The Devil's Highlighter

Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. (Leviticus 25:44-46)

Interpretation: According to this scripture, it is perfectly acceptable to buy, own and inherit slaves so long as they are not children of Israel. While it can be argued that these were different times and that slavery "wasn't that bad" back then, it must be noted that the writers of the bible did indeed know that there were indeed bad enough conditions to warrant such rules as "don't beat your slaves so hard that they die within a few days (Exodus 21:20-21). It has also been suggested that the slavery mentioned in the bible is not actual permanent slavery, but rather voluntary indentured servitude. Indeed, it is even true to say that most biblical law refers to this form of slavery. However, the indentured servitude of the bible specifically refers to the Israelite slaves. When an Israelite is owned as a slave, they are slaves for six years and are let free in the seventh. Additionally, they often enter into slavery on their own, often due to poverty. However, while the Israelite slaves were afforded the privilege of freedom after six years, this same right was not extended to non-Israelite slaves. While it may be true that most of the bible's reference to slavery are the other "voluntary" form of slavery, this verse is not. This verse is referring to the permanent form of slavery characterized by owning non-Israelites. This is made obvious when they say you may own slaves  "from the heathen about you" not Israelites and is further exemplified by the statement "they shall be your bondmen for ever". It has been suggested that passage below (which immediately follows the one above) suggests that your slaves could become rich and be redeemed:

And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. (Leviticus 25:47-49)

However, upon reading it in context with all of Leviticus 25, we see that they are speaking of non-Israelites who are not slaves becoming rich while a fellow Israelite becomes poor and then sell themselves to the non-Israelite. It is suggested that the Israelite slave should be purchased by Israelites so that they can be set free after a certain number of years. In now way do these verses suggest that slaves can "become rich" while owned by their masters, nor that the non-Israelite slaves will ever be set free. Even if you still maintain that the form of slavery practiced at the time was "not so bad", no matter what the conditions of their servitude were, slaves are still slaves. Modern morality understands human freedom to be of very high value and that it is absolutely immoral for one human being to own another. However, this concept was apparently absent from the mind of God as he inspired this one. Additionally, upon reading the entire chapter it appears as if the scripture is intended to be the literal word of God as it is spoken to Moses. God furthermore suggests that he purchased the Israelites by freeing them from Egypt (Leviticus 25:55). What kind of god frees men from shackles only to place on them another pair? Print This Post