The Biblical Guide to Slavery

The Biblical Guide to Slavery

Exploring what the divine thinks about owning human beings

I was recently discussing with someone about some of the historical effects the Bible has had on the world when the topic of slavery in the U.S. South came up, and how some leaders in the South would try to use the Bible to justify the use of slavery.

Seeing as how this holy book is considered by many to be the one-stop shop for any and all moral lessons for life and society it might be enlightening to see what the good book has to say about this particular grim topic and to see how these creeps twisted the word of God around to try to justify owning human beings.

Let’s start near the beginning and work our way through the book to the various mentions.

Exodus 21:20–21-NASB

20 the slave21 the slavethe slave

Well, we’re off to a rough start.

Here God only seems to care enough about the slave that you don’t beat them too harshly…the almighty isn’t really setting the bar very high there.

Leviticus 25:44–46-NASB

44 pagan45 them46

Well so much for the “bondservant” argument you may hear, here the “law” makes it clear you can have permanent slaves as long as they aren’t Jews since obviously any other races/religions are less than human compared to God’s “chosen”.

Let’s move on to the New Testament, enough of this Old Testament stuff…Christians don’t really go by a lot of this anyway!

1 Timothy 6:1–2-NASB

6 our2 or sistersprinciples

Well so much for that. There really can’t be a mention that owning humans is detestable. No, we instead are sticking with the idea that owning slaves is fine, and in this verse, we’re doubling down that the slave better respects the master, especially if they’re a “good Christian” master…I’m not sure about you but “good Christian” and being a slave master don’t seem like they should be overlapping categories.

Wait! Timothy is generally accepted by historians to be a forged book written by someone masquerading as Paul, that must be why it’s got this screwed-up message. Let’s see what Paul had to say about it in a book he legitimately authored!

Ephesians 6:5–9

5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; 6 not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With goodwill render service, as to the Lord, and not to people, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive this back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

9

Come on Paul…

Serve your masters like you would the Lord, seriously? At least he tells the masters to be nice to the people they own…I guess that’s something?

Well, Paul let us down, so let’s move on to possibly a better resource, one of the disciples of Jesus!

After all Paul’s message at times clashes with that of Jesus and his disciples.

1 Peter 2:18-NASB

18

Son of a…so now we’re not even requiring the masters to be nice, but the slaves better still be nice to the masters, even if they’re harsh…great divinely inspired message here!

Let’s remember though.

2 Timothy 3:16-NASB

16