Why didn't Jesus speak out against slavery?

Question

Many people claim that the Bible is a great source of morality, but surely one of the most immoral acts one can commit is slavery. The Bible makes numerous references to slavery, one of the most abhorrent being Exodus 21:20-21, regarding beating slaves. Another passage, from the New Testament, is Ephesians 6:5-9, in which Paul instructs slaves to follow closely their masters' orders. It should have been blatantly obvious to the writers of the Bible, if they had a higher morality than those surrounding them, that it is utterly wrong to use your fellow man as farm equipment against his will. Why does the Bible favor slavery so, when it is so obvious to most people living today that slavery is wrong? Why didn't Jesus speak out about slavery?

I see a lot of people agreeing with me, but few offering a real response to my question.

Answer 1

The customs in that time included slavery and servitude. He spoke about love for each other and helping each other.

Answer 2

You said it yourself "it is so obvious to most people living today that slavery is wrong". This was not obvious to most people even 150 years ago in the US.
Slavery was a fact of life in biblical times. Also note that the whole of Israel was under occupation by the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus, yet Jesus didn't campaign against the romans either - or comment about any other political issues of the day that we know of. I think the writers of the gospels & Paul understood that their message was religious/spiritual, and that other issues would detract from what they were trying to relate.
Imagine if we knew, for example, that Jesus was a vegetarian. A lot of people would become vegetarians and think that this was the way to spiritual enlightenment. Similarly, if Jesus or Paul had said stuff about slavery, albolitionism would become a pathway to spiritual enlightenment. I think they were just trying to stay on-message.

Answer 3

Christians will say that slavery in biblical times was more like having a servant then owning a slave, and did not represent the same sort of evil that white an arab enslavement of African blacks did.

How ever the word servant is used throughout the bible so there was a distinction between the two words so that arguement doesn't wash.

I think the real reason is because Christianity makes you a slave to God, so it does not leave a lot of room for condemning the practice.

Answer 4

See, here's the conflict. Churches and parochial schools teach that Christianity is about ONE thing, and people get that picture engrained in their mind what the concepts are "supposed to" be.

Then, if and when you bother to look for yourself, the book says something totally different.

Most of what supposedly "came from the Bible" actually came from church leaders waaaay after the Bible was made into a cannon.

And, right there, is another issue. The cannon came about by way of vote (at the council of Nicaea) what would go into or be expelled from the Bible as a cannon. INTERESTING THAT the votes all came out unanimous! You don't suppose anyone was PRESSURED, do you?

Answer 5

Slavery was different back then. There was no Social Security or Health Care System.

If you got old and couldn't support yourself you would die.

So you would sale yourself into slavery. You would serve your master and in return you got a house and free food with only a little labor.

Thats why in the Old Testament the laws regarding slavery dealt with there protection. One could not kill or beat a slave. One could not have sex with a slaves wife. And one could not turn in a run away slave.

All slaves were required to be free after seven years.

Answer 6

The bible was written not as a religion, but as a text by people whom felt they were witnessing "Gods" works. The slavery issue is truth peeking it's head up a little as the authors were in tune with slavery as it was perfectly ok at that time.

The authors would pass on their version of "Gods word" but as you can see thier own personalities stick out like a sore thumb by their addressing slavery as they did; consider it something like a modern writer ignoring Gang problems and failing to speak "fairly" of gangs; bottem line, most hate gangs Today and that modern writer will reflect just that hate in his/her writings.

So, that would bring up the one confounding question, who were the true authors? Politicians of the times freely interpreting events as they choose as an event sacntioned by "God"?

I think in modern terms we can see how dangerous people can be when they actually believe they "speak for God"; the middle east is full of them, did I miss anything?

Over "time", the bible was turned into a religion and nothing more. It serves a purpose, apparently to a select group as it does not help in a world vision of our nature of reality.

In truth it is apparent that "Religions" have served to separate people by wild interpretations of grand scemes as new factions are born each day and each clinging to that one idea that "they alone" know the truth and you need to belong to "my group".

It is better to walk alone in truth than to stumble all together...
Seek out the truth by self examination.

Answer 7

Because the Bible was man--made. They kept a lot of things about the Bible about what Jesus really said. But, you do have a good point. I wonder myself?

Answer 8

To explain this you have to know a bit about the Jewish society back then.

Remember that the Jews (Hebrews or Israelites) are a family unit. They are all descended from 12 brothers. As the family grew in number, they naturally divided into 12 "tribes", one for each of the main 12 brothers.

These 12 tribes of people remained a closed society in the early years. Outsiders (called "gentiles") could join the family if they promised to follow all of the laws of the society. The 10 commandments are the most famous of the laws, but there were actually more than 700 of them all together.

Among the laws were those that governed family relationships. If you had a relative that was unable to support him/her self, was sick, or just had a run of bad luck, you were required to take care of them.

One way of doing so was to take over his household and property, and make him a "slave". Another way slaves were acquired is if they owed you money.

As a slave master, you were responsible for the well-being of all of your slaves. You had to clothe and feed them, and you had to pay them a prescribed wage. Granted, the wage was lower, about half to two-thirds of what you would have to pay a hired hand, but you were not responsible for the hired hand, either.

So the slave master would benefit from his willingness to obey God's law and care for his bretheren. The people who found themselves slaves also benefitted because they did not have to worry about where their next meal was coming from. Nobody said the slaves liked being slaves, but at least they were cared for well.

The term of slavery was to be no more than 7 years if the slavery was to pay off a debt. If it was due to sickness or other issues, the slave term could be life. That was generally left up to the slave. If you were a slave, and your term was up, you could choose to remain a slave by piercing your ear and wearing a certain type of earring. This marked you as a permanent slave.

You could also buy your term. If you were able to save enough money out ouf your wages to pay your debt, or a pro-rated portion of it, you could be returned to freedom.

If your sickness was healed and you were once again able to support yourself and your family, you were free. This was usually cause for a celebration.

Even with "permanent" slaves, the maximum term was 49 years. (Seven times seven...)

The 49th year was a "Jubilee" year. During a Jubilee year, all slaves were set free and all properties were returned to their rightful owners. If the owners had died, it was returned to their heirs. If there were no heirs, then the property remained with the slave master.

If you took on a slave in year #48, he was free the next year. Tough luck, no arguements. Period.

Being humans, there were times when slave masters were cruel to slaves. This was against Jewish law, and such cruelty was punished. Many times, the cruel master had to become a slave himself. (My personal opinion - just desserts!)

Also, being humans, there were times when slaves resented their masters and behaved badly. They were known to cheat and steal and fail in their duties. There were punishments allowed against disobedient slaves, too. Rarely was death such a punishment, but there were times when a disobedient slave was beaten or simply banished. "Cut off from his people" was how the Bible put it.

Even as slaves, though, people were still subject to the same laws as everybody else. The punishment for some of these crimes was indeed death, but mostly the punishments were different animal or other sacrifices called sin offerings. Slaves were responsible for their own sin offerings, and things like that. Slave masters did not have to provide that sort of stuff.

In our modern world, slavery has a much more dastardly connotation. Partly because it was for life of not only the slave himself, but of his entire descendency as well. This type of slavery existed in biblical times as well, but is not what is being talked about in the Bible. Paul was talking to the Jews, and the above type of slavery is what they practiced. He also mentioned that if a Christian was a slave to another Christian, they should be all the more willing to follow directions and work hard, since they were both considered to be in service to God.

Answer 9

Well, I believe that in a sense he did. He told us to Love one another. (Sorry, I don't have time to reference that for you...but you already know that he said so anyhow.) So if we do love one another and do unto others as we would have them do unto us...are we enslaving people? Uh. Not so much. He also told us to use our common sense (this one I'll reference)
For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is acompelled in all things, the same is a bslothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. D&C 58:26

Answer 10

Good question. Followers of Christianity had slaves and mistreated those of "inferior" color. The Catholics and Mormons coincidentally believed in equality when it was socially acceptable at the time, so in a sense, God decided his own children were human beings when man did. Sort of funny.

Answer 11

Because he approved of it. Why didn't he speak out against smoking? Why didn't he speak out against all sin instead his little song and dance about believe in me and you will be saved. So now the Christians preach you can commit any sin child molestation, murder, rape, serial killings anything and now all you need to do believe in him and you have a ticket to salvation and eternal happiness. Well you can kiss my banana Christians.