Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible?

The author starts by noting that both those in favor of slavery and those against it site the Bible as backing their position. He notes definitions of slavery given by the laws of several Soutern states, and then goes to the main theme.

He first says that there are no Hebrew terms for the word 'slave' as such. He points out that the word 'servant' used so often is not equivalent to the word 'slave.' In reference to Hebrew servants, he says there was one that would stay with his master for his own life, but it was totally the worker's own choice to do so. Otherwise, the servants were basically like indentured workers who would work for a certain length of time, or until some particular goal was reached, and then they would be set free.

He then discusses servants taken from conquered people, and then various systems set into the law which freed workers.

He then moves into talking about the New Testament.

'Thus Christ, so far from sanctioning chattelism or property in man in any shape or form, by precept and example taught the opposite, the dignity of labor and the laborer, the common brotherhood of man, and consequent equality, political and religious.'

'Thus Christ and his apostles, so far from upholding chattelism in their teachings, denounced the ownership of man by any but God, and inculcated its opposite--love, liberty, equality, and fraternity--by precept and example. And subsequent history showed the result.'

The author's writing style is sort of flowery, and his references to specific Hebrew terms and their meaning may be correct and may not be; I have no working knowledge of Hebrew. Such matters are best left to experts in Hebrew and biblical terminology.

To be blunt, the publication is sort of boring.

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