Biblical Believers Only: Slavery?

Question

This is to any Bible believer.
Enough verses in the Bible condone slavery. So, does God not believe in man having the right to be free? I can't imagine why a person should be beat just because of who he is. PLEASE: If there's something in the Bible that explains otherwise, please let me know. For example, was He only speaking of a certain people at a certain time?
To non-believers: There's plenty of places in here to pick on Believers. I'm asking your favor, to please give me this one. Please.

Thank you, non-believers, for letting me have this one. (smile) (Yeah, I know, there's always one in the bunch! LOL)
Anyway, my thought wasn't so much about those who became slaves as prisoners or POW, but ones who were enslaved in early US, as many were kidnapped, etc. Amazing Grace movie shows how kidnapped people would be chained so that they couldn't jump to their deaths.
There are definitely places in the Bible where God allowed slavery (such as with Canaan and Ham, I believe??), but I'd totally forgotten about Exodus! Thanks for the eye-opener! Also, some other comments reminded me of things, too. That was the thing; I got caught up on the one part and forgot the other! Thanks so much for your many comments! God bless!

PS What started my thoughts on this was thinking about our US forefathers and how they believed in slavery, including Washington. How could they think it was the Christian thing to do, if God does not condone it? It's a contradiction in terms.

Answer 1

The Bible also says " the last shall be first and the first shall be last" Interpret however you like

Answer 2

Both Jews and Christians were masters of slaves and were slaves in the Bible record. However, under the mosaic law a man and his household could be slaves but he was never less than a man. He retained all the rights of a citizen. A Jewish master could never beat or kill a slave, it was against the law. The law compared to today's standards would be like and employer and employee. Every 7 years and every jubilee every slave was set free. Some people willingly became permanent slaves in ancient Israel. Slaves enjoyed inheritances and were sometime considered family. (Le 25:44-46; Ex 21:2; Le 25:10; De 15:12, Le 25:47-52; De 15:12; De 15:13-15; Ex 21:2-6; De 15:16, 17)

Female slaves were sometimes taken a wives. A father could sell his daughter into slavery if he fell into hard time, however was forbidden to sell her to a foreigners. (Ex 21:7-11)

Please understand a concession was make in the mosaic law because the Israelites were hard hearted, and stiff necked. The concession does have to do with females, in that the men did not want them to be fully recognized, However comparison to the nations around them at the time these women enjoy considerable freedom. For example Assyrians could beat and mutilate their wives and slave girl. A penalty for a slave girl under the Assyrian laws for wearing a head covering was to cut her ear off. Where as, under the mosaic law no mutilation or abuse of women was tolerated.

Christ adresses this problem at Matthew 19:8, Also in that chapther he restores full human rights to women, and Gods original monogamous standard for marriage.

For Early christians, read 1Ti 6:2; Eph 6:9 and Col 4:1, these show the nature of christian slavery. The was no place for abuse of a persons human right, male or female, in the early Christian congragation.

Answer 3

Read the Bible passages more closely. The Bible rarely condones slavery and when it does it was b/c in context the alternative was even harsher. For example, what should you do in an ancient society if a rival tribe attempts to kill you and fails? Should you: a) kill them all b) enslave them to ensure they don't attack again or c) let them go and naively hope they will be nicer in the future. Option b) makes a lot of sense in historical context.

While the early Christians did not immediately demand that slavery be abolished, Look at this passage in 1 Tim. 1:

9We also know that law[a] is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

Being involved in slave trading is listed with murder, lying, and sexual immorality as an example of the most serious of sins. Clearly, Christianity does not condone slavery. It is not surprising that in various historical contexts Christians went on to work hard to abolish slavery when they had political power to do so (do a google on William Wilberforce, for example). I think your question is essentially based on misinformation and reading the bible outside of its historical context.

Answer 4

Slavery, one person working for another and being wholly dependent upon that 'master' for their food, clothing, housing, etc. will be with us always, just as the poor will be. This is due to two reasons (and either alone would not be enough to perpetuate it) - First, the desire of some people to exploit others. Has always existed and will always exist. And second, an unwillingness on the part of some people to be wholly responsible for their own care. People in the USA are in slavery in welfare, and poor hourly jobs. The 'freedom' they should seek requires a step out of self-responsibility that is very risky. Opening your own business, being self employed, make it or break it all on your own ability is scary. Being an employee, collecting the welfare check, .... those things are "safe". And from both sides (the slaves and the owners), a perpetuation of this system is viewed as favorable.

Answer 5

Well for starters you are not going to find something in the Bible that clearly defines slavery, as there was only cultural variations to the theme, not a unified, international body that broke through barriers to define this term. So, within the Bible you have the slavery of Egypt to the slave labor employed by the Israelites, to the slave labor discussed by Paul.
Slavery is essentially nothing more than a labor pool, or employment. In some cases, it is forced labor. The Hebrews in Egypt were initally a volunteer workforce thanks to the relationship Joseph had with Pharoah. As time progressed, they became forced laborers. The biggest compenent to bear in mind is the nature of the relationship between the slave and the master. If you owe a debt or cannot survive on your own than you could sell yourself into slavery. The Bible gives VERY specific rules on how slavery, particularly those as a result of debts, was to be conducted and the duration of the contract.
What many people fail to realize is that slavery was very, very common in the ancient world. African Tribes very frequently engaged in the practice, and was a strong market opportunity for them. The BANE of slavery came with two things: the Europeans and Capitalism. This perverted the social structure surrounding slavery and removed the human aspect of the slaves. Then, science came into the fold as Evolutionary Theory began to argue that these were not people at all...in fact, they were akin to animal which is a property of the master, not an equal before God. Then the Catholic Church, already fighting a poorly executed battle against science, joined forces with Science, in order to salvage what face it had left. This diseased rationality of people being animals later evolved into Eugenics, which was responsible for governments institutionalizing the lame and handicapped. The rise of the Nazis and the Final Solution. And the massive murders of the Armenians, the Ukrainians and other peoples throughout the early to mid 20th Century.

Now, as an 'enlighted' society we see the horrors of humanity and the mere utterance of the word slavery invokes a dry heaving effect within our guts. The reality is, what we have born witness to within the past 200 years is nothing like the arrangement that has existed for thousands of years before and what is addressed in the Bible. Point of fact, only Judaism, and by default Christianity, gave a heart and soul to the relationship by providing slaves be treated like humans and to afford them the opportunity to pay back debts and to protect them under Judastic law from being cheated by their master. To better understand this Biblical relationship look at your banking statement and your credit card statement, as you are existing under the same relationship. While we have laws to protect us from Creditors, the creditor can still come to you at any time and demand all of their money back...and yet they don't. We are a debtor nation, which means the creditor nations out there can come calling for their credit back, and yet they don't. Its the same principle.
This is a very good question though!! I just hope there is a maturity from your audience to allow this discussion to unfold.
I realize many of the texts here will be focusing almost exclusively on scripture, which i am not opposed to. I chose to go the route of looking at this with a historical and cultural context that cannot be found in scripture. The reason being is that there is so much more to the slavery than that which we find in the Bible...particularly how we view slavery today.
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You bring up a good point inquiring about the bases of our Forefathers' beliefs, as they claimed to be Christian and yet allowed for this operation of slavery to continue. Ultimately your question strikes to the core of humanity, Christianity especially. We have beliefs, which we often go to great lengths to fight and die for...yet, they are fragile becuase we willingly break them to support our own desires. Christians are no different. True Christians aren't perfect and they know iit....but absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Answer 6

"I can't imagine why a person should be beat just because of who he is." -I've read a passage in the Bible where God gives instructions on how to treat slaves and their children, wives, etc (I'm guessing its Corinthians, but I'm not sure). The instructions given are basically to treat them as humans and obviously therefore you shouldn't be beating them etc. My thinking is that slavery was tolerated by God, but only in the context of the times those people were living in. The slaves' dignity and humanness was left intact, I guess its hard to look at the kind of slavery God tolerated ans see it as slavery at all because what we know as slavery is treating a person as your property and not like a person anymore, beating, raping etc.

Answer 7

The bible acknowledges that slavery exists, but it doesn't condone it.

The reason for this is simple: All of mankind was permanently enslaved to Satan, sin, and death, by Adam's original sin.

This state of perrenial slavery is exactly and precisely why we needed Jesus to come and be our redeemer.

From the whole of scripture, and from Jesus' role as redeemer and the giver of true freedom, Christians have always understood that slavery, like sin, was to be opposed and abolished, wherever and whenever it existed.

Answer 8

Okay, so the bible does mention slavery, which many have tried to use to condone slavery over the years. The bible talks about idle worship too, and prostiution, and all sorts of other things. I'm afraid I'd have to agree that it is not necessarily in the same tone, however, my point is that not everything mentioned in the bible is necessarily guidance for how we should live our lives - some of it is geared towards the people of the day and how to deal with the lives that they lived.

Slavery was a fact of life in that day and time. Unfortunately, it is still a fact of life today (I have heard from more than one source that there are more slaves today than there have ever been in recorded history - mostly people who have been enslaved in the sex industry throughout various parts of the world). The bible says "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" too, yet that has been revised to "turn the other cheak". Let's put what it has to say about slavery in context.

I think we all know evil when we see it. The fact is, evil exists in the world. The bible instructs us on how we are to act. How we are to act in honorable situations. How we are to act in some evil situations that this fallen world has foisted upon us, etc. At no point I have found does the bible ever say "slavery is good" or "you should practice slavery". It only mentions how one should act in those situations, which to me is acknoledging the situations, not necessarily condoning them.

A little more background: In biblical times, slavery was more of an indentured servitude. Not so much "ownership" as "you're now obligated to work for me". Slaves were often aquired through war. It is not a practice carried out solely by the Hebrews - when defeated in battle the victors took slaves back then.

When the bible talks about slavery, it talks about relationships. How slaves are to interact with their masters, and how masters are to interact with their slaves. It talks about how masters should be kind to their slaves and treat them with respect. It tells slaves that they should serve their masters honestly, and with a joy as though they were serving the Lord himself. I think we can draw from this and extrapolate it to work relationships in today's society. I should treat my employer with respect. I should not steal from him. Likewise, he is obligated to take care of my needs (provide good benefits like healthcare and retirement as well as opportunites for continuing education, etc.?) and to treat me fairly and kindly.

The bible talks about how I am supposed to treat my livestock. Does that mean I'm supposed to be a farmer? No. But in the days that the bible was written, it was an agrarian society. So maybe I'm not going to accidentally kill your calf, but perhaps the rules spelled out about such things apply to say me accidentally breaking your computer?

The communal living that the early church practiced stressed treating everyone with equality. This seems to me to be incompatible with slavery. While it doesn't explicitly say "free your slaves", I don't see how you can follow the teachings in the new testiment and not free your slaves.

I guess that's it in a nutshell. I don't think the bible so much condones as it does recogize a situation that did exist then. I think to practice what is taught in the new testiment, it would be pretty impossible to have slaves. But there is still valuable information in those passages about how we are to interact with each other, which we can apply to our current situation today.

Answer 9

In the book of Philemon, Paul talks about Onesimus, and suggests that Onesimus be set free, as a brother in Christ.
There is only one chapter of Philemon.
Verses 8-16> Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to DO WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO, yet I appeal to you on the basis of Love. I then, as Paul-an old man and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus-I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and me.
I am sending him-who is my very heart-back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that ANY FAVOR YOU DO WILL BE SPONTANEOUS AND NOT FORCED. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good-NO LONGER AS A SLAVE, BUT BETTER THAN A SLAVE, AS A DEAR BROTHER.
(Capital letters added for emphasis).
This may not be as strong as some people would like, but it supplies some ammunition.
Gal. 3:28 says>There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Hope this helped.

Answer 10

In the Bible, God called on slave-masters to be respectful to their slaves and slaves to be respectful and obedient to their masters. I doubt that God meant to condone slavery, but I am certain that He understands the sinful nature of man and that slavery is a by-product of this. So understanding that it's going to happen regardless of whether He condones it or not (like murder and rape), He suggests ways to make it more civil.

Answer 11

If you've read the bible as you said, then you'd know the answer to your question.

No matter where slavery has transmuted in the modern age, in biblical times, a man's indebtedness to another determined whether or not he would be considered a slave and for how long...

There were time limits and degrees of slavery which some could resolve and free themselves. Others couldn't and their situation became generational.