Tackling Tradition 39: OT Slavery

 Objection:  The Bible is full of outdated Bronze Age material that ought to be jettisoned.  For example, slavery: 


Wisdom from God: 


When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.  (Exodus 21:20–21, ESV)


See how horrible that is?! 


By way of reply: 


I fail to see what the problem is here, You’re quoting from the Pentateuch’s Civil Code. The OT Civil Code — not its Moral Code. The Moral Code is the Decalogue. The Civil Code comes to us as casuistic law (case law).


Just because the Civil Code regulates institutional slavery, it doesn’t therefore follow that the Moral Code generally approves of it. Like all Civil Codes the law regulates both moral & immoral behavior. 


What you’re quoting is institutionalized harm reduction for an agrarian society in the Ancient Near East. Do you have issues with seat belt laws, motorcycle helmet legislation, &/or needle exchange programs? You sound very like those who are against comprehensive sexuality education, seatbelt laws, needle exchange programs, etc.


Given its historical context, the ethical principles which you dismiss as Bronze Age ethics are pretty progressive. What we see here is that the Civil Code amounts to God accommodating to the real life socioeconomic situation in the ANE in order to move people along on the road toward civilization so that Paul can write that debt slaves (and others) ought to seek their freedom if possible.


The quoted text is parallel to the preceding text:  “When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed, then the one who struck him shall go unpunished; he must pay for the lost time and see that the victim is completely healed."


So — slave is beaten & dies, then the perpetrator is to be punished. If the slave isn’t killed & recovers a day or two later the perp is not to be punished — but the perp does incur the responsibility to pay for the lost time (ie for example; credit the slave’s lost wages to the debt the slave’s account if this is debt bondage) & to see to the victim’s orderly recovery.


We ought to be able to put this together, The law exacts a just remedy & answers the question “May we beat slaves with impunity?” The answer is “No, and here is an example of what to do.”


It sounds primitive to us because civilization today isn’t nearly as primitive. However, this law is pretty forward thinking given the life circumstances in which those people were living & the place from which they had come.


It’d be wonderful if God had dropped the US Constitution down with the 14th Amendment too, but that’s not how God chose to act.   However, God chose not to infantize us. Instead God chose to shepherd us from Point A to Point B while giving us abiding principles & some concrete exemplars so modern people could see how blessed we are & work so that laws like this ought never again be necessary.

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