THE OLD TESTAMENT AND SLAVERY

So what does the Old Testament have to say about slavery? The book of Leviticus (25:44) commands that Israelites must not be sold as slaves but : “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you, from them you may buy slaves”

So far from saying one must not engage in the practice of slavery this command, which is a direct command from God (25:1), allows it. Note slaves are to be drawn from other races i.e. people are to be treated differently according to their race. Leviticus also states “You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life” (25:45).

Exodus (22: 1-4) also contains a direct command from God : “In case a man should steal a bull or sheep and he does slaughter or sell it, he is to compensate with five of the herd for the bull ….he is to make compensation without fail. If he has nothing, then he must be sold for the things he stole”. The passage advocates slavery as a punishment for property crime. Exodus (21:1-6) allows Hebrew slaves to go free after the sixth year (but not his wife and children if the wife was originally the property of the slave owner). In contrast the pagan Laws of Hammurabi (in the second millennium BC) allow the release of slaves after the third year (Ancient Near Eastern Texts, J Prichard, 1950, p170). There is also a direct command from God :

“If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property.” (Exodus 21:20-21).

Passages in the Old Testament allow that slaves and other “property” can be plundered from other tribes. Other passages however command the killing of slaves as part of genocide. In a direct command from God the Israelites are told : “However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breaths. Completely destroy them – the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites as the Lord your God has commanded you” Deuteronomy (20:16-17). Similarly in Deuteronomy 7:1-5 the Hittites and other groups are to suffer genocide by command of God “you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.” Ironically the Hittite civilisation was rather elevated for its time. Hans Guterbock, Professor of Hittitology at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago writes of the Hittites “the most outstanding achievement of the Hittite civilisation lay in the fields of legislation and the administration of justice. The Hittites rarely resorted to the death penalty or to bodily mutilation, both of which were characteristic of other civilisations of the ancient Middle East. Furthermore, Hittite justice rested in the main on the principle of restitution rather than on retribution or vengeance.” (Encarta CD ROM Encyclopedia 1994).

Deuteronomy 13:12-16 commands that where a town has “been led astray” into worshiping other gods then “you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.” So slaves, if they were unfortunate enough to be owned by someone in one of these towns, were marked down by command of God for slaughter (together with all the children and animals).

Before moving on it is important to state that there was nothing compelling God to give such morally reprehensible advice. It might be argued that what is in Leviticus and Exodus is not God’s view at all. If this is the case, why did God allow such disgraceful teaching to be in his book in the first place (he is, let us not forget, supposed to be all powerful).

THE NEW TESTAMENT ON SLAVERY

There is not a single condemnation of slavery by Jesus in the entire gospels. Yet it is inconceivable that Jesus was unaware of slavery and the moral issue since “Jesus lived in a world where slavery was common. There seem to have been slave revolts in Palestine and Jordan in Jesus’ youth. There were innumerable slaves of the Emperor and the Roman state; the Jerusalem temple owned slaves; the High Priests owned slaves (one of them lost an ear in Jesus’ arrest); all of the rich and many of the middle classes owned slaves.” Yet “Jesus never attacked the practice. He took the state of affairs for granted” Professor Morton Smith, Columbia University, What The Bible Says 1989 p143.

What of the attitude of Paul ? He wrote : “Those who are slaves must consider their masters worthy of all respect, so that no one will speak evil of the name of God and of our teaching. Slaves belonging to Christian masters must not despise them, for they are their brothers.” (1 Timothy 6:1-2).

Paul’s reference to “Christian masters” immediately reveals that early Christians owned slaves. But far from condemning the practice amongst fellow Christians and in the wider world, Paul does the opposite by arguing that slave masters, be they Christians or non-Christians, must be given respect by their slaves. It is striking just how emphatic Paul is about this, particularly in his use of words such as “must” and “all”.

Paul’s letter to Titus tells slaves in no uncertain terms that : “Slaves are to submit to their masters and please them in all things. They must not answer them back or steal from them. Instead, they must show that they are always good and faithful, so as to bring credit to the teaching about God our Saviour in all they do.” 2: 9-10.

In Colossians (3:22-4:1) Paul clearly tells Christian slave masters to be “fair and just in the way you treat your slaves”. Yet there is no condemnation of slavery. A slave may become a “brother” in the faith, but he or she is still nevertheless a slave, still a piece of property. Rather than condemn slave owning by Christians, Paul tells the slaves they own to “obey your human masters in all things” (the NEB translates this as “give entire obedience”). This is a quite staggering thing to command a person to do and beggars belief. Far from encouraging a slave to challenge his status he does the very opposite : “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord”. Working hard as a slave has thus become a religious duty. Paul then writes that if they work hard as a slave they will be rewarded in the next world. He thus helps to underpin slavery. Paul repeats these commands in his letter to the Ephesians.

your masters and show them complete respect, not only to those who are kind and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. God will bless you for this, if you endure the pain of undeserved suffering because you are conscious of his will.” The biblical writer is unequivocal in demanding respect for slave owners.

COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE

John Stott, a popular evangelical author admits “Scripture regulates but nowhere condemns slavery” (Issues facing Christians Today 1984 p195). Richard Holloway, the Bishop of Edinburgh speaking to the Sunday Times about the Bible was blunter when he stated “We have recently abandoned the text’s tyranny over women as we abandoned its justification of slavery” (11-10-98).

Professor JL Holden, former Principal of Cuddesdon Theological College writes of Paul “He voices no hint of objection to slavery in itself, and in this respect falls below the humane ideals of Stoics of his time like Seneca” (Ethics and the NT 1973 p25).

Don Cupitt, Dean of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, states (in a book he wrote before he became a heretic) : “slavery is commanded in the Old Testament, accepted in the New, and coexisted with Christianity for eighteen centuries.” (Crisis of Moral Authority 1972 SCM Press p90).

Robin Fox, Reader in Ancient History at Oxford writes “As for slavery: Christian slaves should abide in their social position, according to Paul, and ‘serve the more.’ A slave’s obedience to his master was a religious duty ” (The Unauthorised Version 1991 p401).

The writer Chapman Cohen (1868-1954) noted in his essay Christianity and Ethics (1945) “In all the recorded utterances of the Gospel Jesus, there is not a single condemnation of slavery as an institution. In the Pagan world the question of the legitimacy of slavery was already beginning to excite interest; slaves themselves were exhibiting symptoms of unrest….. Further, we find St Paul commanding slaves to be obedient to their masters, in fear and trembling, whether they be good or bad, and to count them as “worthy of all honour” whether the masters be believers or unbelievers; while to bear unmerited punishment in silence…is to be counted to their honour hereafter.”

Professor Morton Smith notes that “With all these clear passages, there is no reasonable doubt that the New Testament, like the Old, not only tolerated chattel slavery but helped to perpetuate it by making the slaves’ obedience to their masters a religious duty. This biblical morality was one of the great handicaps that the emancipation movement in the United States had to overcome. The opponents of abolition had clear biblical evidence on their side…as one said in 1857:”Slavery is of God”. (What the Bible Says 1989 p145/146).

Dr Margaret Knight in her pamphlet “Christianity : The Debit Account” (1975) comments about Paul’s promise of heavenly rewards generally: “To a privileged minority this attitude has obvious advantages, in that it helps to keep the unprivileged majority resigned to their lot, but it has retarded human progress for centuries” (p7)

Some Christian writers try to excuse the Bibles attitude on slavery. One book even suggests that “Paul’s brief was not to engage in political campaigning” (The Lion Guide to the Bible p625). Such excuses are morally objectionable. Slavery is not a matter of mere politics, it is one of the most profound and fundamental of moral issues.

The Bibles attitude to slavery has not been lost on Christians throughout the ages. Professor Carl Lofmark in his book “What is the Bible?” writes :” Christians accepted slavery….the Church itself soon became the biggest slave-owner in the Roman Empire. Slavery was approved of by the Church’s teachers, such as St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas and many others….The slave trade flourished with the approval of the Church …. Slaves have been bought and sold by the popes and they continued to keep slaves until the late 18th century. The Bible texts I have quoted were used constantly to support slavery. Opponents of slavery including Wilberforce and Paine …. were savagely attacked by the churches for presuming to know better than the Bible, and the anti-slavery attitude of the Quakers made them unpopular with orthodox Christians. The first country to abolish slavery was France…” (1990, RPA. p97)

And Don Cupitt claims “It was not Wilberforce the Christian who pioneered abolition, as popular legend has it. On the contrary, as Wilberforce himself told the Commons on February 18, 1796, revolutionary France had already freed its slaves overseas: Christian England was not to free them for 37 years. It was the same revolutionary Assembly which gave Jews the citizen-ship which Christian France had denied them.” (1972 p90) And Chapman Cohen noted in his essay on Christianity: “The modern black-slave trade, it must be noted, was pre-eminently a Christian traffic – instituted by Christians…..And it remained, backed up by Christians, who quoted the New Testament….as their authority.”

WHO DID CONDEMN SLAVERY ?

The Jewish religious sect the Essenes condemned slavery (Karen Armstrong The End of Silence 1993 p47 ). Its interesting that the Lion Guide to the Bible describes this group as a “rather shadowy party” who kept themselves to themselves “loving one another and hating all those outside” (p495). What the Guide carefully omits to tell its readers is that the Essenes opposed slavery. The classical writer Philo of Alexandria recorded (approvingly) that they possessed no slaves and that they denounced slave-owners (“Philo of Alexandria” Samuel Sandmel 1979 p 33 ). However they may have gone further than this. Dr Abram Leon Sacher former Chancellor Emeritus, Brandeis University, writes of the Essenes “As a society, the Essenes were the first to condemn slavery as a violation of human fellowship. It is reported that they bought and freed slaves owned by others” 1994 Encarta CD Rom Encyclopedia.

The Essenes were not however the first to condemn slavery. Writing about Antisthenes, of the Cynic school of philosophy (4th century BC) , Bertrand Russell notes “His followers, if not he himself, condemned slavery.” (A History of Western Philosophy 1946 p241).

According to the 1991 Hutchinson Encyclopedia the pagan Stoics “emphasised human brotherhood, denounced slavery, and were internationalist” p788. This is probably overstating the case, however. It is true that the fifth century Macedonian writer Strobaeus attributes a passage condemning slavery to the Stoic Epictetus but there is some doubt as to the veracity of this. Nevertheless Stoics such as Seneca certainly championed the rights of slaves. Seneca induced Nero, in his early years, to grant slaves the right to appeal to the Roman courts against cruelty for example. The Stoic lawyer Ulpian was able to make it illegal for parents to sell their children into slavery. Yet “Constantine annulled much of the beneficent work of his Pagan predecessors by allowing poor parents to sell their children into slavery” (J McCabe, A Rationalist Encyclopaedia 1948 p96).

IMPLICATIONS

For a man to own children or other adults as his property is profoundly wrong. Slavery was and is a moral evil. The Bible is therefore wrong on one of the most fundamental matters of human morality. In the light of the Bibles attitude to slavery, claims that the Bibles moral teaching is special, or contain the “infallible Word of God” flounder. Far from being the “infallible Word of God”, on this fundamental matter of morality the Bible actually falls well short of the ideal of its time. Moreover most Christians argue that Jesus was the “Son of God”. But how could he be the “Son of God” when he failed to say a single word against the evil of slavery? And how could he be the “Son of God” when mere men, both before him and contemporary with him, did condemn slavery?