{"id":11333,"date":"2025-09-30T10:21:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?p=11333"},"modified":"2025-10-01T21:16:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T01:16:37","slug":"bible-speaks-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2025\/09\/bible-speaks-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Bible Speaks of Slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"When
Image by Canva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Our reading this week is from the gospel of Luke:<\/p>\n

The apostles said to the Lord, \u201cIncrease our faith!\u201d The Lord replied, \u201cIf you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, \u2018Be uprooted and planted in the sea,\u2019 and it would obey you. Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, \u2018Come here at once and take your place at the table\u2019? Would you not rather say to him, \u2018Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink\u2019? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, \u2018We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!\u2019\u201d (Luke 17:5-10)<\/p>\n

Welcome Readers! <\/i><\/b>Please subscribe to Social Jesus Here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This is part 1 of The Christian Normalization of Social Evils<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right at the start this week, I want to name that this text and others in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament fail to call out slavery and they treating other human beings as property of other humans as an evil that a just society rejects. Yes, a biblical argument can be made against slavery. But those aruguments are much more complex requiring someone to know the cultural contexts of certain sections in which our sacred text was written. Abolitionism isn\u2019t taught by any single passage but deduced from principles gleaned from a string of passages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If Luke was directing this passage at the priests and Sadducees of Jesus\u2019 day, we could read it as Jesus\u2019 attempt to awaken the powerful, propertied, and privileged to their place as slaves of the Roman Empire. But the context doesn\u2019t seem to support that interpretation. Jesus is responding to his disciples, the apostles, who have just asked for him to increase their faith.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s begin with an honest survey of what our sacred text does say about slavery. And, fair warning, our scriptures don\u2019t always say what we wish they would say. Let\u2019s start with a passage in Leviticus:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. You may also acquire them from among the foreigners residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.\u201d (Leviticus 25:44-46)<\/p>\n

That people are being permitted to be owned as property and even passed down as property that children can inherit is an astounding failure. In every era, an enslaved person would have objected to their dehumanization. I offer no justification here for enslavers. Nor will I advocate for or soften enslavers\u2019 theology, ancient or modern. Certainly the society in which this passage was written had evolved enough to understand the evil of slavery. This is why it\u2019s not allowed for other Israelites but only for those who are not Israelites: it was an evil enough to not be allowed for fellow citizens, but you could practice owning others, those who were not part of \u201cus.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I find this passage abhorrent. We\u2019ll consider how these passages and others were used in the American practice of slavery, in Part 2<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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