The God of the Old Testament – Part 22: Does the God of the Old Testament Condone Slavery?
By Mark L. Carlton
As far back as we have records slavery has existed among humankind. Even today it flourishes and is growing as one of the unintended consequences of globalism. This is not to say that slavery has been the same in every time and place. The fact is, a slave living in Hammurabi’s Palace in Babylon would have had a very different life than a slave living on Jefferson Davis’ plantation in Mississippi; so in discussing slavery it would probably be more accurate to speak of slaveries.
Unfortunately, our modern western culture is not good at making fine distinctions. For example, when the average American hears the word slavery s/he tends to think of it in the form it existed in his country before the civil war. To him/her, this is what slavery is because s/he has no other frame of reference.
The American way of viewing slavery is typical, and it creates a problem for a 21st century man/woman who is trying to understand the institution as it existed during the Bronze Age. Historian J.M. Roberts, explains the problem; “It is hard to assess what slavery meant in practice in a world lacking the assumption which we take for granted that chattel slavery cannot be justified.”[i]
I agree with this statement, and it is the starting point in my answer to the skeptics’ argument that the Bible condones slavery. A good statement of their position can be found in Wikipedia article on Slavery: “Some argue that the Bible condones slavery in Ancient Israelite society by failing to condemn the widespread existing practice present in other cultures. It also explicitly states that under certain circumstances, slavery is morally acceptable.” [ii]
I agree with the author of this article that “some argue that the Bible condones slavery,” I do not agree that the Bible explicitly states that it is morally acceptable. I notice that the author does not give us a chapter and verse in which God says the slavery is morally acceptable. That is because the Law does not directly comment on the morality of slavery. It does indeed say that it is acceptable, in the sense that it is permitted, but there is a difference between something being allowed and moral, or even a good thing.
For example, in the New Testament Jesus taught us that the statute permitting a man to divorce his wife was not a reflection of God’s moral will. On the contrary! The moral will of God is found in Genesis 2:24:
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh.”
Jesus adds to this; “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God therefore has joined together let no man put asunder.”
The question Jesus was asked after making this statement may be the same one you are asking; “If it is not God’s moral will that a man divorce his wife, why does the law of God regulate it?” Could this be one of those many supposed contradictions that skeptics are always telling us they find in the Bible?”
Jesus had an answer: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.”[iii]
According to Jesus, there is at least once statute in the Law that is not a reflection of his moral will but a concession to the hardness of men’s hearts. For the Christian, Jesus’ statement here is both authoritative and instructive. From it we learn that the law contains two kinds of commandments: (1) commands that are a reflection of the moral will; and (2) commands that are concessions to the hardness of the human heart. The former He enjoins and commends; the latter He allows and regulates. With practice it is not hard to distinguish between the two; but the cherry-picking method of Bible interpretation preferred by many skeptics does not really lend itself to an actually thoughtful analysis of the scriptures they are so quick to reject.
So, what does the Bible say about slavery? I think it is important first of all to recognize that the Bible does condemn what most of us think of when we think of slavery, the transatlantic slave trade. Once again referencing Wikipedia, the transatlantic slave was “the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the ‘New World’ that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from the 16th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were shipped from West Africa and Central Africa taken to the New World… Generally slaves were obtained through coastal trading with Africans, though some were captured by European slave traders through raids and kidnapping.”[iv]
Not mentioned in this article is the fact that the African slave traders, like their European counterparts, obtained their “merchandise” though raids and kidnappings. This particular activity is not only condemned in the Old Testament, it was a crime punishable by death: “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.”[v]
The God of the Old Testament would also have rejected the fugitive slave act of 1850 which required all run away slaves to be returned to their masters: ”You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat him.”[vi]
Given these clear statements is clear that critics who point to the Bible’s teaching on slavery as a reason not to believe in God is only considering a portion of the evidence.
What, then, is the truth? Well, like almost every other argument the skeptics make, the answer is more complex than those who bring the charges would have us to believe. To begin with we have to consider a point the critics themselves raise; that the portions of the Old Testament they criticize are Bronze Age documents.
To try to see the world through the eyes of a Bronze Age man, I’ve spent a portion of last two week reading and thinking about the Bronze Age. As part of my study I have read the Ancient Laws of Eshnunna and Code of Hammurabi. I have also done some fresh reading on life in the Bronze Age. After my study I find myself in agreement with J.M. Roberts:
“The ancient world rested civilization on a great exploitation of man by man; if it was not felt to be very cruel, this is only to say that no other possible way of running things was conceivable.”[vii]
As I have pointed out repeatedly in this series, this was the world as it existed when God began to reveal Himself to Abraham. It was still the way things were when He gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. It was the way it was during the conquest and the age of the Judges. In fact, the case can b e made that the only real moral improvement in the world came through the Law and the prophets.
I have also pointed out that God did not reveal His moral will all at once. The Revelation of God’s moral will was a process and the partial revelation of an earlier age must be understood in the complete revelation of God, including the New Testament.
[i] J.M. Roberts, Ancient History: From the First Civilizations to the Renaissance, p. 97
[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery
[iii] Matthew 19:8
[iv] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade
[v] Exodus 21:16
[vi] Deuteronomy 23:15-16
[vii] Ibid p. 97-98
I agree that this topic is confused by slavery being seen as it was in pre-Civil War America. In early Israel provision was made for a man without other means of support to voluntarily enter slavery in order to gain bed and board. This is not that dissimilar to the role of a peasant in the middle ages or indeed a wage-slave in the 21st century. However, kidnapping people and enslaving them and selling them as though they were objects is clearly condemned in Scripture.
By: Terry Hamblin on January 16, 2009
at 6:05 pm
Thanks for commenting, Terry. Interestingly, the first Carlton in America may have come to this country in 1640 as an indentured servant, the very sort of voluntary slavery you are talking about. Then again, he may have just have been riff raff getting out of England. Given our history this possibility cannot be discounted.
By: markcarlton on January 16, 2009
at 6:17 pm