Jewish History. It did not inspire the people in that periond cause reading was only limited to few elite members their society aside form the fact that there were only few recorded stories about the Jews. Majority of the news were from words of mouth. It is only in these later generations that the bible was made available to large readership.

Answer 10

what you are probably at a misconception about is the definition of a slave. a slave in Bible times, when the word "slavery" was not used, referred to someone who gave up their free will to a master in order to have a roof over their heads and food in their mouths. you'll notice the Bible also said they could not be beaten, especially not if they were Jewish.

sometimes slaves were paid, but they still couldn't leave unless their master let them free. a slave, if he obtained a wife and family through the master, was also no longer the head of his family if he was releived of his servanthood. those were the laws. slave and servant were synonymous terms.

don't feel bad. I had this misconseption too

Answer 11

Just like 9 year olds were married back then.


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"If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, 21: but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.” ---- Exodus 21:20-21


Jesus is not the GOD of the OT so they dont have to follow this.


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