If God is good, then why does he encourage slavery?

Question

God allows slavery:
Leviticus 25:44-46: "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"

Exodus 21:1 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

OK to beat slaves:
Exodus 21:20-21 "And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money [property]."

Slaves must be circumcised:
Genesis 17:13: "He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant."

Deuteronomy 21:10-14: "When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her [i.e. rape her or engage in consensual sex], and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife"

There are 3 possibilities here:
a) The Bible is not the work of God but just a product of its time
b) God is an asshole
c) God does not really believe what he says. Therefore the Bible is outdated and God is a liar.

Did you people even read the details? Yes, those are the words of God. Yes, I agree that the people who wrote it were just trying to justify their actions, but if you assume that the Bible is true, that means that God believes that slavery is OK, which means that either he's an asshole or a liar.

I don't care what rationalisations you make. The fact is, if God was good, he would not tolerate slavery. God could have easily said "slavery is wrong, you shouldn't practice it".

Sorry, but how were these slaves "treated well"? God said that they were allowed to be beaten, raped and had to be circumcised. Do you realise how painful and dangerous it is to circumcise an adult?

Again, you continue to miss the point. I don't care if slavery was common practice back then. Slavery is WRONG. PERIOD. It doesn't matter how well you treat the slave, forcing someone to work against their will is just plain wrong. If God was really good as you say he is, he would have forbidden it.

Answer 1

Nothing like taking things out of context and rewording them to try and incite hatred!

Biblical slavery was NOT the slavery fo the Americas or Europe, the slave had to be treated well, so much so that it states in the Talmud "He who takes for himself a slave, takes for himself a msater" Why?
1) The master has to feed the slave the same food as himself- if there is only enough for one, the master goes hungry and the slave eats.
2) The master has to provide garments for the slave. if both their garments wear out- the slaves gets replaced first.
3) The master has to provide a place for the slave to sleep- if there is only one bed, the slave gets it.
4) The master has to teach the slave a trade
5) In the shmittah year (every seventh year for the entire nation- so a slave served from between 1 and 6 years) the slave goes free and the master has to pay him for the work done for him- or else provide him with a gift of equivalent value.

If the person was non-Jewish- the reason they were circumcised was that then they became a quasi-Jew and they were treated as any Hebrew slave. The one that refuses to be circumcised is the only one that remains a slave in perpetuity and to whom the rule of "he is property" applies. BUT- we are required to sell such a slave as quickly as possible and not to keep them since we do not trust them. Even though such a slave is valuable since they and their children are perpetual slaves, we get rid of them immediately since they cannot be trusted to safeguard certain laws such as kashrut.

As for the captive women- it is discussing a conversion procedure for her. In this case the Torah recognises that soldiers away from home are going to be tempted into actions that are not correct- such as wanting to have relations with foreign women. the procedure is designed to make her unattractive so that his immediate desire should pass, so that there will be a time period for her to mourn family that died in the war- and in which he can contemplate marrying her, only then he "takes her- in other words he MARRIES her, not rapes her as you try to claim! As the text you posted says :And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy WIFE;" And guess what- she can say NO if she wishes, nothing their states that it is being done forcefully and she cannot refuse the match..

Answer 2

I have to admit that I'm not an expert on this topic, but you raise a very good point so I'll try to contribute what I can to the discussion. It is possible to understand your quotations as the word of a loving God.

You have to understand that any passage whether from the Bible or any other source must be understood in its historical and cultural context. Those laws do not apply today, but your concern is that they did apply once and they do seem to condone slavery.

In those days, if someone ended up in debt and had no way of paying it off through misfortune or whatever, the prevailing rules were to sell yourself as a slave, since, after all, all you had left was your very self. If you live in a modern, affluent society, then be thankful that you do, because the technology to support a modern affluent lifestyle was non-existent in those days. Slavery may well have been your only choice apart from starvation.

In that sort of historical context, those passages are actually an improvement on the lot of slaves with respect to practices prevalent in neighbouring countries. Slavery was legislated to be temporary (unless the slave wished it to be permanent) and there were laws protecting slaves from abuse.

Exodus 21:21 does seem a bit odd. Why does survival for two days after a beating mean that punishment is not warranted? I don't have an answer to that. However, it is clear that, apart from that strange exception, if you kill a slave, you should be punished.

My point is that looking at this difficult issue from a purely modern perspective does not do it justice. You have to understand it from the point of view of the people at that time. It is plausible and probable that the Old Testament law permitted temporary slavery as a social institution as a means of survival, but put limits preventing abuse.

Answer 3

Hi there, As a Muslim, I don't think that slavery is encouraged today in Christianity or Islam as far as I know. Logically I would think that the above statement you have chosen from the Bible must have statements before and after to make more sense of what God is talking about. Unfortunately this is quite a common mistake and creates misunderstanding when quoting from the Quran. I hope this answers a bit of your question.

Answer 4

The slaves in Israel weren't the slaves of the American South. It was a different circumstance and a different level of moral culpability.

This is not relativism. This is a clear distinction between two concepts that are not interchangeable.

To answer your question, "If God is good, then why does he encourage slavery," the obvious answer would be that slavery is not inherently wrong.

There are right and wrong ways to practice slavery. Prisoners of war, for example, could be fair game. Mentally challenged orphans. Individuals who willingly enter into a longterm contract (indentured servants). Felons. I'm sure you can think of other examples.

As long as the slaves are selected and treated fairly, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Answer 5

There is a fourth possibility. The Abrahamic god supports slavery as long as the slave is treated well and his laws are kept.

The Exodus 21:1 quote sounds more like indentured servitude rather than slavery. They're pretty close but not quite the same.

Answer 6

This isn't going to be your best answer from your point of view. Are you aware of the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. All of your references are from the Old Testament, and relate to old laws that were convenient to that time and place. In the New Testament, Jesus came into the world with a new message. None of the scriptures you quoted"encourage slavery". They do in fact put a lot of responsibility on those who owned slaves.

If you do not believe in God, or the Bible, that is your choice. I am sorry you do not believe. For hundreds of years, non-believing people have spent countless hours trying to find fault with the scriptures and with God. And years after you and I are gone, they will continue to do so. But all of these efforts will not change the facts. God is good, Praise the Lord.

Answer 7

Lets deal with one at a time.

First, slavery was the common form of employment during that day. A Hebrew (see Exodcus 21:1) was able to choose to place himself in such a position for six years. When he took the position, the owner had to pay off all of the persons debts. He then served that master for six years. During that time he was permitted to live with the family, and received food, clothing, etc. At the end of the six years, he was free and did not have to buy his own freedom as was the custom in most other cultures. This was a common practice if a person was on the verge of bankruptcy. In fact, it is the source of the "seve years" before a bankruptcy is cleared from a persons credit reports.

Even today, where slavery is outlawed, there are still laws which allow a person to place them in a position of servitude to pay off their debts. Many of the people who came to America were in that position. They agreed to come here and work for six years in exchanged for a cancelling of their debts in Europe (England in particular).

If the slave was a female, the OT law forbid sex with her, unless the owner married her and elevated her to the position of a full wife/daughter within the family. Her children would be heirs of the family estate, and she could not be divorced by her husband.

If the slave was a non-Jew or a captive of war, the rules were amended. As normally a captive of war would have no home or family to return to, they remain a slave "for life" unless they purchased their own freedom. Again, they lived with the family and had the same rights as a son or daughter would within the family. If they were male and not circumcised, they would be circumcised at that time.


Exodus 21:20-21 comes from a section which not talking specifically about slavery, but about the different degrees of murder. Exodus 21 is where the original laws on free degree murder, second degree murder, manslaughter, etc get their origin.

It basically says that if an owner strikes a slave and kills him, then it is to be treated as murder. (Note that nothing in that gives the owner permission to strick the slave - otherwise it would not be a crime). The fact that the owner struck him hard enough (or repeatedly enough) to kill him shows that the owner intended to kill him. If, however, the injury does not cause immediate death, but the slave dies from complications later, it would mean that it was not premeditated murder. It was not the owners intend to kill. So he would not be charged with free degree murder (which is the subject of Exodus 21). Nothing in the original context excludes him being charged with a lesser degree of murder.


At the time the OT was written, slavery was a fact of life for 99.9% of the people in the world. The OT rules altered slavery from a system where everyone was a slave to the king from birth to death, with him having the right to use, rape, kill, etc as he pleased, to a system where slavery was for most a choice, used to get out of serious financial situations, for a limited time (6 years), and required that the owner treat them as "family". Huge difference from the rest of society, and from the form of slavery that was practiced in the pre-Civil War USA. Note that nothing in the OT allowed the kidnapping of persons to be sold as slaves.

In today's society, were employment as replaced "slavery", there is no longer a need to have indebted service as a means of getting a person out of financial difficulties. Plus changes in (non-Bible) rules now allow bankruptcy without servitude as a means of retiring debts. The debt is simply cancelled rather then worked off. (Something the OT allowed in what was called the Year of Jubilee - study it out some time.)

So if by "slavery" you mean the kidnapping, torture and impoverting of a race a people for cheap labor, the Bible does not condone that at any point. If by "slavery" you mean a system where a person in serious financial need could get their debts cancelled and their needs meet for several years until they were ready to stand on their own, then the Bible does allow it.

Answer 8

Meep Meep,
GOD did NOT encourage slavery. HE allowed it in the Old Testament times. We are living in the time after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, HIS SON. This means that we live under the New Law. We are not held to the Old Testament Laws at all. He also "allowed divorce" according to CHRIST but HE did not instigate it or believe it was correct and HE still does NOT! We need to treat our neighbors as we want to be treated. Think about that for a moment... This means we should never take rights of others away for any reason. NOT for ourselves or for anyone elses benefit. We are to respect the laws of our government and obey those laws. This means if the government has allowed slavery then we do not fight those laws or break those laws unless they infringe upon the Biblical Principals. I am a Christian and I attempt to live by the New Testament each and every day. Have a wonderful day and a glorious week.
Thank you,
Eds


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Answer 9

GOD allowed nothing,HE made every human beings in HIS own image,and came along with,its society/culture is responsible for such ill deeds,most the persons who r away from HIM r also equally responsible

Answer 10

Humans encourage slavery. Humans wrote the bible. Humans use religion to validate all the mean and hateful stuff they do to each other.

God has nothing to do with cruelty. God is love.