General Discussions

[PaulP]

I love the way those who insist that the Bible is the word of God tie themselves in knots trying to explain away the  way the Bible concentrates on the ethical keeping of slaves rather than declaring slavery is evil. One way of explaining it away would be to recognise that much of the social commentary is necessarily a reflection of the society that existed a couple of Millenia ago. Slavery was commonplace back then and simply banning it wouldn’t have been pragmatic. But that would undermine the notion of an unbending moral code imposed by God. But surely God would not be worried about pragmatism: S/he would just have declared slavery to be evil.

So there’s now an attempt to reinterpret slavery as a positive thing in the Bible. We’re told that the Bible wasn’t dealing with slaves - it was dealing with “bondservants”, those who became slaves voluntarily for a set period to work off a debt to the new Master. ...................................................

I wouldn't claim great knowledge in this area, but that type of slavery (bond servant) is one type, but there are others, e.g chattel slaves. There are various rules and stipulations for Israelites and non Israelitles, wives, offspring etc. that are probably beyond the scope of a football forum.