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NASB | Leviticus 25:44 'As for your male and female slaves whom you may have--you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Leviticus 25:44 'As for your male and female slaves whom you may have--you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. |
Bible Question: Does God approve of slavery? |
Bible Answer: Hi Jenny, My apologies, I have not been as quick to getting back to your questions as I had hoped. The simple answer to your son's question is, as is suggested by 00123's answer above, probably that God does not so much 'approve' of slavery, but rather 'condones' it, and His condoning is conditional upon some significant rules and restrictions. The New Atheists would then immediately want to say - or at *imply* - that "If God approves of slavery, then God must also approve of all of the mistreatment of humans that have occurred in the name of slavery as well, and what kind of horrible God must that be!" Of course, that is neither logical nor true. One verse often referred to in this discussion by these New Atheists is Ex. 21:20-21 [NASB] "20 If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. 21 If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property." In large part, slaves were supposed to be treated much like anyone else in the community. That same kind of corporal punishment spoken of in the verse above could executed upon *anyone* in the community for serious wrong-doing. It wasn't just slaves that could be treated that way. Nor was a master given the freedom to treat slaves (punish them) that way for no good reason. And it should be noted that some of the restrictions that God placed on slavery under the Mosaic Law were significant improvements upon some of the practices of the Ancient Near East (ANE) at that time. If you like, I found an interesting article that might be worth reading, or at least skimming through: http://christianthinktank.com/qnoslave.html I hope this helps a little. Have an awesome day. Live ready! Bob |