Understanding Biblical Servitude: Context and Transformation

"These are the laws you are to set before them if you buy a Hebrew servant he is to serve you for six years but in the seventh year he shall go free without paying anything if he comes alone he is to go free alone but if he has a wife when he comes she is to go with him if his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters the woman and her children shall belong to her master and only the man shall go free but if the servant declares I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free then his master must take him before the judges he shall take him to the door or the door post and pierce his ear with an awl then he will be his servant for life if a man sells his daughter as a servant she is not to go free as male servants do if she does not please the master who has selected her for himself he must let her be redeemed he has no right to sell her to foreigners because he has broken faith with her he selects her for his son he must grant her the rights of the daughter okey -dokey denying that some of these old testament passages can be how can I put this um a bit jarring to our 21st century sensibilities they're a little cringe -worthy at times but I do believe as to this, you know, it's really, really important to remember two things." [00:01:01]

"Number one, the type of slavery described throughout the Bible, for the most part, not in every single case, but for the most part, it vastly differed from that of pre -Civil War times here in the U .S. And then number two, in that context, in the context and time of this ancient Near East culture, even the mention of a difference in regulation for native or foreign slaves, like what we just read in verse 8 about the master having no right to sell the female slaves to a foreigner, that, just the very fact that that is mentioned meant that the Bible was providing a safeguard against the mistreatment of people regardless of ethnicity or religion." [00:04:01]

"Yes, there's some things in here that are going to make us cringe and shake our head, but I think one doesn't have to go too deep to see that there's a lot of stuff in these chapters about justice and the building blocks for what really is universal human rights." [00:03:44]

"But to be completely candid, there are some things in these chapters I can't reconcile. And maybe one day someone can explain it to me. But I do believe if you look at the Bible as a whole and the books of the Bible within their context, there is a pretty clear and consistent message of God's grace, love, equality, and dignity for all persons." [00:04:01]

"And in the places in the Bible where it's addressing slavery that would have been akin to that which was practiced in pre -Civil War times you will find the Bible speaks in the harshest terms and I'm going to show you that in a moment but first building on this foundational point of the differences the Hebrew word that's most often translated as slave is better translated as servant or bond servant and this is not just me talking this is the opinion of many Hebrew and biblical scholars in fact some translations including the NIV which I just read from it does translate it servant although others like the King James translated its slave which account it was originally in English but in the Old Testament there was sometimes this kind of bankruptcy where people got into financial trouble to the point that they had nothing left to do but to sell them themselves into servanthood to pay off debt therefore it was voluntary key point it was voluntary key point it was voluntary and it was I'm sure the last resort to sell the only thing you've got left to sell your yourself but there's an important distinction." [00:06:09]

"It was voluntary and so in that light let's now go back and look at those verses through the lens of a bond servant paying off his debts if you buy a Hebrew servant or bond servant who has sold himself to work off his debts he is to serve you for six years but in the seventh year he shall go free without paying anything if he comes alone he is to go free alone but if he has a wife when he comes she is to go with him if his master gives him a wife and she bears some sons or daughters the woman and her children shall belong to her master and only the man shall go free so a little different right so the slave or bond servant as it might be more appropriately translated has worked out his debt over time and at that time is given his freedom back the goal is independence not a lifetime of slavery and so that works for the men but what's going on with all the stuff about women right i mean is this what god thinks about women is this what the bible teaches about women." [00:07:23]

"First of all, consider this. In the beginning, in the creation story, Genesis tells us God created humankind in His image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them. So hear it. Male and female are created in God's image. God's image is male and female." [00:08:37]

"But even so, there's no doubt that the Bible was written in very patriarchal times when women were often treated as chattel, as property. And so these case laws, therefore, remember they're different. They're not God's ideals. They refer to specific situations. And so in many cases, these case laws assume that God's ideals are not God's ideals. They're not God's ideals. They're not God's ideals. They have not been met. And this is kind of a moral concession. And so they're just trying to make the best of a bad situation, the best of the ideal situation." [00:08:59]

"At least not very honestly and so for me the miracle that is the Bible and where you can really see the Holy Spirit at work is that in spite of how it was written of how it came to be in the midst of those patriarchal times look at the way that women in the Bible are often the heroes I mean that's incredible given the time in which it was written and so you see people like Ruth and Esther and Mary Magdalene and actually Shepra and Purah you know it was earlier in our in our exodus study I mean they're the heroes not the men and I think you were seeing and what I keep referring back to in that Brueggemann quote the ethics of the community is always playing catch -up with the theological passions they identify it put another way I believe you see the heart intentions of God as God reveals himself through these inspired rites of worship." [00:11:56]

"And so it's good to struggle with them because I believe in that struggle is where we find the word of God and I'm going to try to deal with more of this in upcoming episodes but I do want to circle back to what I said earlier that slavery in the Bible for the most part was vastly different than slavery here in America but where it was the kind of slavery that was practiced in the Civil War South. That slavery that was not voluntary, where human beings were bought like property and treated in cruel ways. The Bible speaks very harsh about that, and we see that clearly in 21 .16. I haven't read that to you yet, so let me put that up so you can see it. It says, anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or still in the kidnapper's possession." [00:13:14]

"I want you to see here that the practice of kidnapping slaves, as in antebellum slavery and the slave trades and the slave ships and all that, that kind of slavery was actually prohibited in the Bible from the very beginning. In fact, it is so serious that it's a capital offense. It was the first one listed in a series of other capital offenses we're going to encounter, but that person who did this was to be put to death. And so a serious student of Scripture will see that. And speaking of serious students of Scriptures, John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist Church, in the last letter that he ever wrote, the last thing we have of his writings, he wrote this letter to William Wilberforce, encouraging Wilberforce in his endeavors to see slavery abolished, which Wilberforce eventually did when the British Parliament finally signed the slavery abolition act in 1833. If you've never seen the movie Amazing Grace, I highly recommend it because it's about Wilberforce and his work to have this law passed." [00:13:49]

"But back to the letter, Wesley describes slavery as excreble villainy. Wow, John, way to call it out. I'm going to have to remember that. It's so descriptive. But let me read you just a little bit of that letter if I could. He writes, Reading this morning, a track wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has black skin being wronged or outraged by a white man can have no redress, it being a law in our colonies, that the oath of a black man against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this? You see, Wesley was a serious student in the Bible, and he concentrated on the value of the human being. He was a serious student of the Bible, and he being, irrespective of the color of his skin or ethnicity. And this principle, you know, he is showing the biblical principle of what I believe God felt about slavery." [00:14:51]