God, evil and moralityDraft · awaiting advisor review
Doesn’t the Bible approve of slavery?
In short
The Bible regulates forms of servitude that already existed, and some of those laws are hard to read today. It also sets limits unknown in other ancient laws, condemns kidnapping people to sell them, and plants the truths that later moved Christians to campaign against slavery. Christians have used the Bible both to defend and to oppose slavery, and that history should be told honestly.
The Objection
The Old Testament lets Israelites buy foreign slaves as permanent property and beat them. The New Testament tells slaves to obey their masters and never calls for abolition. Slaveholders quoted these verses to defend the Atlantic slave trade.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
Much servitude in Israel was service to pay off debt, with release in the seventh year and gifts to start again. Kidnapping a person to sell was a capital crime, and a slave who escaped was not to be handed back.
- Scripture
The New Testament lists “enslavers” among the lawless, tells masters they have a Master in heaven, and urges Philemon to receive the runaway Onesimus “no longer as a slave, but as a beloved brother”.
- Historical evidence
Christians such as William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and many African-American churches drew on the Bible to fight the slave trade. Other Christians defended slavery with the Bible, and that shameful history is real.
- Christians differ
Christians differ on how to read the hardest laws, such as permanent servitude of foreigners in Leviticus 25: as concessions to a hard-hearted culture (as Jesus said of divorce), as a stage in a moral trajectory, or in other ways.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
Some Old Testament laws allowed lifelong servitude and harsh treatment, and the New Testament didn’t call for abolition outright. No explanation makes these texts comfortable.
Arguments to Avoid
- Saying biblical servitude was always mild or the same as employment.
- Ignoring the role Christians played on both sides of the slave trade.
Read for Yourself
Exodus 21:16
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
Deuteronomy 23:15–16
15Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee: 16He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him.
Philemon 1:15–17
15For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; 16Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord? 17If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.
Further Reading
- Is God a Moral Monster? · Paul Copan (2011)
- Slaves, Women & Homosexuals · William J. Webb (2001)
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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