Slavery in the Bible: Reading the Passages People Quote

This is the question people ask when they want to end a conversation about the Bible. They ask why it never says that slavery is wrong. It is a fair question, and it deserves a real answer rather than a quick one. So this episode does something simple. It reads the passages people quote on both sides and says what each one actually says. Some of them are harder than you have been told. And some say the exact opposite of what the people quoting them wanted. The Bible never issues one general command abolishing slavery. That is true, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. It starts with the hardest passage rather than anywhere else, because starting anywhere else would be dishonest: Leviticus 25 does say that people from the surrounding nations could be held permanently and left to your children. Pretending that verse is not there helps nobody. But it does make two specific things crimes, and those two things are exactly what the Atlantic slave trade was built on. Exodus 21 makes kidnapping a person a capital crime - and it covers the buyer too, not only the one who took them. The crime does not stop being a crime once money has changed hands. In the New Testament, the word printed as "slave traders" is rendered in older translations as men-stealers. And Deuteronomy 23 forbids returning anyone who escapes. Every slave-holding society in history has needed the opposite law - Rome had it, and the American South had it federally. Here is a body of ancient law that says do not return them, let them settle wherever they want. Then there is the part of this history that is not about the ancient world at all. In 1807 a book was printed in London for use among enslaved people in the British Caribbean. It was a Bible - but around 90% of the Old Testament had been removed. Exodus was cut, so the story of a people led out of slavery was not available. And "slaves, obey your masters" was kept. If the Bible had genuinely supported that system, there would have been no need to cut it. 0:00 Cold open - the question that ends conversations 0:28 Some say the opposite of what people think 0:52 Starting with the hardest passage 1:23 Leviticus 25 - held permanently, left to children 1:56 The two laws almost nobody quotes 2:07 Exodus 21 - kidnapping is a capital crime 2:25 It covers the buyer too 2:43 What the Atlantic trade actually was 3:28 "Men-stealers" in the older translations 3:44 Deuteronomy 23 - do not hand them over 4:04 Every slave society needed the opposite law 4:56 The version made impossible 5:13 The most quoted verses 5:32 Paul turns and addresses the masters 5:55 The letter to Philemon 6:30 Paul does not command manumission 6:53 The ground the law stood on 7:09 1807 - a book printed in London 7:30 Exodus was cut out 7:48 "Slaves, obey your masters" was kept 8:21 The same book, read by the other side 8:36 "The Christianity of this land" 8:50 The honest position has three parts 9:52 They knew it was not on their side Scripture: Leviticus 25:39-46 - Exodus 21:16 - Deuteronomy 23:15-16 - 1 Timothy 1:10 - Ephesians 6:5-9 - Philemon 15-19 - Galatians 3:28 Sources: Parts of the Holy Bible, selected for the use of the Negro Slaves (London, 1807) - Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative (1789) - Frederick Douglass, Narrative (1845) If this gave you a more honest way to hold a hard question, subscribe - new think about it episodes every week.