1 Timothy 6:1-2 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.
Seems like he could.
2007-08-28 07:55:08 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Not only that, but the Bible thumpers in the US were the last holdouts to support slavery. They used Biblical justification.
2007-08-28 08:00:57 · answer #1 · answered by wondermus 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Slavery was something that "everybody" did and at that time and place wasn't considered inherently wrong - remember that even the Bible condones slavery and sets rules for how slaves are to be treated. So as abhorrent as we view slavery today, I think it's possible that "kind" slave owners - I'm sorry because I'm sure that even the notion of kind slave owners would be offensive to some - but I do think that people who treated their slaves as family members and cared for them well may be shown compassion by God. (I don't believe in heaven or hell, but I do believe that your soul has a different quality of existence in the next world based on your actions here.) We have to be very careful about judging people in a completely different time and/or place by contemporary standards. We can't be sure that we would have acted differently, however comforting it might be to think that we would have. Cultural and social norms have been shown to be incredibly powerful, much more powerful than most of us believe, and the sad fact is that if we'd been in Germany during the Holocaust, scientific research suggests that the overwhelming majority of us would have done little or nothing to help the Jews.
2016-05-20 02:07:49 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
According to Jews slavery could only be for a short time when someone fell into debt, they would sell themselves as a "slave" for a certain time until their debt is re-payed. The Mesopotamians did the same kind of thing. The Romans and the early Americans introduced a different type of slavery - where you go into a foreign land, kidnap someone, and take them back to your lands to do your work. They are different. Indentured service is not so horrible really, especially in a culture that does not consider a paper saying "IOU 70,000 dollars" to be of any value. But the early Christians were not concerned with the politics of Rome. They were not seeking to change the laws, so they taught submission to the authorities.
2007-08-29 06:58:14 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The term "slavery" brings with it a very negative connotation due to 18th & 19th Century slavery in America.
But that wasn't always the case. Being a "servant" amounted to the same thing, but it was a method employed for thousands of years as a means of paying off a debt. It was an honorable profession, though not necessarily a desired one.
Like any faith, there are good members, and evil members.
Avoid the 18th century nuances of "slavery" and you'll get a better picture of what it meant.
2007-08-28 08:07:07 · answer #4 · answered by Bobby Jim 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, a slave owner could be a Christian and many were/are...does it make it right? No...it's saying that you should be respectful to your owner if you're a slave so they will be like "He's a Christian he's a good man" and if your owner is a slave you should be a good slave to him so he will realize what he is doing is wrong and no matter what he does to you, your strength in God will not fault just because you're forced to do work...
2007-08-28 08:01:53 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree. The Bible acknowledges that slavery was a part of the custom and social order of the time. However, note that it nowhere says its good. And in Jewish society God set specific rules about slavery. Slaves were only slaves for a specified period of time, and it was more of an "indentured servant" role.
2007-08-28 08:02:24 · answer #6 · answered by William D 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
See: United States of America until 1865.
2007-08-28 08:02:35 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
At that time the book was written, slavery was a common practice all around the world. It was their way of life.
If this book was written today, then it wouldn't mention of such thing.
2007-08-28 08:02:30 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
"doulos" which is the Greek word use here also means bond-servant, bondslave, servant, etc... This meaning that it is likely that the time of servitude was limited to the amount of debt owed or something along the lines of indentured servitude.
2007-08-28 08:05:22 · answer #9 · answered by L.C. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you look at history, American slave owners almost always were christian. That's why they had a high and mighty belief of themselves. God let them be better than blacks so they could own them, hurt them, beat them, etc.
2007-08-28 08:07:32 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋