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we have lots of slavery right here right now in this country ask CPS in any city, child sex slavery. but your question is how did it get in a holy book. same way polygamy got in a holy book, the same way a cop killer (moses) got to lead the people of israel to the holy land. by the bible being about imperfect people like us.
I read somewhere that their followers (Neoplatonists) were the first to stand up against slavery... I thought it was in Wikipedia, but I can't find it again. I'm sure the pro-slave people were able to shut them up one way or another. But Paul definitely had his reasons for supporting slavery.
I'm not here to start trouble. But I believe any and all forms of slavery are wrong and immoral. I just want to know why anyone would follow a religion that doesn't condemn human slavery.
You might have put that in your OP - rather than caging it as a simple request for a Christian interpretation, when it was actually something else. But, besides that - both sides (Atheist and Christian) have some points, and both sides miss some things.
1- The Prevalance of Slavery in the Bible
I've seen the typical quotes from the books of the Law, and the famous passage concerning Paul's letter in which he advises a runaway slave to return to his master. But what else in the Bible shows a culture of slavery?
The very term "servant" could better be translated as "slave" - it has the same essential meaning, though it can also apply to people in an inferior position or be used in the typical Ancient Near Eastern fashion of expressing deferrence or respect. But the main point is that "slaves" abound in the Bible. So when you see references to someone being the "Servant of God" or the "Servant of Yahweh" or the "Servant of the LORD" (if you prefer), it would be better to translate those as "Slave of Yahweh" or "Slave of God". This idea runs throughout the Bible, and has been applied to the patriarchs, the kings, the people of Israel and Judah, the followers of Christ, etc - you could literally find hundreds of references to "slavery" in the Bible. I'm sure you can imagine, given our political history, why most translators favor "servant" over "slave". The word "servant" conjures up an image of someone-who-is-paid-and-can-leave-at-any-time, while the term "slave" conjures up someone-who-is-not-paid-and-cannot-leave-at-any-time.
2- The Prevalance of Slavery in the Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Worlds
As has been pointed out by several people, slavery has been a common social and political institution - that "peculiar institution" - that has been practiced probably ever since man learned he could better profit from a live prisoner more than he could from a dead enemy. So one form of slavery was the Enslavement of Enemies. Another form was taking debtors that could not pay and turning them into slaves until they worked off their debt - I wonder if our recent bank and bankruptcy problems would have been so severe if Debt Slavery was in force today, as it was until recently with Debtor's Prison. This would include selling one's self into slavery, as well. Another form of slavery was Slavery By Kidnapping, which could probably be considered similar to the Enslavement of Enemies. Make a raid, steal some booty, kidnap some slaves, you've got it made! Homer's epic heroes were no stranger to this. The Purchase of Slaves from another country was a popular form of the institution, and slaves gained in this way were treated as property, usually. A more natural way of becoming a slave was Slavery by Birth, as a child born of a slave woman.
As others have pointed out, without condoning it, slavery has been a common feature of mankind for thousands of years. What we must avoid is the idea that historic slavery automatically equated with the type of slavery practiced in America on African slaves: as can be seen above, there were many types of slavery.
3- The Bible's Stance on Slavery
The Bible's opinion of slavery is not the clear-cut political or moral statement we moderns would like it to be. Again, different states of slavery produced different views of slavery. The Bible seems to have accepted slavery as a principle of the world, but tried to regulate various forms of it and mitigate some of the more harsh aspects of it. In addition, the idea of being a "slave to God" was a common one, and New Testament writings stress the idea that one must be this "slave" - meek, mild and in submission: the Christian ideal. That idea of slavery runs throughout the Bible.
The author of Job comments on slavery, and gives us a poetic parallelism that shows how a hired man was basically the same as a slave. I'll give several translations, to show the previous point of how "slave" was translated as "servant" frequently:
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, (ESV)
As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow,
and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work, (KJV)
(Job 7:2)
The lot of the slave was the lot of the hireling, the lot of the laborer, etc. One would hire oneself out to earn money or food. (Lev 25:39-41) - it wasn't always slavery as we think of it today.
Various laws restricted the amount of time a slave would serve to 6 years (Ex 21:2; Deut 15:12), restricted the ability of an Israelite to make another Israelite into a slave, forbade the handing over of a runaway slave (Deut 23:15-16) - in opposition to the advice of the later Paul, who advised that the slave return to his master. Slaves were spared from working on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10, 23:12; Deut 5:14), were given the option of staying with their masters (Ex 21:6; Deut 15:16-17), and had certain rights which were guaranteed them. There is a distinction made between Hebrew and Foreign slaves in some of these laws.
It must be noted that many of these laws were relaxations of slavery laws as found in other law codes of the time from other people - the authors of some of these biblical law codes tried to reduce the typical ANE harshness of slavery. So let's not automatically say "Bible permits slavery, Bible is bad".
This is just the tip of the iceberg when dealing with the Bible and Slavery - it's a much deeper subject than is first imagined by a few verses cited as "permitting slavery" and how this matches with the morality of God. Like Northstar pointed out - the Bible was written by humans dealing with very human problems, and God had little to do with it's writing - except as the subject of it's worship, perhaps. Perhaps it's a little much to expect a collection of books written by a people living in the mountainous areas of Canaan to completely abolish slavery for all time. Perhaps it's a little much to expect that Christianity, already fighting for acceptance by the Romans, would call for the abolition of Slavery throughout the vast Roman Empire. The Christians seemed to have embraced the idea of slavery, instead. According to most historians of the early church, some of it's earliest adherents were slaves - and part of this was from the teaching that a slave, even though a slave, had a strange sort of freedom in Christ, who was also a "slave".
Perhaps an actual Christian can elaborate more on that last point for us?
Let's try not to condemn ancient peoples for committing modern offenses, though - that's silly. It automatically assumes that our modern political ideas of morality should automatically be the moral ideas adopted by an all-knowing God, if one were to even exist, and that these ideas should have been adopted by this god and his adherents from time everlasting from the very beginning. We should also remember that our idea of slavery (based on African Slavery) is not exactly the same as the idea of slavery spoken about in the Bible.
I have to go to work now, even though I wanted to say more, but I must go perform my own form of slavery or I'll find myself hungry and homeless.
From a historical perspective, I think you are right on the money. Slavery has been a part of human social behavior for a long, long time, and in some form or other will continue. There is always a group of people that think they have the right to the fruits of another's labor and to dictate their choices to them.
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Originally Posted by whoppers
Let's try not to condemn ancient peoples for committing modern offenses, though - that's silly. It automatically assumes that our modern political ideas of morality should automatically be the moral ideas adopted by an all-knowing God, if one were to even exist, and that these ideas should have been adopted by this god and his adherents from time everlasting from the very beginning.
The problem here is that this is exactly what a great many Christians are trying to tell us. Most Evangelical Protestants, at least, would say that the Bible is the inerrant, revealed Word of God, and that God's unchanging character or identity forms the basis for the only possible meaningful morality. Retroactive condemnation of behavior is not invalid, if someone is claiming that their interpretation of morality is unchanging and eternal.
If there is a morally good God who is eternal and unchanging, his dictates ought to reflect his own consistency. If they do not, then the theology would seem to be in error, or the modern church, by its opposition to genocide, rape, and slavery, has totally misrepresented the morality and character of God. Either way it means that rules based on this doctrine need to be critically scrutinized before being acted upon or enshrined in law (DoMA, MS Amendment 26, etc..).
The Bible has several passages that not only condone, but seemingly encourage slavery. How do Christians interpret these verses?
Here are some pro-slavery passages from the Old Testament:
Exodus 21:7-8
“If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do.If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her.
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 bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
Here's a pro-slavery text from the New Testament:
Colossians 3:22-25
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
What should one make of these passages?
It permitted it, it never really endorses it. Nor does it endorse slavery based on skin color, or the sort of atrocities of early America. Slavery in Biblical times was a much different beast than what we commonly think of it as. It was actually willingly entered into by some people to pay off debts. Other slaves would elect to stay with their masters after a set period of time of serving. Slaves could buy their freedom, and it wasn't the type of man-selling we saw in this country.
It was largely due to Christians that slavery ended in America.
Many posts have been deleted or edited from this very sensitive topic....Please srtay on topic if you wish to continue this discusion or it will be closed and infractions issued..
It permitted it, it never really endorses it. Nor does it endorse slavery based on skin color, or the sort of atrocities of early America. Slavery in Biblical times was a much different beast than what we commonly think of it as. It was actually willingly entered into by some people to pay off debts. Other slaves would elect to stay with their masters after a set period of time of serving. Slaves could buy their freedom, and it wasn't the type of man-selling we saw in this country.
You are confusing "slavery" amongst the Israelites and slavery when it involved other people when they were NOT Israelites. Of course, this was not unique amongst the Israelites. People captured in war or kidnapped did NOT have such rosy outcomes or expectations. Tons of slaves throughout history were acquired this way. They were not entering anything willingly or trying to pay off debts. They weren't given opportunities to leave after some time.
In the case of the bible (Old Testament) some of the laws were laws governing how Israelites treated other Israelite "slaves" who did enter the arena willingly or in an attempt to pay off debts. These passages were not talking about Canaanites captured in war, for example.
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It was largely due to Christians that slavery ended in America.
And it was largely due to them it started and continued in the first place. For some, conscience eventually kicked in.
Oh, by the way, "permit" and "endorse" can often go hand in hand.
You are confusing "slavery" amongst the Israelites and slavery when it involved other people when they were NOT Israelites. Of course, this was not unique amongst the Israelites. People captured in war or kidnapped did NOT have such rosy outcomes or expectations. Tons of slaves throughout history were acquired this way. They were not entering anything willingly or trying to pay off debts. They weren't given opportunities to leave after some time.
And the Bible never really encourages that as a practice. It records the conquering of nations, and them taking prisoners...but not man-selling like what we saw in the slave trade of a few hundred years ago.
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In the case of the bible (Old Testament) some of the laws were laws governing how Israelites treated other Israelite "slaves" who did enter the arena willingly or in an attempt to pay off debts. These passages were not talking about Canaanites captured in war, for example.
It also regulates the treatment of such slaves--specifically not to abuse them.
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And it was largely due to them it started and continued in the first place. For some, conscience eventually kicked in.
Thank you for admitting that Christianity did have an effect on it ending.
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Oh, by the way, "permit" and "endorse" can often go hand in hand.
Perhaps...but to recognize that it happens and require good treatment of such slaves is not necessarily equal to commanding it to happen.
And the Bible never really encourages that as a practice. It records the conquering of nations, and them taking prisoners...but not man-selling like what we saw in the slave trade of a few hundred years ago.
Leviticus 25:44-46 "Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever:but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour."
Oh, and while there were Christians who were abolitionists, I am quite sure many of them were influenced from European writings of the Enlightenment, much of which regarded the bible as non-divine. The evil of slavery is self-evident. The bible could have said it was it was fine on each page and it STILL would be a great evil.
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