Sally- I have concerns about slavery in the Old and New Testament.
Chris– I think every Christian does.
Sally– Do you think that the Bible promotes slavery?
Chris– No. I don’t think it promotes slavery but it seems to permit it.
Sally– But isn’t that just semantics? Promotes or permits is the same thing in essence.
Chris – Well. I don’t think it is the same thing at all, but let me ask you a question: Do you think it is important to understand texts in their historical context?
Sally– Of course!
Chris– Would you agree that, if God existed and wanted to interact with, and reveal himself to, a human culture, this God would have to meet the culture where they are in their understanding?
Sally– I think that would be the case. Otherwise God would certainly be a poor communicator.
Chris– Right. Let’s keep that in mind and try to understand slavery within the context of that time period and the entire Biblical narrative.
Sally– I’m interested.
Chris– In the first chapter of the Bible the author writes that both man and woman are made in the image of God and as such they are worthy of dignity, value and respect (Genesis 1:28). In other cultures’ creation stories, only the king was made in the image of God, which could justify forced labor and slavish conditions for the peasants. In the Hebrew scriptures, however, all people are made in the image of God which should be the death blow to slavery.
Sally – It hasn’t been.
Chris– Well, in Genesis 3 we see that sin enters creation and corrupts all things, including our interactions with one another. Slavery, therefore, would be the result of the brokenness of creation wrought through human rebellion. The rest of the Bible is God working with humanity (through Abraham, Israel and ultimately Jesus Christ) to restore the shalom that sin shattered. God enters into a journey with humanity beginning in the Old Testament. He meets the people where they are in a day and age where slavery is a universal phenomenon, and progressively reveals His will and His ways to the people. As a result, there is teaching in the Old Testament about not treating slaves poorly and there is a gradual trajectory towards the total dismantling of slavery in the New Testament. It’s hard to see how slavery could continue in a community where the ‘slave’ is your brother and potentially in a position of spiritual authority over you. Moreover, in Christ there is neither slave nor free for all believers are one in Jesus – equally sinful, equally loved, and equally redeemed and forgiven through Christ.
In addition, God is objectively valuable and because God has imparted that value to His image bearers we can talk meaningfully about moral progress when, as a culture, we more fully recognize the dignity and value of all individuals.
Sally– I once read that slavery in the Old and New Testament was far different from slavery as it was practiced by Western super powers in the 19th century.
Chris– That’s true. For example, in the Old Testament that nation of Israel had indentured servants (slaves) but they were treated as human beings and were shielded from ‘inhuman abuse’. In addition, a slave was protected by the law and abusing a servant would result in the servant’s release. Also, consider that in the seventh year the servant in Israel would be set free and released from any debt they owed[1]. Obviously, by modern standards some laws in the Old Testament seem harsh or foreign but when you compare the law of Moses to the surrounding nations of that time period you can see a redemptive trajectory, whereby God is bringing their culture and understanding of human dignity more in tune with the implications of the imago dei of Genesis.
Sally– I guess that does sound different that the Trans-Atlantic slave trade where you had people forcefully ripped from their homes, and treated as less than human. It’s hard for me not to think of that when I read about slavery in the Bible. What about slavery in the New Testament?
Chris– Again, slavery in the New Testament is remarkably different from slavery in the Americas. For example, throughout the Roman Empire at the time of the New Testament there was not a big difference between the average slave and free person. They were not segregated and you could not tell who was a slave based on race, speech, or clothing. Financially speaking slaves were often paid the same amount as free laborers and could buy there way out of slavery after ten years or so. Also, the Greek word translated as slave is ‘doulus’, which is better translated as bondservant. Biblical scholar Wayne Grudem writes:
“This was the most common employment situation in the Roman Empire in the times of the New Testament. A bondservant could not quit his job or seek another employer until he obtained his freedom, but there were extensive laws that regulated the treatment of such bondservants and gave them considerable protection. Bondservants could own their own property and often purchase their freedom by about age 30, and they often held positions of significant responsibility such as teachers, physicians, nurses, managers of estates, retail merchants, and business executives.”[2]
Sally– It would really be helpful if Bible translators used a phrase like bondservant instead of slave because the word slave is so emotionally loaded and bound to cause confusion.
Chris– No kidding.
Sally– Not to be redundant but basically what you’re saying is that ‘slavery’ as it was often practiced in the Roman Empire, and even in the Old Testament, was a far cry from how slavery was practiced in the America’s.
Chris– Yes. The New Testament condemns trafficking in slaves (1st Tim 1:9-11) and the Apostle Paul wrote that ‘slaves’ and free people were equal in Christ (Gal 3:23). When New World slavery was put before the church, though some ‘Christians’ cowardly accommodated this brutal practice (even quoting the Bible in support of it), it was Evangelical Christians in England and Quakers in the United States who sought to abolish it.
Sally – It still bothers me that people used the Bible to justify New World slavery.
Chris– It should. It sickens me too. But we can’t judge a philosophy or a faith by its abuses. You’re still a committed evolutionist. Would you chuck out Darwin’s theory because of Social Darwinism?
Sally– No, of course not.
Chris– Exactly, I don’t chuck out the Bible because some people abuse it, either.
[1] Copan, Paul. Is God a Moral Monster? BakerBooks: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2011. Pg. 133
[2] Grudem, Wayne. Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Theological Liberalism. Cross Way Books: Wheaton, Illinois, 2006. Pg. 78