It is part of a series on biblical slavery. Jesus was a great reformer. In an age of extreme class division and status-consciousness, he identified with the poor and urged us to do the same. During a time when the Holy Land was occupied by a foreign power, he taught his countrymen how to maintain their dignity.
When the religious leaders were corrupt, he called them to account. If he was divine, he knew it would be nearly 2, years until most of the world would realize how immoral slavery is. He also knew that slave-owners would use the Old Testament to justify the practice. One clear word from him could have prevented the misery of millions. Why did he not speak it? Jesus often illustrated his points with stories about slaves and masters. Everybody was all too familiar with the concept, and it was as brutal as ever.
Since Jesus never condemned slavery, we might hope that he thought of slavery in the relatively benign forms that are sometimes found in the Old Testament. Not so. When he spoke about the relationship between slaves and masters, he assumed that violence and abuse were the order of the day. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. That passage is part of a larger parable that is supposed to scare us into submission to God.
There are several parables like this in the gospels. Matthew says we will be jailed and tortured. Matthew says we will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew says we will be cut in pieces. All of these indicate how Jesus pictured masters treating their slaves. Jesus held no illusions about slavery, yet did not Wooden Ship Building Models Pvt Ltd decry the practice.
In fact, in his parables, he cast God as a slave-owner! Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Paul said that believers are adopted children, not slaves, and do not need to live in fear Romans I leave it to the reader to piece all this together.
Although he and I disagree, he is intelligent and well-versed excuse the pun in the scriptures, and the seeker of truth should consider all sides. To see why, remember that Jesus did not invent the Golden Rule. For that matter, Leviticus itself grants Israel permission to buy foreign slaves.
Would Jesus? I think not. In their minds, the two concepts had coexisted in the scriptures, presumably without contradiction, for centuries. If Jesus had intended his statement of Leviticus to override the slavery commands and regulations also found in the Five Books of Moses, surely he would have made that more obvious to an audience for whom those books were a central feature of spiritual life.
At a minimum, we can say that if Jesus meant the Golden Rule as a command to abolish slavery, then millions of slaves in the next years would wish he had made his intent far more obvious. Might Jesus have thought it was not yet the time to speak against slavery? Was he afraid of upsetting the social order and bringing persecution on his followers?
On the contrary, Jesus did not hesitate to turn society upside-down. Sometimes he did so literally, as when he upset the tables of the money-changers in the temple John He did not hesitate to speak boldly to those in power Matthew Nor was he afraid of persecution, calling it a blessing Matthew Jesus did not hesitate to speak his mind, yet he never condemned slavery.
Maybe he just took it for granted. I am tempted to leave it at that. Even Jesus might have been a man of his times to a certain extent. If you are a Bible-believing Christian, however, I think you are forced into a much darker position. According to John , Jesus and God the Father are one. John , with verse 14 says that Jesus was with God from the beginning. In John , Jesus says that he does whatever God the Father does.
Someone who takes these verses as Gospel Truth must believe some disturbing things:. No wonder he never spoke against slavery or its brutality in the New Testament. He had already encouraged it in the Old! Eternally present and of one mind with his Father, he approved every genocide ; every stoning of man , woman , child and animal ; every burning-alive ; every death sentence for a trivial offense ; and, yes, every enslavement that God himself commanded.
That may seem far-fetched. Evangelical apologists, in turn, offer many rationales. To get the lay of the land, I invite you to begin with the Introduction to this series.
Pingback: Feedback Path of the Beagle. Your comments are thought provoking, I do disagree with your interpretation of the bible. Thank you for the work you put into your website.
I well be a follower of your site. Keep it up! Thanks, Ronald. If you interpret the Bible differently, I invite you to post your thoughts. Contrary viewpoints are always welcome! A simple case of a misunderstanding of semantics. People would indenture themselves when they could not provide for themselves or their families. It would be comparable to a hired worker of today.
In those times there were no mcdonalds or wal-marts etc. Much the same as the term angel. The original hebrew and greek texts used a word which meant messenger. So instead of a messenger of god we now today have the word angel. Hence labor force to slavery. Mohican, you are in good company making this argument. I have heard it from several evangelical apologists. Mohican I so disagree with you the Greek word for slavery means exactly that: forced labor against ones will!
At some point people are going to need to realize that the bible is in some parts corrupt and rewritten! Are you saying that the bible talks about Slavery as a normal way of life or living? I guess ancient historian might answer this. Slaves, sex slaves, child sex slaves�. Sex with goats?
The original texts shows gods. They even had rules on who you could and could not sell your goats too after the act. What the Old testament says about what we call slavery today. Exodus Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death. Slavery in Old Testament Israel took a variety of forms ranging from indentured servitude as you pointed out in your other comment to sex-slavery, to buying slaves, to stealing them.
Amazingly, the more horrific the form of slavery, the more actively Jehovah encouraged it. In fact, since you were interested enough to leave two comments, you might want to check out my whole series on biblical slavery. Jesus Designing And Building A Wooden Ship Job a nice guy? Not in my book. Jesus says that he has come to destroy families by making family members hate each other. No, rather a sword lf you love your father, mother, sister, brother, more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.
I ask you how can we love someone that we can not see or interact with? Love is an emotion pertaining to physical existence not to faithful ideologies, yet God threatens you with death just because your love for your mother maybe stronger than your love for him.
Matthew Families will be torn apart because of Jesus. Jesus strongly approves of the law and the prophets. Jesus, whose clothes are dipped in blood, has a sharp sword sticking out of his mouth. Thus attired, he treads the winepress of the wrath of God. The winepress is the actual press that humans shall be put into so that we may be ground up.
Revelations
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