No, don’t enslave anyone.
God commanded the Israelites to remember how they had been treated as foreigners in Egypt, and therefore not mistreat or oppress foreigners themselves.
According to Isaiah, what God really wants people to do is “to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke”.
Paul thinks it’s good for slaves to become free, though he doesn’t think it’s a big deal if they don’t get freed. He and Peter both think that it’s not good to become slaves of human beings. They say we should live as free people, but only because they think we should be slaves of God instead. Paul also thinks you should not let yourself be a slave to the Jewish Law, but that’s not really about people enslaving people. And that’s about it for anti-slavery sentiments in the Bible.
You can enslave foreigners, but not Israelites.
God’s law says not to make your fellow Israelites work as slaves. (Though he does say you can buy Israelites and make them work for you until it’s time to free them. So I’m not sure how that’s supposed to be “not treating them as slaves”.) If you want real slaves, God says you can buy people from other nations and make them your property permanently. Just don’t treat Israelites that way. You can’t just kidnap Israelites and make them slaves; you have to get your slaves the proper way.
After Judah split off from Israel, and then the Israelites took hundreds of thousands of captives from the kingdom of Judah, a prophet made it clear that God was angry at them for enslaving their fellow Israelites, even if those weren’t technically Israelites anymore.
Later, the people of Jerusalem had a bunch of Hebrew slaves for some reason, but the king of Judah told them to free them, so they did. But then they all changed their minds and took their Hebrew slaves back. God approved when they freed their Hebrew slaves, and disapproved when they took them back.1
Yes, you can enslave people.
God is a master of slaves, and he expects people to respect him for that. God bought a whole nation of people. And when people become Christians, they become slaves of God (or of Jesus), and should live as God’s slaves. All Jews and Christians have been bought by God. This slave-owning God is perfect, and everything he does is right, so we should follow his example.
When Sarah’s slave Hagar ran away because she mistreated her, an angel of God told Hagar to go back and submit to Sarah.
Sarah’s husband Abraham, who obeyed God and kept his commands and did everything God required, acquired slaves too.
God’s law prescribes slavery as a punishment for poor people who steal. God also commanded his people to conquer a bunch of cities outside the promised land: He wanted them to either enslave all the people of a city if those people wanted peace, or massacre them if they didn’t like God’s “peace” offer. (Cities inside the promised land didn’t get a “peace” option.)
God told the prophet Joel that he was going to sell some foreigners to the people of Judah, who would sell them to some other foreigners. God wants these people to be slaves.
Paul thinks the descendants of a slave should be slaves. Or something. He’s actually using the descendants of a slave as a metaphor for the descendants of her master, for some reason. But either way, he thinks people should be slaves.
Paul thinks slaves should sincerely respect and fear and obey their masters as if their masters were God, because God wants slaves to obey their masters. Paul thinks if Christian slaves didn’t respect their masters, that would be a reason for people to think poorly of Christianity. Slaves should instead be subject to their masters in everything, always try to please them, and never talk back. Because Paul thinks that will make Christianity look good.
Peter agrees. Even when he’s just gotten though saying that we should live as free people, Peter commands all Christian slaves to reverently submit to their masters, even if they’re not good masters, because this is what God wants. The Bible approves of slavery no matter how the slaves are treated.
Continue reading Should people own slaves?