- All people are made in the image of God,
- no level of sin or degradation alters that status, and
- God takes a keen interest in how His image-bearers are treated.
The main passages relating to slavery in Exodus 21 are verses 2-11, 20-21, and 26-27. We’re going to only say a few words about each. I’ve chosen to take them in reverse order because it somehow seems to demonstrate their logical relevance to passages with which we’ve already dealt.
EXODUS 21:26-27 extends the Lex Talionis (eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth) principle to slaves. This inclusion demonstrates that enslaved people are not animals, even if they are treated as such. If a male or female slave lost an eye or tooth as a result of being struck by their owner—justly or unjustly—they could go free. The loss of an important, useful body part justifies the owner’s loss of a useful worker. It’s important to also note that male and female slaves are treated equally. Thus, in the biblical ethic, enslaved people were granted rights by God on the basis of their being human, created in His image, male and female (Genesis 1:26-27).
EXODUS 21:20-21 extends the life-for-a-life principle to a slave who lost his life at the hand of his (or her) master. The guilty slave owner “shall be punished.” We take this to be in accord with rulings about murder and manslaughter as previously laid out (see verses 12-14). If, however, the slave’s death was not immediate, then it would have been assumed 1) the master did not intend murder and thus to lose a valuable worker and 2) that the slave deserved a degree of punishment.*
EXODUS 21:2-11 describes limits for the enslavement of Hebrew people by other Hebrews. Companion passages are Leviticus 25:39-55 and Deuteronomy 15:12-18. From these we glean the following:
- Impoverished Hebrews were allowed to sell themselves into slavery to a fellow-Israelite when that was their only means of repaying a debt. (According to Ex. 22:3, thieves who were caught could be sold into slavery in order to make restitution.)
- They could be redeemed by a brother, uncle, or cousin who pays off their debt.
- Hebrews were not to sell themselves (or be sold) to a foreigner living in Israel or to slaveholders outside Israel.
- They would only become a permanent slave by choice.
- They would only remain in slavery until the debt was paid off or they had served 6 years, whichever came first.
- Leviticus 25:40 gives the end date as the year of jubilee, which could be as much as 49 years away. At that point, the person’s life and children and property would be restored.
- During their time of service, Hebrew slaves were not to be abused or treated harshly but considered more a hired servant than a slave.
- Families would be kept intact.
- When they were released, they’d be sent off with goods to start their new life.
The basis for these rules about slavery was threefold:
- Israel belongs to God and His people exist primarily to serve Him (Lev. 25:42, 55).
- Israel should never forget that, until they were redeemed by God, they had once been enslaved in Egypt (Dt. 15:15). Remembering this period of intense suffering would inoculate them from returning to bondage and prevent them from treating others badly.
- The brother-keeping principle, established in Genesis 4, also comes into play. The Hebrew word ‘ach’ is used repeatedly In passages about slavery. It is often translated “kinsman” or “countryman,” but “brother” is interchangeable. Hebrews should keep their brothers from bondage and help them leave slavery.
Whenever we consider slavery in the Bible, we should recall the lamentable treatment of Joseph by his brothers. They had stopped their ears to his cries and hardened their hearts toward him, then cruelly sold him to foreign slave traders, which directly led to their descendants' eventual 400-year enslavement in Egypt by Pharaoh after Joseph died.
Chattel slavery
In contrast to how Hebrews should treat each other, permanent slaves could be acquired from neighboring pagan nations and handed down from one generation to the next. This chattel form of slavery seems more akin to what we know as slavery from America’s past, but is it?
It’s true that American slaveholders viewed the people they enslaved from Africa as their legal property, no different than an animal or piece of land. In their minds, a slave was reduced to the status of a mere object, not viewed as a human being made in God’s image equal in value to themselves. But scholars point out a key distinction between what is described in the Bible and what was practiced in America from its inception to its abolition.
No mercy
As surprising as it may seem, mercy was at the core of how the enslavement of nonJews was to be practiced. As Israel conquered land, they could enslave former inhabitants rather than killing or forcibly removing them (Deut. 20:10-18; Joshua 9). In the face of certain death they might be able to barter their labor in return for their lives. African people enslaved in the Americas were offered no choice.
Indeed, American-style enslavement was anything but merciful. The people sold as slaves to American plantation owners had been cruelly stolen from their homes and ripped from the arms of loved ones in direct violation of Exodus 21:16, which says, “He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.” Making someone a slave against his or her will seems to have been forbidden. People who violated another’s choice in this way were subject to the death penalty, the same as for murder.**
No justice
According to the laws relating to murder and manslaughter (Leviticus 24:17-22, Numbers 35:15, and Joshua 20:9), there was one law for citizens as well as non-citizens, outsiders as well as Hebrews. Eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth, and life-for-life passages were not solely meant for Hebrew people, slave or free. Everyone in Israel had a right of appeal, to bring charges against their masters, and to expect a redress for grievances.
Job rightly understood his position before God as a slave master:
If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves
When they filed a complaint against me,
What then could I do when God arises?
And when He calls me to account, what will I answer Him?
Did not He who made me in the womb make him,
And the same one fashion us in the womb? —Job 31:13-15
This was not the case with American slave owners who violated the rights of slaves in every way. Slaves in America rarely, if ever, received justice. Were American slave traders ever held accountable for the kidnapping of human beings from Africa?
This is in direct contradiction to statements in Ephesians 6:9 and Colossians 4:1 concerning the proper behavior of Christian masters toward slaves—particularly toward those who were also believers but presumably also toward any slave. Masters should grant them justice and fairness, “knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.”
No escape
The American system of slavery sought its spread as the country grew and eventually forced non-slave owners to participate in a practice God’s word deems illegal. The Fugitive Slave Act forced people to return escaped slaves to their owners, in direct contradiction of Deuteronomy 23:15-16 — “You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat him.” This law made Israel a place of freedom and safety, what America was supposed to be.
Contrast the biblical ideas that allowed slavery to firsthand accounts in abolitionist Theodore Weld’s American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses.*** If nothing else, focus on slave “privations” (pages 27-44) regarding food, shelter and clothing. While the record is heartbreaking and painful to read, it should be offered in our schools as a verifiable text on the history of slavery.
The New Testament and slavery
In the New Testament we are confronted with the possibility that Christian masters could have Christian slaves. What effect does being united with others in Christ through salvation have on the institution of slavery?
The Apostle Paul addresses the issue, but not in a way that wholly satisfies. We’d like to see him argue against slavery and call for its abolishment. We’d like him to make a resounding call for Christian slave owners to let all slaves go free, especially ones who are believers.
Instead, he tells Christian slaves and masters to both modify their behavior toward each other so as to glorify God (Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22-4:1; 1 Timothy 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Corinthians 7:21-24). Both are exhorted to remember that God is their Master; both equally answer to Him.
Slaves are urged to obey their masters and do well by them, “as to the Lord.” Masters are told to stop using threats in order to control them. In this regard, the New Testament is not “more enlightened” than the Old but actually reinforces what was already in God’s law, as in Exodus 21:26-27. The slave master was never to be a supreme ruler but his behavior toward anyone—including slaves—could be scrutinized, held accountable, and punished if need be.
Nevertheless, the NT twice upholds the OT prohibition against kidnapping (aka "human trafficking;" see Ex. 21:16). In 1 Timothy 1:9-10, Paul includes kidnappers (slave traders) in a list of unrighteous, lawless people. John is shown that one of the reasons Babylon will be judged is that it treated human cargo no differently than its trade in food or fabric (Revelation 18:8-13). Anyone who takes seriously the whole counsel of God's word will not excuse the enslavement of human beings.
Example of Philemon and Onesimus
In his letter to Philemon, Paul made a strong request of the slave owner: treat Onesimus the runaway slave as the brother he is in the Lord. Paul did not order Philemon to obey, as though he were a slave, but wanted him to embrace Onesimus freely. Freedom is better than compulsion. A brother wants his sibling to share his freedom. The free person is more useful (a play on the name Onesimus) to the Body of Christ than the slave.
The letter implies that Old Testament rules for brother (Hebrew) slaves would apply in the Church age. If, in the ordinary course of life, a man would not make a natural brother his slave or let him languish in slavery forever, so then spiritual brothers would also not perpetually enslave each other. If principles of forgiveness and equality—that all are made in God’s image and we are now being conformed into the image of Christ—were unconvincing, perhaps OT examples would serve as an inducement. As Paul says in Galatians 3:28, in Christ there is no distinction between the slave or free person, but “all are one in Christ Jesus.”
Summary
The Gospel uses both the language of slavery and freedom. By faith through grace we are freed from sin’s enslavement, but we become willing slaves to God. Jesus called His disciples to serve each other as He had served them (John 13:13-18; Philippians 2:7; Matthew 20:26-28). The Church’s most eminent apostles considered themselves slaves to Christ (Paul, James). None of us do whatever we want but all relate to each other conscious that God’s eye is on us.
Much like divorce, slavery in the Bible is not what God wants for any human being but was given specific parameters. God’s word doesn’t ignore thorny problems that have been brought on by Adam’s rebellion. Mankind was designed to rule other creatures, not to control other human beings as though they are animals.
It is helpful to look at slavery through the lens of the biblical pro-life ethic and in terms of brother-keeping. As shown in Genesis 4, brother-keeping is related to the pro-life ethic because when we “keep” our brothers we do not kill them. Rather we keep them alive and do not enslave them. We don't treat them as only valuable for the work they can do but respect and honor them as people who are also made in God’s image.
Endnotes:
* Biblical Hermeneutics stack exchange, “Is Exodus 21:21 about a dead slave or one who survives?” https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/22390/is-exodus-2121-about-a-dead-slave-or-one-who-survives and “Exodus 21:20-21 Law of striking a slave,” https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/76318/exodus-2120-21-law-of-striking-a-slave.
** Biblical Hermeneutics stack exchange, “Why are female slaves not set free as males in Exodus 21:7?” https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/58768/why-are-female-slaves-not-set-free-as-males-in-exodus-217. It is unclear whether Hebrew daughters could legally be sent into slavery against their will. Commentary explains that female slaves became wives of their owners, or the owner’s son, and that these rules protected women from being cast out to become prostitutes.
*** American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, by Theodore Weld (1839). Abolitionist Theodore Weld, with the assistance of the American Anti-Slavery Society, published a compendium of slavery accounts drawn primarily from newspapers and other printed sources. https://archive.org/details/DKC0106, PDF file: https://ia800602.us.archive.org/19/items/DKC0106/DKC_0106_text.pdf.
Another helpful resource: “Slavery in the Bible: Courageous Conversations '21,” Jude 3 Project (video), https://youtu.be/Cy5yjAOnB6Y.
NEXT: The pro-life ethic in Proverbs 1
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Image credit: Eastman Johnson, The Lord Is My Shepherd, 1863, Smithsonian American Art Museum, https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/lord-my-shepherd-11494.
Updated 3/11/2023 concerning 1 Tim. 1:9-10 and Rev. 18:8-13.
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