Slavery and God

Slavery is evil! That is the general consensus among civilized folk, at any rate. We hear stories of slavery still existing in some parts of the world, and we express horror that any government could allow it to happen, or that any person would own another person. Christians, professing to worship a God of love, compassion, and concern for human welfare, would naturally assume that their God hates slavery as much as they do, and that he gave commands against it or declared it an abomination.

They are wrong.

The first mention of slavery is in Genesis 9: 24-26. Noah had a fondness for wine and wasted no time making some as soon as he stepped off the ark. He then lay in a drunken stupor in his tent, naked--and since Noah was over 600 years old at the time, that's a mental image that I could do without. His son, Canaan, discovered him and went to tell his brothers, who discreetly covered him up. For some reason, this made Noah angry, so he cursed Canaan, declaring that his descendants would be the slaves of Shem's descendants. This would have been a good time for God to give him the smack-down for even imagining bringing the institution of slavery to the world, but God was napping at the time and missed the entire thing. Too bad.

Later, we find this prophecy from Gen. 15:13-14 (NIV used throughout):

Then the LORD said to him [Abram], "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

If God had anything against slavery, he surely would not have allowed his own chosen and most beloved people to become slaves for 400 years. Evidently, he saw it as an acceptable means of punishment for…whatever it was they were doing wrong. God isn't clear on that matter. Maybe it was just general wrongdoing. At any rate, they become slaves, and you know the story of their magical rescue by the same God who put them there in the first place.

In Exodus 21, God gives Moses instructions regarding slaves and their treatment. The first several verses say that if a Hebrew man is bought as a slave, he may be kept for six years and set free in the seventh. If he has a wife and children when he is enslaved, they can go free with him; if his master gives him a wife and they bear children, only he goes free while the woman and children remain with their master. If he decides to stay with his master permanently--because he owns his wife and kids--he is to have his ear pierced with an awl and become a slave for life. Female slaves were not set free, as the men were; they were often purchased as wives for a man's son. In the event that the son refused to provide for her, she could then be set free. Doesn't all of this sound perfectly reasonable and fair? Of course it does. It came from God, after all.

Verses 20 and 21 read: "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.

A man is to be punished for killing his slave, but only if the slave dies right away. If he can stagger to his feet after a couple of days, then it's no big deal. Remember, these laws are from the mouth of God, himself, as we can see from all the places that read, "And the Lord said unto Moses...." So we know it wasn't just a bunch of stodgy old priests who got together and made up all these barbaric laws so as to have more power over the nation; no, it was Yahweh Almighty, himself, come down from atop his sky-dome to issue the laws unto Moses, who then relayed them to the people, and now I'm relaying them to you.

For some reason, we have these rather odd commands later on, in verses 26 and 27: "If a man hits a manservant or maidservant in the eye and destroys it, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of a manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the tooth." So, a slave could be set free on account of a missing eye or tooth, but not if he was beaten so severely that he lay bedridden for a few days.

In Lev. 25: 44-46, God tells the Israelites that they can buy slaves from foreigners, but not from their own kind. These foreign slaves could be passed on to the kids as an inheritance. Does this sound like God had any objections to slavery? Seems to me like he was peachy-keen with the idea.

Now, many Christians will say that God surely hated slavery because of the numerous verses in which he reminds the Israelites that he rescued them from slavery in Egypt. There are dozens of such verses in Deuteronomy (6:12, 21; 7:8; 8:14; 13:5, 10; 15:15, etc.). However, this does not in the least imply that God abhorred slavery in general—only that he abhorred it for Israel, which was his specially chosen nation and thus under his special protection and care. (Never mind that he had no problem with them being slaves for 400 years.) Naturally, he would show them more favoritism than other nations.

There is one verse in which God actually shows a bit of concern for the welfare of slaves: Deut. 23:15-16 "If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him."

Strange, that God wouldn’t simply ban slavery altogether, and so make it unnecessary for anyone to be compelled to escape their miserable existence and seek shelter elsewhere.

That’s an overview of the attitude of slavery in the Old Testament. The New Testament doesn't fare any better, with Jesus often speaking of slaves in a matter-of-fact way. It was simply an accepted fact of life and he apparently saw no need to change things.

Matt. 10:24-25 A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub,how much more the members of his household!

Jesus likened himself to the master of a household, and his followers to slaves who were to aspire to be like him. Many of Jesus’ other parables also contain slaves (or servants in some versions)--the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30), the parable of the king forgiving his servant (Matt.18:23-35), etc. In all of them, Jesus is the figure of power (such as a king or a land owner), and his followers are the slaves. This master-slave relationship is a fundamental part of Christianity, whose members frequently call themselves “slaves of Christ,” as if it is an honor to be in bondage by another. Being a slave means having no will of your own because you do your master’s will, not yours…yet, Christians also claim that they have “free will,” something which is impossible if they are slaves. Not only did Jesus utterly fail to condemn slavery, criticize it, ban it, or forbid his followers from practicing it, but he used the institution of slavery as a teaching tool, comparing his followers favorably to slaves.

What about Paul? Surely the great and mighty Paul, whose teachings are revered by Christians everywhere (even moreso than those of Jesus), would have something negative to say about slavery.

1 Corinthians 7:21-23 & 12:13, and Galatians 3:28 & 5:1 are often used by Christians to prove that all men are equal in God’s eyes, whether slave or free; however, this does not negate the fact that a slave is still the property of another human being. Where, in these verses, is the condemnation of such a practice? If there is one place where Paul had the opportunity to roundly condemn slavery and declare it evil, it is in Ephesians. This is what he had to say about the subject:

Eph. 6: 5-9 "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him."

Paul viewed slavery to men as equivalent to slavery to Christ, and said that obedience to one proved one’s obedience to the other. Now, I have no doubt that some slaves were well treated, and some even achieved positions of high rank in their households. But it is also a fact that many of them were treated cruelly and lived miserable lives. Paul does not acknowledge these poor wretches nor give them any hope, but simply tells them to accept their lot in life. He even goes one step further and tells them to embrace it as God’s will! True, he tells Christian masters to treat their slaves kindly, but he never once goes that extra step and tells them to cease owning slaves. And God never says a word about the subject; it is all about what Paul thinks.

From cover to cover, the Bible approves of slavery. Christians argue that it was simply an everyday fact of life in ancient times and therefore God could not, or saw no reason to, interfere with it. Well, guess what? Adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, idol worship, lying, murder, and stealing were also everyday facts of life (and still are), yet God never hesitates to call THEM sins or abominations. Why is slavery left out of that list? In all the 613 Mosaic laws, it would be nice to see one that reads:

“Thou shalt not own slaves, nor buy and sell humans as one buys and sells cattle, nor tolerate slavery within thy borders, for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and do not enslave others as you were enslaved.”

Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change of pace from all the dreadful instructions for endless sacrifices of sheep and cattle, and the injunctions for male authorities to humiliate and mistreat the female population, and the depressing commands for this or that sinner to be burned or stoned? Wouldn’t it be great if that were included in the Ten Commandments, instead of, say, “Honor the Sabbath,” which nobody does, anyway? You won’t find it, because it does not exist. The God of the Bible has no problem with slavery.