Does the Bible Condone Slavery?

Read: Quick Shot - “The Bible condones slavery”

Does the Bible turn a blind eye toward slavery? Does God condone this type of behavior? Is there a difference between slavery as we think of it today and slavery as described in the Bible? In this video from J. Warner’s “Quick Shots: Fast Answers to Hard Questions” series on RightNow Media, J. Warner answers this common question related to the claims of Christianity.

[Tmoney_]

The Bible said kidnapping is punishable by death.

[markhorton]

Off topic comment.
Critics of Christianity demand eye witness accounts ( then usually reject them because the eyewitnesses believe what they saw)
The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts are not AN eyewitness account. They are the report of a detective who interviewed MANY eyewitnesses.

[kingofthemultiverse]

The word "slave" (ebed) in the Hebrew language and in the cultural context of ancient Israel was not derogatory, Old Testament scholar John Goldingay affirms *“there is nothing inherently lowly or undignified about being an ‘ebed' Instead it was an honourable and dignified term”* (Old Testament Theology, Intervarsity, 2009, Vol. 3, p. 460). This is evident in Genesis 24:2
where Abraham's oldest servant (ebed) was the ruler of his entire household and in
charge of all his possessions, the Hebrew word often translated as "slave" into the English language; *'ebed'* (עֶבֶד) literally translated means *'Worker'* or *'Servant'* and it comes from the root verb *'Abad'* (עָבַד) which only means *'to Work'* or *'to Serve'* according to theologian and scholar Proffesor Thomas Schirrmacher:
the Hebrew expression for a "slave" *"is simply a worker or a servant."* Old Testament scholar J.A. Motyer writes *"Hebrew has no vocabulary of slavery only servanthood."*
Scholar and theologian Paul Copan says *'ebed' (“servant, employee”) typically shouldn’t be translated “slave.”* according to Jewish Rabbi Yitzhak schochet *"servant"* is the more appropriate translation of "ebed" and in some cases according to Old Testament scholar Christopher Wright "ebed" is a term denoting high office that's applied to *royal servants, * "ebed" is used, throughout the Hebrew Bible, to denote government officials, sometimes of high-ranking for example in 2 Kings 23:11 Nathan-melech's title is translated as *'chamberlain, ' 'officer' or 'official'.*
One of the texts on page 633 Mounce’s dictionary also defines it as a *“servant.”* Servitude in ancient israel for the most part was *'voluntary servanthood'* where people would sell themselves as servants to work off debts or escape poverty and starvation, this is evident in Genesis 47:19 where the Egyptians and Cannanites approach Joseph and offer themselves to be servants in exchange for food, and in Joshua 9:8 where the Gibeonites willingly offered themselves to be servants of Joshua, Scholar Nathan Anderson affirms that both a *"...Hebrew as well as a foreigner would voluntarily subject themselves into servitude".* (Slave Systems of the Old Testament and the American South - BYU )

The kidnapping and selling of any human being like the Atlantic slave trade was prohibited and incurred the death penalty in the Bible according to Exodus 21:16,  
Old Testament scholar & Professor Ph.D (Harvard University) in Near-Eastern Languages and Literature Dr. Douglas Stuart says: *"Chattel slavery is impossible because Exodus 21:16 explicitly outlaws all human trafficking"*
this is the reason why the God condemns slave-traders of Tyre for trafficking human beings as slaves in Ezekiel 27:13 "Greece, Tubal and Meshek did business with you; *they traded human beings and articles of bronze for your wares, "* and in Amos 1:9 "For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. Because she *took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, "*
and in the New testament calling slave-traders *"ungodly, sinful, unholy"* etc. In 1 Timothy 1:9-10, and opposes *"human beings sold as slaves."* in Revelation 18:13. An *"ebed"* was given food, shelter, clothing, protection from mistreatment and legal rights under the Mosaic legislation, according to OT Scholar Christopher Wright servants/slaves *"were given human and legal rights unheard of in contemporary societies"* for example: participating in the Sabbath day of rest together with the rest of the israelite community: with a legally reserved day of rest every 6 days Deuteronomy 5:14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On that day *you must not do any work* you, your son, your daughter,  *your male servant, your female servant....so that your male and female servants, like yourself, may have rest.*
Also, The Law of Moses required that servants must be included in the Jewish festive activities; such as the thanksgiving feast in memorial of God’s deliverance (Deut.12:12), the grain harvest festival (Deut.16:10-12), the festival of Temporary Shelters celebrated at the grain and grape harvest (Deut.16:13-14). Furthermore, servants were protected from injury and were immediately "set free" if they were injured by thier masters (Exodus 21:26-27), according to the exponents of Jewish law, the sense of the term "set free" here is that the same emancipated servant becomes a "freeborn" (benei ḥorīn) and is received into the Jewish community and is permitted to marry a daughter of Israel. For example 1 Chronicles 2:34-35 affirms Sheshan gave his Egyptian servant Jarha to his daughter in marriage, after which they had a child (Maimonides,  Mishne Torah (Hil. Issurei Bi'ah) 12:17; 13:12–13)
Murdering a servant incurred the death penalty (Exodus 21:20) because the Hebrew word used in that passage is "naqem" literally meaning *'to avenge', 'take vengeance for blood'* and it always meant Capital punishment in the Old Testament and the only penalty prescribed for murdering any human being was death ( Exodus 21:14, Leviticus 24:17) also the Hebrew word "Hu" for "He" used in the phrase *"he is his money"* in Exodus 21:22 should be translated as "It" or "That" referring to the 'Fee' that the master has to pay for the medical treatment of the servant that he struck as a compensation for his loss of time and take care of him until his full recovery based on the immediate context of Exodus 21:18-19, so the text should be rendered *"The fee is his money"* according to Ancient Near-Eastern Scholar Harry Hoffner (University of Chicago), Hoffner also writes about this passage *"the fact that the master provided care at his own expense would be a significant factor when the judges respond to a charge of intentional homicide"*
(Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., “Slavery and Slave Laws in Ancient Hatti and Israel”).
Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near-Eastern Languages Roy Gane says: "the laws of Exodus 21:20–21, 26–27 protect from abuse *all persons* in service to others, not just Jews"

The Bible also commands Israelites not to return fugitive servants to thier masters:
*"You shall not deliver to his master the slave which is escaped from his master to you, He shall dwell with you, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of your gates, where it likes him best: you shall not oppress him"*
Deuteronomy 23:16.
this is further confirmed in ancient Jewish literature "Sirach" 33:31 (200-175 BC) *"If you have a slave, treat him as a brother, for as your own soul you will need him. If you ill-treat him, and he leaves and runs away, which way will you go to seek him?"* Proffesor Paul
Copan says: *"So if a foreign servant was being mistreated by his master so that he ran away, he could find his way into another Israelite home for shelter and protection"*

The Bible says:
"When a *foreigner* resides with you in your land *you must not oppress him* You must *treat the foreigner living among you as native-born* and *love him as yourself* for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God" Leviticus 19:34.
Here God commands the Israelites not to oppress *ANY* non-Hebrew living with them, because the same people *"Ger"* ("Foreigner, sojourner") mentioned here are the same ones described in Leviticus 25:45 as *"Toshavim Garim"* ("Foreigners who sojourn") also called *"Gerim Toshavim", * in the context of foreign servants, which means that this command applies to foreign servants as well, according to Jewish scholar, linguist and researcher Yona Sabar the term *"Gerim"* is, in a way, a term equivalent to all of our modern *“immigrants, foreigners, aliens, guest workers, shelter seekers, etc.”* of biblical times. *Pentateuch laws emphatically protect them. They have to be treated with justice and as equals to native citizens (Leviticus 24:22), * reminding the Children of Israel that they, too, were once gerim, strangers in Egypt (Exodus 22:20; 23:9), according to Rabbi Reuven Hummer *"The Torah’s attitude toward non-Israelites is overwhelmingly positive and is based on the concept that all human beings are created in the image of the Divine"* and they were to treat them as native-born and love them as themselves, which is why
influential Torah scholars like Maimonides and other halachic authorities forbade and strongly discouraged any unethical treatment of slaves or servants whether Jewish or not (Maimonides wrote in Yad,  Avadim 9:8
Encyclopedia Judaica, 2007, vol 18, p 670)
Historian Muhammed Dandamayev in his essay on slavery and the Old testament for the Anchor Bible dictionary says *"we have in the Bible the first appeals in world literature to treat slaves as human beings for thier own sake and not just in the interests of thier masters"*

according to a scholar
*"We learn that the slaves were uniformly treated as members of the family, for whose well-being the master cared as for that of his children"* (Hebrdische Archaologie von Dr. J. Benzinger Freiburg i.B.und Leipzig, 1894) this is clearly seen in Genesis 15:3, where Abraham considers his foreign servants as "Sons" and was willing to make one of them (Eliezer) the Heir of his house, God says: "He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice, *"He shows love to the foreigners living among you* and gives them food and clothing, And *you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.* Deut.10:18-19 this verse uses the term *"Ger"* (also called *"Ger Toshav"* by historian and historical theologian Geoffrey W. Bromiley) generically without any specified exceptions whatsoever, applying to *ANY* foreigner
in general, living within israel including the non-hebrew servants of the Israelites, infact, one scholar has noted that the Jews’ treatment of foreign servants/slaves was *“a great deal more humane than elsewhere in the ancient world”* (Jeremias 1969, 348)

[abcd-ssrh]

Six (6) years slavery max for Hebrews.
Besides it is possible slavery was to serve as a materialistic metaphor made for people to understand the more abstract slavery to sin and strict law that was abolished in Christianity.

Jeremiah 34
Freedom for Slaves
8The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. 9Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. 10So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. 11But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
12Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, 14‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’ a Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. 15Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. 16But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.
17“Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. 19The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, 20I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.
21“I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. 22I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

So seems to me that God didn't like slavery.

[rebelliocross]

Hebrew doesn't even know a word for slave, only for servitude. A servant, an "ebed", could voluntarily rent himself out to fully employ someone. Think of Jacob, who did work 7 years for Laban so he could mary Rachel. He did not get any money but got a living and accommodation. You became a member of a the family. So there was nothing unworthy in being "ebed." Compare it to a transfer in the football world, in which high amounts are involved. No one calls that slavery.

[markmooney]

Many thanks for this short explanation...easy to remember .
Grace and peace to you and to all...and a wonderful Christmas.
Gilly wife of Mark

[Iamwrongbut]

Leviticus 25:44-46 legalizes participation in The foreign slave trade.

Why aren’t you talking about this!?!?

[invisibleinkling]

Great timing! I was just talking to my daughter about these very things and you just backed it up. Thank you!

[Muzicboy]

One of the best condensed arguments against this topic that I’ve heard … right on Mr Wallace

[SDscrch]

"custody" isn't biblical

[jeremiahrowesr.]

Actually I'm so very thankful that this video appeared, it was like God answering me to give the answer out to my cousin so we would have the answer. My cousin he is an atheist and he said did you know that the Bible says that God can don't slavery, I said well God doesn't condone slavery goes well according to Exodus 20 verse 21 and 20 he does, where it says if any Master beats his servant to death and the servant dies to master his punished and he also said that the master isn't punished if he beats the slave, I said well I believe that the master is still punished even though he has brutally beaten his slave and he shouldn't do that taking his anger out on somebody and beating them is not okay I said he still would get punished for it, I also said that the Bible also says that the master would get punished for killing his slave, he agreed with that part but he didn't agree with the part that I said before is when I said that the master still gets punished for beating on his slave he didn't agree with that. he asked me the first question does God promote slavery I said no and he goes how can you prove that and so well let's look back at Moses I said Moses killed an Egyptian for beating on one of the slaves he killed him, then my cousin said oh okay well I will agree with you on that one, but he said God condemns it. there is a video I'd like to ask you to do if God condoms abortions I can give the simple quick answer and that answer is no he does not promote or condone abortion.

[timothykeith]

Slavery is the result of the Fall of Man, just as sin, death, war, suffering, and sickness are the result of the Fall. Ruies for warfare are also in the Bible.

Jews were slaves in Egypt, Assyria and Babylon - and God caused that to happen.. Many quote this verse as a reason for optimism, but it refers to a era of slavery by a people who bashed Jewish infants against rocks.

"For I know the plans I have for you, ' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” — Jeremiah 29:11

Tooth decay is also not prohibited in the Bible.

[BC-zvsk]

Brothers and sisters please pray for my mothers health. Her name is Tracie Little. Your prayers are much needed family 💯✝️🙏🏾

[zache]

Amazing study and understanding of the word. Praise God for brother Jim.

[servant--jesus]

Thank you brother May the grace and peace of Christ be with you always 🙏

[jlmadd]

Yep and guess what else is slavery? Working for corporations and menial jobs. Sounds like a business model to me. You born into sin and owe. You figure it out

Ex21.16 condemns forced slavery. It’s not kidnapping if the individual is sold. Kidnapping involves a ransom. There’s a big difference between ransom and selling another as merchandise as the original Hebrew states. Ransom is used not a few verses down, Ex21.30. Also...lev25.44-46 is not slavery. Slavery is ownership, or full control and as a legal right. There’s a difference between ownership and possession. That word possession is the same word used when God tells the Israelites to go in and possess the land. The Hebrews don’t own the land, lev25.23...God owns (full control and legal right) the land. Possession is degree or shared control, in their presence... Big difference. We today borrow or finance with the bank..the bank is in legal possession or shared control of you and that car etc..stipulated within the contract. Debt contract. It’s debt all over the Bible...Christ paid the price for all in bondage.. debt bondage.. and set them free physically and spiritually. That’s fulfillment of the Old Testament. God in lev25.44-46..is buying the slave, to turn loose..Deut 29.10-15. You have to buy them first or it’s an illegal transaction, illegitimate. God’s the Hero here. The title of the book is covenant old, new. It’s literally God pleading with mankind..get out of the forced slavery with the god of this world..and get in with Him. His yoke is easy His burden light. The title is a proposal, a marriage proposal. Choice. We give our heart to Whom we choose and it makes all the difference. God’s the original hopeful romantic

[rosabeker]

Great teaching! The only question I have is about the ISRAELITES (Moses) under Pharoah. They were treated as property.

[rebelliocross]

Maybe mr Wallace, you could talk one time about stubbornness in relation to God's judgment. I mean: Muslims and (atheist's and actualy people in general (-:) can be very stubborn in their faith and God wants us to be stubborn too. But i think we should be that in a different way.

[rebelliocross]

In a discussion on this subject and saying right that what you say in this video, i got this reaction: First they said: you're condoning slavery... And next to that they said: If God had time to tell you not to eat shrimp, he could have said that having others as property is wrong in any way... Of course they did lissen to what i said, but in a way they have a point: the 10 words of God could be clearer... And yes, i did refer to Jesus saying not only to love your neighbor but also your enemy.... When people want to stay critical it is hard to argue and get them see our point: there is a historical context. But most of the times people just do not want to lissen, they just want to tell you how wrong you are. It does effect me emotionally thou.