Slavery was a universal feature of ancient civilizations, anchored in their view of the divine. The Mesopotamians believed that the gods created humans to be their slaves, to serve them and do the unpleasant work necessary to ensure their comfort. Humans had no intrinsic dignity; the gods regarded them as pests to be periodically reduced through famine, disease etc.
The Jewish law was revolutionary in that humans were portrayed as being made in the image of God - everyone carried the dignity of God in his or her being. Humans were created, not to serve but to rule. The work given Adam and Eve in the Garden was to further their own comfort, not God's.
But the Israelites lived in a time when the dignity of humanity was not assumed. In fact, the Israelites had been slaves themselves. The slave mentality permeated both them and the surrounding cultures.
For God to simply outlaw slavery would have been to set the Israelites up for failure. Our own modern struggles with race relations tell us just how hard it is for humans to treat one another decently and that is after thousands of years of Christian teaching has permeated society.
In order to help Israel get on the path that led to equality, God started by allowing the existing institution of slavery to continue, but in a restricted form. Much that same as pro-life people try to restrict abortion even though they want it to be abolished. Masters were not allowed to do whatever they wanted with their slaves.
For instance, Exodus 21 says “And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished." We see here that discipline of a servant was restricted. The text goes on to say, "Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his property." This sounds repugnant to us because it seems to allow masters to use any kind of force as long as the servant remains alive. But the text also says "If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth."
So we can see that, far from giving masters carte blanche to discipline their servants, masters were restricted and subject to punishment and the loss of the servant if they got out of hand. This sounds like setting the bar too low to our modern ears but at the time these laws were given, these restrictions were unheard of. God raised the bar for His people and did not expect too much from them. This was a step in the right direction.
God's main focus in Old Testament times was to teach his people to worship Him only; to be loyal to Him and to love Him. Proper treatment of people could only stem from proper relationship with God - remember all the Old Testament prophets rebuking the people for mistreating others as well as for degrading Yahweh - and so God gave a good deal more instruction to the people about how they should treat Him than how they should treat each other, knowing the latter flows out of the former.
The Jewish law was revolutionary in that humans were portrayed as being made in the image of God - everyone carried the dignity of God in his or her being. Humans were created, not to serve but to rule. The work given Adam and Eve in the Garden was to further their own comfort, not God's.
But the Israelites lived in a time when the dignity of humanity was not assumed. In fact, the Israelites had been slaves themselves. The slave mentality permeated both them and the surrounding cultures.
For God to simply outlaw slavery would have been to set the Israelites up for failure. Our own modern struggles with race relations tell us just how hard it is for humans to treat one another decently and that is after thousands of years of Christian teaching has permeated society.
In order to help Israel get on the path that led to equality, God started by allowing the existing institution of slavery to continue, but in a restricted form. Much that same as pro-life people try to restrict abortion even though they want it to be abolished. Masters were not allowed to do whatever they wanted with their slaves.
For instance, Exodus 21 says “And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished." We see here that discipline of a servant was restricted. The text goes on to say, "Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his property." This sounds repugnant to us because it seems to allow masters to use any kind of force as long as the servant remains alive. But the text also says "If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth."
So we can see that, far from giving masters carte blanche to discipline their servants, masters were restricted and subject to punishment and the loss of the servant if they got out of hand. This sounds like setting the bar too low to our modern ears but at the time these laws were given, these restrictions were unheard of. God raised the bar for His people and did not expect too much from them. This was a step in the right direction.
God's main focus in Old Testament times was to teach his people to worship Him only; to be loyal to Him and to love Him. Proper treatment of people could only stem from proper relationship with God - remember all the Old Testament prophets rebuking the people for mistreating others as well as for degrading Yahweh - and so God gave a good deal more instruction to the people about how they should treat Him than how they should treat each other, knowing the latter flows out of the former.
So how did things change regarding slavery in the New Testament times, or did it?
ReplyDeleteNothing changed in New Testament times. Slavery was still an acceptable practice in the pagan Roman world and none of the apostles called for its abolition - nor could they, the new church being a tiny minority having no political power.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Paul made it clear that salvation was for everyone, including slaves (1 Corinthians 12:13). He commanded slaves to obey their masters (Eph. 6:5) but also commanded Christian slave owners to treat their slaves well (6:9) since God was their own master. He also encouraged Philemon to set his runaway slave Onesimus free (Philemon 1).
So long as Christianity along with its belief in the value of humanity as image bearers of God was in the minority, slavery continued. But as the Roman empire fell and Christianity gained predominance, we see justification for slavery erroding and the Church becoming an institution that spoke out against the enslavement of people.
Yet we should note that, as bad as slavery to other people is, Paul had a larger concern which was humanity's slavery to sin. He spoke frequently about people being enslaved to do evil and of need for Christians to be slaves of righteousness (Romans 6) which is true freedom.