Excruciatingly Painful Mental Gymnastics on Biblical Slavery

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Got another question. He says, "How can we best defend the following proposition, quote, God was plausibly justified in not explicitly outlawing slavery?"

[00:00:11]>> Yeah, what we see is in the ancient Near East well within Israel, we see and I and I elaborate on this in in the book uh where where keep in mind that when people are here the term slavery, >> [clears throat] >> they're often thinking of the antebellum south and they're thinking of a scenario that is just so far removed from what is going on in in Israel that [clears throat] this is something that we have a uh you know we I think a term servant is better than quote slave and we have a couple of indicators that this is something that is radically distinct in that one yes, people are impoverished and they need some sort of a way to sustain themselves and becoming indentured servants is the best way given the ancient Near Eastern structures to do that.

[00:01:04]Secondly you have >> [clears throat] >> foreign runaway slaves who have the capacity to attach themselves to Israelite households without the threat of being sent back and again in ancient Near Eastern law codes this is a requirement you know death penalty if you harbored a runaway slave and and nations in the ancient Near East had extradition treaties to send back runaway slaves to their point of origin.

[00:01:29]Not so with Israel. Israel was to be a refuge from that kind of oppression. So we have the capacity for runaway uh people to go and settle in any of Israel's cities, but we also have the possibility of entering into and Exodus 21 of entering into servitude freely or not continuing with it. So you have in the person who says, "I love my employer/master."

[00:01:56]uh and and so you had go through a ceremony to attach yourself to that that person for the rest of your days. So so uh David Klein, who you know, an Old Testament scholar just died recently, but uh but you know, a well-recognized name. He says that these two texts, the the runaway and also voluntarily continuing on uh to to be a servant in someone's household. He says these fundamentally undermine the very institution of slavery. That these texts now make it not something that is a a a something that is forcible against someone's will. And in fact, when we get to Deuteronomy, uh sorry, to Leviticus 25, the person who is a you know, the the those people who come as strangers and and and uh and and aliens who are working in Israel, they can they can work for the Israelites, but it says that if a person who as is one of these workers, if that person becomes a person of means, he can actually hire an Israelite to work for him. Now, it's not ideal, but that's the possibility you can actually rise up and become a person of means. And it's interesting that the same language that's used of you may acquire these servants from other nations, that same language is used of that foreigner who becomes a person of means who may quote acquire an Israelite. And so so again, that that language is really interchangeable, but fundamentally, it's a different institution. It is something different. It is regulated um to and you that's why you have the say the seven the six-year term limit for keeping an indentured servant, and you couldn't keep him beyond that unless it was voluntary. Um and so that there are certain strictures in place to again regulate and keep from abuse. And when you read say Amos and Jeremiah, there's a a warning against those who are taking advantage of their servants, keeping them longer, that this is a violation of the law of God, and and brings harm to them, and and is an abuse of power and so forth. So, those are a few things perhaps to keep in mind on that uh servitude question.