Program / Course 17: Defending Scripture / Lesson 5.3
What you will learn
- Describe what the Old Testament laws and the New Testament letters say about slaves and masters.
- Compare ancient Near Eastern and Roman slavery with the race-based slavery of the Atlantic world.
- Present the arguments that the Bible tolerates, regulates, and undermines slavery.
- Explain how Christians were found on both sides of the debate in the nineteenth century, and state the strongest objection honestly.
The big idea
The Bible was written in societies where slavery was normal, and it regulates slavery without abolishing it. The laws of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy place limits on masters and require release for some enslaved persons, and the New Testament tells slaves and masters how to behave and also contains lines, such as Paul’s letter to Philemon, that many have read as undermining the institution. Some Christians used the Bible to defend slavery, and others used it to oppose it. Honest reading admits the difficulty: the text does not condemn slavery as such, and Christians have taken different positions on what follows.
Key terms
- Debt slavery
- A condition in which a person works for another to pay a debt. It was the main form of Hebrew slavery in the law.
- Chattel slavery
- A system in which enslaved people are treated as the permanent property of their owners, as in the Atlantic slave trade.
- Jubilee
- A year every fiftieth year in which, according to Leviticus 25, land returned to its family and Hebrews who had sold themselves were released.
- Manstealing
- The seizure and sale of a person, which Exodus 21:16 forbids on pain of death. Abolitionists cited it.
- Household code
- Instructions in the New Testament, such as Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3, on the duties of members of a household, including slaves and masters.
- Manumission
- The act of freeing a slave. It was common in the Roman world.
- Abolitionist
- A person who worked to end slavery. Many were motivated by Christian conviction.
Background
Slavery existed in nearly all ancient societies. In Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, people became slaves by capture in war, by debt, by birth, by sale of children or by crime. Roman slavery was vast, and scholars estimate that slaves made up a large share of the population of Italy. Roman slaves could be treated with great cruelty, though some held skilled posts and could earn freedom. Scholars debate how far Roman practices were like or unlike the Atlantic slave trade, but most hold that the racial ideology and the scale of the later system were distinctive.
A reader who comes to the Bible with the history of the Atlantic slave trade in mind will find the laws shocking. A reader who knows the ancient world will find them different in some ways from those of neighbors, and still be troubled. Both observations are true and both belong to an honest account. Many Christians, then and now, have found that the topic requires them to admit that earlier generations of believers read the Bible wrongly.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: What the Old Testament law says
Exodus 21:2-6 provides that a Hebrew slave serves six years and goes free in the seventh, while Deuteronomy 15:12-15 adds that the master should give the freed person supplies and remember that Israel was a slave in Egypt. Leviticus 25 forbids making a fellow Israelite serve as a slave in the harsh sense and provides for release in the Jubilee. Exodus 21:16 forbids kidnapping, with the penalty of death. Deuteronomy 23:15-16 says that a slave who escapes to Israel is not to be returned to his master, which is unusual among ancient laws.
Other texts permit the buying of slaves from the surrounding nations and their keeping as property for life (Leviticus 25:44-46). Exodus 21:20-21 deals with a master who strikes a slave, with a penalty if the slave dies at once and a lesser outcome if the slave survives a day or two. Female slaves and captive women are treated differently from male slaves (Exodus 21:7-11, Deuteronomy 21:10-14). Critics, and many believers, find these provisions troubling. Defenders point out that they limit the master’s power in a world with few limits, and critics respond that limiting is not the same as condemning.
Step 2: What the New Testament says
The New Testament does not call for the abolition of slavery as an institution. Paul tells slaves to obey their masters and masters to treat slaves justly (Colossians 3:22 to 4:1, Ephesians 6:5-9). He tells slaves who can gain freedom to prefer it (1 Corinthians 7:21). In 1 Timothy 1:10 the list of sinners includes menstealers, a word translated as slave traders in many versions. Galatians 3:28 says that in Christ there is neither bond nor free.
The letter to Philemon concerns Onesimus, who had left Philemon, apparently a slave. Paul asks Philemon to receive him no longer as a slave but above a slave, a brother beloved (Philemon 1:16). Interpreters differ on whether Paul is asking for his freedom, and on whether the letter undermines slavery or leaves it standing. Some say the letter plants seeds of abolition, and others say Paul does not ask outright for release, which is a serious problem.
Step 3: How Christians read the texts
In the early centuries, Christian writers largely accepted slavery as part of society while urging kindness. Gregory of Nyssa, in the fourth century, preached a sermon on Ecclesiastes that condemned the very practice of owning human beings as an offense against the image of God. This is an early example of a Christian condemnation of slavery as such, though it did not lead to abolition in his time. Slavery continued in Christian societies for centuries.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the debate was fierce. Defenders of slavery in the American South cited the Old Testament laws, Paul’s instructions and the absence of a New Testament condemnation, and argued that abolitionists were adding to Scripture. Abolitionists such as William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglass, as well as many Quakers, Methodists and Catholics, cited the creation of all humans in God’s image, the exodus, the command to love one’s neighbor, and the prohibition of manstealing. In the 1830s the American churches split over the issue. Historians such as Mark Noll have observed that the defenders had the more literal reading of many particular texts, and the abolitionists the stronger reading of the whole.
Step 4: The strongest objection
The objection is direct. A perfectly good God would have forbidden slavery. If the Bible regulates it, it either reflects human culture and not divine command, which undermines the claim to inspiration, or it shows that God allowed what is deeply evil. The fact that Christians used the Bible to defend slavery for centuries is evidence that the text does not make its condemnation clear. A reader who needed to be corrected by moral progress outside the church cannot say that the Bible is the final moral guide.
Believers answer in several ways. Some say that the Bible’s anthropology, with all people made in God’s image, contained the principle that ended slavery, and that the church eventually applied it. Others say that God worked within existing structures to bring about change, as with divorce (Matthew 19:8). Others say that Christian opposition to slavery grew from within the faith. Critics respond that this took far too long and that the church often resisted. The honest position acknowledges both the failure and the reform.
- How does it change your reading of the laws to know that the Atlantic slave trade differed from ancient slavery in important ways?
- What do you make of the rule that a fugitive slave is not to be returned in Deuteronomy 23:15?
- Why do you think Paul did not call for the end of slavery in so many words?
- What does the way American Christians used the Bible on both sides tell you about reading Scripture?
- Which argument against slavery drawn from the Bible do you find strongest?
- How would you respond to the claim that the Bible’s tolerance of slavery shows it is not a moral guide?
Examples
Philemon
Paul writes to Philemon about Onesimus and says that he would like to keep him but wants Philemon’s consent, and he asks him to receive Onesimus as a brother. Readers have used the letter both to argue that Paul accepted slavery and to argue that the letter undermines it. The text does not say outright that Philemon should free Onesimus, although Paul says he expects Philemon to do more than he asks (Philemon 1:21).
The Haitian and British movements
The Haitian revolution, led by formerly enslaved people, and the British movement led by Wilberforce and others, both involved religious arguments. Wilberforce, an evangelical Anglican, worked for the abolition of the slave trade, which passed in 1807, and for abolition of slavery in the empire, which passed shortly after his death in 1833.
A sermon of Gregory of Nyssa
Gregory asks how one who is made in the image of God and is lord of the earth can be sold. His argument depends on the creation of all humans in God’s image. The sermon shows that the argument was available early, though it was not followed by action.
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catholic Church has condemned slavery in strong terms in modern times, and the Catechism lists it among practices that offend human dignity. Popes condemned the slave trade at various points, and critics note that the church also tolerated slavery for centuries. Catholic scholars say that the principle of human dignity emerged more fully over time.
Orthodox
Orthodox tradition honors Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom, who spoke against cruelty to slaves and for the equality of all in Christ. Orthodox writers note that the church encouraged emancipation by various means in the Byzantine empire, though slavery continued.
Protestant (abolitionist)
Many Protestants, particularly Quakers, Methodists, Baptists and others, drove the abolition movement and appealed to the whole sweep of Scripture. Their descendants recall that the Bible was central to the cause of freedom and also to its defense.
Protestant (Southern defense)
Southern Protestant defenders of slavery in the nineteenth century argued from the plain text of the laws and Paul’s instructions. Many later Southern churches repudiated this teaching and apologized, and historians treat the episode as a warning about reading Scripture to support one’s interests.
Jewish and secular
Jewish interpreters in the rabbinic tradition limited the law of Hebrew slavery and the treatment of non-Hebrew slaves, and modern Jews have opposed slavery on the basis of the exodus. Secular critics argue that the Bible’s tolerance of slavery shows that it cannot be a source of moral authority.
Why it matters
Slavery is a test of how a tradition reads its sacred texts. The history is painful because it shows that devout readers used the Bible to defend a great evil, and that others used it to resist. A student who understands this history is protected from naive confidence about the clarity of the text and from cynicism about its worth. The study also shows that the question of how to read an ancient law in a changed world is real, and that the answer affects other topics.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The Bible endorses slavery.
Correction: The Bible regulates and tolerates slavery and does not condemn it as an institution, though it contains principles that Christians used to oppose it. Both parts of that statement need to be kept.
Misunderstanding: Biblical slavery was the same as slavery in the American South.
Correction: There were differences: ancient slavery was not based on race, and the Old Testament law had protections that were absent in the Atlantic system. Many scholars say that this does not make the ancient institution acceptable, only different.
Misunderstanding: Christians were always on the side of abolition.
Correction: Christians were found on both sides, and the church tolerated slavery for centuries. Christians were also prominent among the abolitionists, and the movement drew heavily on their convictions.
Misunderstanding: Paul told slaves to stay slaves.
Correction: Paul told slaves to accept their lot if they could not gain freedom, but said that if they could gain freedom they should (1 Corinthians 7:21). The reading of the verse is disputed.
Knowledge check
What are two Old Testament provisions that limited slavery?
Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy 15 provide for Hebrew slaves to go free after six years, and Leviticus 25 sets a Jubilee for release. Exodus 21:16 forbids kidnapping on pain of death, and Deuteronomy 23:15 forbids returning a fugitive slave. At the same time, other provisions allowed foreign slaves to be kept as property, so the limits were partial.
What does the letter to Philemon say about slavery?
Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon and asks him to receive Onesimus not now as a slave but above a slave, as a beloved brother. He does not state outright that Philemon must free him. Interpreters disagree about whether the letter undermines the institution or leaves it standing, and both readings have been used in the history of the debate.
Why is the history of the nineteenth-century debate important?
It shows that devout Christians used the Bible to defend slavery and that others used it to oppose slavery. Defenders pointed to specific texts, and abolitionists to the broader themes of creation in God’s image, the exodus and love of neighbor. The episode teaches caution about reading Scripture in the service of one’s interests.
State the strongest objection and one reply.
The objection is that a perfectly good God would have forbidden slavery, and the Bible’s tolerance shows that the text reflects human culture. One reply is that the biblical principle of the image of God contained the seeds of abolition and the church eventually applied them. Critics respond that it took too long and that the church often resisted, and honest answers admit this.
Think it through
- How should the church speak about the fact that its members once defended slavery from the Bible?
- What does the slavery debate suggest about how you should read other disputed texts today?
- How do you decide when a principle in Scripture should override a specific rule?
Independent assignment
Two sides of a debate
In your own notebook, write 400 to 500 words presenting the case of a nineteenth-century defender of slavery and the case of an abolitionist, each in the strongest form you can find in the texts of the lesson. Then state which you find the better reading of Scripture as a whole and give your reasons. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.
Further study
- Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity Read selectively for the history of the church’s relation to slavery.
- John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood Read for the pastoral outlook of a Father who also preached about masters and slaves.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Natural Law Tradition in Ethics Read for the idea of human dignity that figures in later arguments.
- Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth Read the chapters on the law and on the letters for help in reading these passages.
- Exodus 21:2 The law of release of Hebrew slaves.
- Philemon 1:16 No longer a slave but a beloved brother.
- Galatians 3:28 Neither bond nor free in Christ.
- Deuteronomy 23:15 A fugitive slave shall not be returned.