Slavery has been around since the beginning of the bible. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments multiple passages speak about the topic of slavery. Although slavery has been talked about for such a long time, slavery is not perceived the same from way back then to now. Slavery was both condemned as well condoned at one point and viewed differently by each religion. Specifically, one religion that has encountered the attention of slavery ample times is Christianity. The perspective of slavery throughout the Christian religion has evolved and adapted over a long period. In the Christian religion, slavery was seen as an act of charity often. Christians seemed to have a sort of kindness towards slavery, possibly even as a way to redeem a “sin”. The perspective of slavery varied for each religion as well as region and is heavily impacted by the environmental influences over nearly eighteen centuries. There is an ample amount of information regarding slavery connected with the bible, and throughout the post will be diving into the depth of each perspective.
Throughout history, slavery has shown up in every history book throughout the world. It was a natural occurrence to own a man or woman as your property, and the Bible especially the new testament does not condemn slavery but condones it. In the new testament, Christ never mentions or talks about how slavery and making a man or woman property is a sin. So-called slaves in the Bible have been mentioned as nothing more than hired servants, or workers. The new testament also talks freely about roman slavery, therefor the slavery that the new testament talks about is the white slavery of the Romans. Back when slavery was acceptable, people interpreted the Bible in many different ways and this made people think that slavery was acceptable due to the Bible. There are roughly 27 million people in the world who have had to deal with slavery, and the bible does not fully outlaw slavery, especially in the new testament. Slavery was specifically targeted at mainly black people, those who were not white, and had little power. Slavery was often even directly talked about in the bible.
For example, in Ephesians 6:5-8 Paul states, “Slaves be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ”. In this exact line from the bible, Paul is telling all slaves to listen to their masters, to obey them like you would to God. The Bible has always condemned slavery. Although the bible may mention verses accepting slavery, there are an ample amount of verses that do not support slavery. Slavery was seen as sin often, the concept of slavery was based on the time period and how society was at certain time periods. The Old Testament especially did not condone slavery. For example, one popular verse that does not support slavery in the Old Testament is Peter 2:16-1 “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as Gods’ slaves”. The Bible did not want people to enslave themselves, but to actually live free will, but as “slaves” for God only. The Bible mentioned how slaves should be treated during the time period of enslavement, and the bible mentioned that humans can be slaves to sin itself. The Bible mentions how if a slave comes to you for rescuing, to not give them up back to their slave owners. The Bible did not condone slavery, especially for Christians in modern times. Slavery was less and less condoned as society grew and social environments evolved leading to the bible adapting. Many people often confused the bible for condoning slavery but did not understand the bible's meaning of slavery throughout history. Many Christians believed later believed in giving themselves to God, not to other humans, evolving away from true slavery. Click Below!
The bible both condoned and condemned slavery. The perspective of slavery throughout the bible depends on the time period, region, and social environment. Slavery was spoken against and for slavery in verses of the bible. In modern times slavery is much less condoned. The New Testament still speaks about slavery as did the Old Testament. Slavery especially during modern times is a major sin, slavery is seen as evil. The only slavery that shall occur according to the bible is obedience to God. God said in the bible to give yourself to him, and he shall provide your purpose in life. Many Christians truly believed in this belief, leading to slavery being condemned.
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