Slavery and the Bible

Slavery and the Bible- Why does God's book contain it and why does it matter to the way that we look at scripture?


Most people who are fairly familiar with the Bible know that it talks about slavery.  Unfortunately, this fact isn't really discussed very frequently. This is unfortunate because the question of slavery is very near and dear to many people's hearts, especially our brothers and sisters of African descent. Since this subject is not often discussed, I believe many start to doubt the legitimacy of claiming that scripture is the word of God. After all, if the Bible really does condone the same type of practice that was prevalent earlier in our country's history, then do we have the right to reinterpret these verses, and therefore other verses in the Bible that we have other reasons for not believing?  I wondered this myself at many points in time; I knew this question had to be answered. When I investigated the issue, I found some surprising and comforting answers, and I hope to share them with you.
Let me first share two verses the would condemn the practice of going to places like Africa, kidnapping someone, and bringing them back as a slave.  In Exodus 21:16 (and Deuteronomy 24:7), the Law of Moses says that someone who kidnaps someone in order to sell them is to be put to death. Obviously kidnapping someone is a very serious thing. This idea is also echoed in 1 Timothy 1:10, where it is mentioned along with many other serious sins.


So if the Bible condemns kidnapping, then why does it still talk about slavery? Again, this is a very obvious question that needs to be answered. A shallow reading of the Bible will not do here, we need to look deep to find the answer. When I think of the Old Testament Laws, the cleanliness laws and the sacrifice laws come to my mind.  But there is actually another major part of the Law, in the context of the theocracy of Israel: how to deal with criminal acts.  There are many interesting tidbits in the Law, but it provides some insight into the system of slavery in the Bible. If you read Exodus 22, you will find a basic law code for different types of wrongs.  In verse 3, it states that if a criminal is not able to make restitution, he should be sold for his theft.  This portrays a very different system of justice than our current system in the United States.  Instead of paying a fine and possibly going to jail, the criminal has to make restitution.  If restitution is not possible, he is to be sold into slavery, in order to pay for his crimes, instead of becoming an unproductive person by being thrown into jail. Therefore, it seems that slavery was part of an ancient penal system, unlike the slavery of recent years that was primarily based on race.


In the the New Testament, you will find 2 or 3 places in Paul's letters where he encourages slaves to obey their masters.  In 1 Peter 2:18-25, Peter encourages slaves that, if their masters are being harsh,  "if when you do good and suffer for it, and endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God." Peter maintains that this would be "suffering unjustly" (v. 19), which obviously does not give a good name to slavery.  Paul encourages masters to treat their slaves fairly.  Many people claim that this automatically makes the Bible pro-slavery.  However, as I mentioned before that is not the case, as the Bible speaks out against kidnapping. In this case, the Bible is dealing with something that happened to be present in the culture.    Paul's focus seems not to be overthrowing a current system of tyranny (although it seems he thinks that it is wrong), but encourage slaves and masters to do everything they can to give a good name to Christians and the gospel.  In fact, a whole book of the Bible, Philemon, is about Paul pleading with a master to take back a useless runaway slave, yet treat him as a brother in Christ and not as a slave. 
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." -Jesus


* I got much of my information from the following book:
North, Gary.  Tools of Dominion.  Tyler: The Institute for Christian Economics.  p. 111-206