How do We Deal With Biblical Slavery? 

How do We Deal With Biblical Slavery? 

The topic of slavery present all across the Hebrew Bible and New Testament is a difficult topic to address from a position of “conservative” biblical faith. Ultimately, the conflict can be put into a syllogism. The syllogism is as follows: 

A) A morally perfect being would not inspire a holy text that promotes the moral evil of slavery 

B) The Bible does promote the moral evil of slavery 

C) Therefore the bible is not inspired by a morally perfect being 

Some may be confused as to what is being discussed, so a summary of biblical slavery will be given here. The law of Moses was not given in a vacuum. It was given within the broader context of the ancient world and, as such, has slavery in it. There are three main slave law collections: Exodus 21, Leviticus 25, and Deuteronomy 15. Within the New Testament, slavery (physical and otherwise) appears in the epistles (1 Cor 7, 1 Pet 2, etc.) and some of Jesus' parables (Matt 18:23-35, Luke 19:12-27). Paul also has an epistle written to a slave master about his slave (Philemon). Slavery is very common in the ancient world and is all over both testaments. For this study, we will look primarily at slavery in the Hebrew Bible. Since the biggest focused discussion on slavery is in the Pentateuch (i.e. the Torah), that is where we will focus, with help from other texts in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient context. 

Firstly, we have something called debt slavery discussed in several verses (Ex 21:2-3, Lev 25:39-43, 47-54, Deut 15:12-14, 18). This was a kind of slavery by which the slave was, “...repaying that debt via their labor” (Nässelqvist and Jardim, 2016). People sold themselves into debt slavery because of poverty, famine, and debt (Neh 5:1-5). While people did sell themselves — making the act legally volitional — this was not always desired and children could be sold as well because of debt (Nässelqvist and Jardim, 2016; 2 Kings 4:1-7; Reid, 2017). According to Ex 21, the Hebrew would work a certain amount of time and had to be released after. Deuteronomy adds this idea of making sure provisions are given (15:12-14), and Leviticus adds the year of jubilee, where all debt would be forgiven and Hebrew slaves would be freed (Lev 25:8-34). God brings harsh condemnation on Israel for their failure to be obedient to these laws (Jer 34:8-22). 

As seen in Exodus 21:7-11, Hebrew slave women are pictured differently, which will be discussed separately because this passage is discussing a different situation—this is still debt slavery. One commentary remarks: “...this was intended both as a payment of debt and as a way of obtaining a husband for her without a dowry” (Walton et al, 2000, P. 98). Two other things should be noted about this. This woman is a wife, not a second wife, or concubinage, because it is implied that this woman is the first wife in verse 10. This is also not sex slavery, given the treatment of her as a daughter and then wife. That said, Bowen rightly observes, “In short, there is little to indicate that the daughter was in any way involved in the decision to sell herself to the master; as was the cultural norm, the decision was made for her” (Bowen, 2020, P. 90). 

Next, we have chattel slavery (Ex 21:4-6; Lev 25:44-46; Deut 15:16-17). There are a few differences between chattel and debt slavery. One of which is that, “foreign slaves were heavily represented in the category of chattel-slaves” (Westbrook, 1995, P. 1640). In the ancient world, foreign slaves made up most chattel slaves. Furthermore, chattel slaves were not slaves because of debt (Bowen, 2023). Finally, this kind of slavery was permanent. In the Hebrew Bible, we see that Hebrews intentionally went into permanent servitude, but such emphasis is not given when foreign slaves are spoken of (Lev 25:44-46). Another observation to make is that there is no ritualistic aspect to attain foreign chattel slaves like there were Hebrew chattel slaves. 

There is a decorated history regarding the topic of slavery in the Hebrew Bible we will look at. Davis (2024) has shown that, within the Genesis creation story, we are slaves in a way (48:56-51:33). But Genesis does not picture Adam and Eve as slaves to each other, but rather to God, a motif found in both testaments (Lev 25:42; 1 Cor 7:22). There is also more to being in God's image than being his “slave” (Discipledojo, 2023; Genesis 5:1; Genesis 9:4-6).

Slavery to other human beings did not appear in the text until Genesis 9. In this text, Ham sins against his father Noah. In response, Noah pronounces a curse upon Canaan, the son of Ham, saying, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers” (Gen 9:25). This text is complicated for a few reasons. Why does Noah curse Ham's son instead of Ham himself? Why is the curse slavery? Later Noah says, “…may Canaan be the slave of Japheth” (Gen 9:27). This raises additional questions like when did Canaan or his descendants become slaves to Japheth or his descendants? Is this a sort of prophecy? All these questions are made more complicated by the fact that this story has been used as justification to enslave black people (Swartley, 1982). While getting into the passage is not essential now, it is relevant to point out that the first appearance of slavery in the text is negative, not positive. However, if this is some sort of punishment, then this may not have been seen as bad by Noah or the original authors. 

The next instance of slavery in history is Joseph's brothers selling their brother into slavery (Gen 37:18-36). This is an interesting case because, unlike Genesis 9, there is no ambiguity here: his brothers did evil by doing this (Gen 50:15-21). However, it is not clear that slavery is wrong, just that the way they went about all this is evil. Regardless, Joseph reflects on this and says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20). 

Of course, there is Exodus, freedom from slavery for God's people, and the logic behind many slave laws in the text (Lev 25:42, Deut 5:15, 15:15). However, many know this about the Exodus and there has been a review of slavery in the Pentateuch. So, for this last section, slavery will be looked upon in the rest of the text. Solomon uses forced labor to get the Temple built (1 Kings 9:20-23). This occurs in other portions of the Hebrew Bible and was a common practice in the Ancient Near East. However, it is distinguished from slavery (Jenei, 2019). As noted, Jeremiah records a situation where Israel failed to observe the laws around debt slavery, causing God to judge them (Jer 34:8-22). As a final note, Amos and Nehemiah both record some of the abuses of slavery and other things that unfortunately happened as a result of the exile (Nehemiah 5:1-8, Amos 1:6-10, 2:6). 

The case against the scriptures is clear. A good God would not command, regulate, give rules for, etc the evil institution of slavery in his holy book. Bowen asks the question, “How could a text, either divinely inspired by God or standing at the heart of an all-pervasive religion, contain laws that endorse the appropriate practice of slavery?” (2023, 7:36-7:46). The argument is simplistic and strikes at the heart of the two seemingly irreconcilable notions. The Bible is divinely inspired and endorses the evil practice of slavery. 

Some Christians in response to this objection say that slavery is not bad as long as God commanded it. This is a lackluster objection because they have to say that slavery, in some form, is morally good, which is a morally depraved view. This also relies on accepting a strong divine command theory ethic, which is also flawed (Van Eyghen, 2023). Some Christians may want to take a different view of inspiration that allows humans to err when it comes to science, human morality, and so on. This position is also flawed because it does not consider fully what the scriptures say about themselves. If Christians should not throw away the doctrine of inerrancy, nor should they say that being enslaved to another human is ok, what are Christians to do? 

At least concerning the Hebrew Bible, understanding the mosaic law can be helpful to us. While there are a lot of points to make about the nature and function of the Mosaic Law, here the point that the Mosaic law is not perfect will be stressed. Christians should not assume that the Bible being inspired means all the contents of the text are perfect, in part because the text says the opposite, which will be demonstrated here. 

In the Torah itself there is a recognition that the laws can change or new ones can be made. The case of the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27:1-11. One scholar, Gane (2015), notes, “Having no legal precedent on which to base an answer to the young women, Moses turns to the Lord, who confirms that Zelophehad’s daughters are right” (Para. 3). The daughters were right, the law was not enough at the time. Leviticus 21:10-23 and Numbers 9:6-13 are other examples where God and Moses work together to settle a case, thus making a new law. Furthermore, Deut 15:12-18 seems to revise the laws of Ex 21:2-11 (Baker Jr, 2020). This shows that the law was not complete or comprehensive, which is clear by the absence of certain topics like adoption, and the fact that later Jewish tradition had to further add to the Mosaic law to give it comprehensiveness (Walton, 2019). 

In first Samuel 8, Israel makes another change to the covenant law by making a human their king rather than God (v6-7). This is fascinating because this is a change that God does not like, but allows anyway. This shows that the appearance of a law does not prove that God is ok with it. That idea is further illustrated when Jesus tells us that the reason that Moses gave the divorce law is not because God gave it, but because Moses was dealing with hard-hearted people (Matthew 19:7-8). Israel being hard-hearted is also supported by the Hebrew Bible (Ex 33:3; Ez 3:7). Further texts show just how imperfect and flawed the Mosaic Law was (Rom 5:20; Heb 7:19-22; 8:7). 

Bowen (2023) rightly points out in a debate that Christians have to justify why the idea that Jesus gives in Matt 19 should be applied to Mosaic slavery. Based on the data that has been shown by these verses, this idea can apply to the Mosaic law in general because this is what the text indicates. There is a constant recognition across both testaments that the Mosaic law and covenant has its flaws for various reasons. That is part of the nature of the Covenant, incomplete and flawed. With all of that said, the apologetic tactic to take is to simply agree that slavery is wrong, agree that it is in the inspired text, but show that this is not surprising given the context Israel comes out of and the statements the text makes about the nature and function of the law. To quote Walton, “Torah is not given as an ideal system. It is a culturally situated system… that explains why we do not find in the Torah, any discussion of you know is it a good thing to have slaves?” (Morton, 2019, 38:58-39:29). This apologetic allows us to cast doubt on premise A that was given in the introduction.

This is a test of faith. The biblical authors' statements on slavery are difficult for us to understand and deal with. People are right to stop here and question things, to reevaluate how they view the Bible and the doctrines associated with it. I understand why someone would become a non-Christian because of this issue, and the poor apologetics around this issue. So I hope to have provided some grounds by which we can maintain faith and believe in the scriptures. We as Christians need to be honest about Biblical slavery, our faith, and how we bring the two together.

References: 

Baker Jr, L. S., Bergland, G., Massotti, A. F., Wells, R. A. (2020). Exploring the Composition of the Pentateuch. Eisenbrauns. 

Bowen, J. (2020). Did the Old Testament Endorse Slavery? Digital Hammurabi Press. Bowen, J., Davis, K., Lambert, D. (April 12, 2024). Apologists FORGING Excuses For Biblical Slavery AGAIN! Mythvision. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2pSqQhmlfA 

DiscipleDojo. (2023, October 20). What is the “Image of God”? (with Dr. Carmen Imes). YouTube. https://youtu.be/XFpl_bDrAvc?si=WLpPTJRmpV6AdgHb 

Morton, J. (2019, September 14). Professor John Walton torah~ lost world conference. Jeff Morton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mE5yui0gVU 

Image by The British Library on Unsplash

Jenei, P. (2019). Subjugating and Exploiting the second-class population of the ancient Israelite state: the case of forced labor (מַס (in light of the population economy of ancient Israel. Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 45(1), 57-72. 

Lambert, D., Boyce, S., Davis, K., Bowen, J, Beazley, J. (Jan 13, 2023). Does the bible condone slavery? Debate. Mythvision. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKCob02n2_s 

Nässelqvist, D. & Jardim, G. (2016). “Slavery”. In J. D. Barry et al (Eds.), Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press. 

Reid, J. N. (2017). The children of slaves in early Mesopotamian laws and edicts. Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale, 111(1), 9–23. https://doi.org/10.3917/assy.111.0009 

Swartley, M. W. (1983). Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation. Herald Press. 

Walton H. J., Gane R., Block I. D. (2015). The NIV Application Commentary: Leviticus. Zondervan. 

Walton H. J., Gane R., Block I. D. (2015). The NIV Application Commentary: Numbers. Zondervan. 

Walton H. J, Matthews H. V, Chavals W. M. (2000). The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Exodus. Intervarsity press. 

Walton & Walton. (2019). The Lost World of the Torah. IVP Academic. 

Westbrook, R. (1995). Slave and Master in Ancient Near Eastern Law. Chicago-Kent Law Review. https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3004&context=cklawreview&htt psredir=1&referer= 

Van eyghen, H. (2023). Debunking divine command theory. Religions, 14(10), 1252 https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14101252

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