Slavery

No Freedom for Female Slaves

The Law commanded that a man who had become a slave to pay his debts should be freed in the seventh year of his service (Ex. 21:2). However, no such law was given for setting free female debt slaves. Why? One reason might be that female slaves often became concubines of their master (see Gen. 30:9). Once a woman had been a concubine, she would have been unlikely to find a man willing to marry her. Yet without marriage, she would have had little means of surviving on her own.

The culture of that day was not conducive to anyone—male or female—living as a single person. Thus the Law may have assumed that a female slave would permanently remain in her master's household.

Slavery in Bible Times

Paul uses a powerful image when he pictures one's relationship either to sin or to obedience as slavery (Rom. 6:16). The Roman Empire was heavily dependent on slaves to take care of its hard labor and menial tasks. In fact, many of Paul's Roman recipients may have been slaves, since perhaps half the population or more were under servitude by one historian's estimate.

Slaves were taken from the many nations that Rome conquered. Those assigned to the empire's widespread construction projects or to its mines had a hard lot. Fed a subsistence diet, they were worked to exhaustion. Injuries and disease were common, and once they were too sick to work, or in rare cases too old, they were abandoned.

Household slaves, however, enjoyed better conditions. Nearly every Roman home owned at least two or three servants, and some had hundreds. They assisted the women in maintaining their homes and raising their children. Slaves with occupational expertise proved particularly valuable in the workplace, and some businesses were entirely dependent on these imported, cheap laborers.

Slavery existed long before the Romans, of course. The Bible records several different forms of slavery in ancient times: domestic slavery, as illustrated by Hagar (Gen. 16:1); state slavery, as illustrated by the Israelites under Egypt (Ex. 5:6–19; 13:3); and temple slavery, as illustrated by the slaves of the Levites for temple service (Num. 31:25–47; Josh. 9:21–27).

Curiously, the Bible does not directly condemn slavery as an institution, though it contains warnings about the practice of slavery (Amos 1:6–9; Rev. 18:13). The Old Testament Law did regulate Israel's treatment of slaves (Ex. 21; Deut. 15). Repeatedly, the people were instructed not to rule over a fellow Israelite harshly (Lev. 25:39; Deut. 15:14). If a master beat a slave or harmed him, the law provided that the slave could go free (Ex. 21:26–27); and the killing of a slave called for a penalty (21:20).

In the New Testament, slaves were advised to obey their masters (Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22; Titus 2:9). Paul appealed to Philemon to receive back Onesimus, a runaway slave who became a Christian and therefore a brother. This was an illustration that in Christ, social distinctions such as slavery no longer apply (Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). As believers, we have been freed from sin, and in fact are now owned by God. We are now free to serve God.

For more on this topic, see CHANGE, “Token Gestures or Genuine Change?”; OPPRESSION, “Equality vs. Slavery”.