Slavery in the Bible
Many people mistakenly claim that the Bible supports slavery. The intention of this article is to show that the claim is not true. (I will be using several passages from a very enlightening book by Paul Copan titled “Is God a Moral Monster.” I would encourage you to get that book for an in-depth study on this subject) First of all, we normally think of the word slavery as we have seen in the antebellum South (prewar). We hear horrible stories of this wretched practice and we know deep in our hearts that “slavery” is evil. But the big question is this – when the Bible uses the word “slavery,” what is its meaning? Does it equate with the meaning of slavery that we know today? As we all agree, it’s very important to interpret any ancient writings in their proper context. Having said that, let us analyze slavery in the Bible. What we find in the Bible is not slavery like we had in the antebellum South; rather, it is indentured service. Hebrew servanthood could be compared to...