Racism & Slavery
Verse Observations:
hatred against/love of gentiles: Ps 22:27-28, 60:6-8, 82:8, Rom 11:12, Rv 15:4
Why does Israel get to be the “chief of the nations”? (Jer 31:7)
I find it disturbing that the Jew is given so much prestige over Gentiles. (Zec 8:23)
What’s wrong with the Ammonites and those of Seir saying that the house of Judah is like all the other nations? (Ezk 25:8-11) This to me displays an appalling sense of superiority and entitlement.
Should they have met them with food and water? What for! Why did God think the Jews were entitled to special treatment? (Neh 13:2, Dt 23:4)
If it was pollution to the Jews to intermarry, why were they allowed to marry captive women who were foreigners (and so rape them on top of that)? (Ezr 9:2, Dt 21:10-14)
The bible says that it is a good thing that the Israelites will own Gentile slaves. (Is 14:2) Not only this, but it seems that the Gentiles will be the ones to help them enslave them!
How could God let the Hebrews keep slaves (and why would they want to keep slaves) since they had been slaves themselves? (Lv 25:44-46)
Why was it OK to abuse a Gentile slave and do all manner of evil against Gentiles, but then God turns around and says you are not to mistreat him and you are to love him as yourself? Now which rule is right, and which one is overruled by the other? (Lv 25:44-46, Ex 21:20-21, 26-27, 32) How can a human life not be avenged? What did God tell Noah? (Gn 9:6) What does it matter whether the slave dies immediately or after a day or two? How can a person be considered money? (Lv 25:53, Dt 10:19) Why are there two laws for the Jew and the Gentile?
I don’t get it. If you wanted to take God’s covenant with Abraham seriously and the Mosaic Law seriously, no slave would be a slave for longer than 7 years (the longest amount of time a Jew could keep a fellow Jew in slavery, then he had to let him go), because when God made his covenant with Abram, he said that anyone born a Jew, or anyone even bought by a Jew, had to be circumcised, so he would have God’s covenant in his flesh. This means that any foreign-born slave would automatically become a Jew at his purchase as a slave, so then the Jew who bought him could only keep him for 7 years. Then why in the Mosaic Law does it say that you can keep a foreign salve till he dies? Unless it’s just talking about the female ones, in which case, that would be royally unfair. (Gn 17:12-13, Lv 25:44-46)
You’re supposed to give the laborer his wages (Lk 10:7), but a slave would only have gotten half of what the hired laborer would have gotten for the same work (Dt 15:18). How then could the early church have allowed slavery? (Ti 2:9-10)
God told the Israelites that if they ever went to war against a city, they were to first try to make peace, and if the city agreed, they were to make them all slaves. How is this fair? (Dt 20:10-11)
OK, I could see how God would forbid the Israelites from eating things that died naturally, because that’s just gross and dirty, but what’s up with selling it to a foreigner, so that he or she can be infected with disease? (Dt 14:21)
How is the slave law about a master keeping a freed slave’s wife and children fair? Marriages aren’t to be separated. (Ex 21:4-6) Also, Israel was a patriarchal society. So how come the children are considered the woman’s (and therefore her master’s) and not the man’s? This is so inconsistent, when it comes to the benefit of the slave owner. And how can an owner have more of a right to ownership of a wife and children than their own husband and father? (Ex 21:4)
How can anyone have the right to sell anyone else, especially a parent his child? What about boys? (Ex 21:7-11)
This is too harsh! A man isn't worth an animal? (being sold into slavery for stealing an animal) (Ex 22:3)
Why are only the Israelites sealed on their foreheads, and no other believers? It’s not fair. (Rv 7:3-8)
Were slaves ever leaders of churches?
Why did the early church have no problem with slavery? The only anti-slavery thing the bible says is to not bring a runaway slave back to his master. (Dt 23:15) How could a Christian possibly own other people and deprive them of their rights (unless the slave was the one who sold himself)?
How could God honor Solomon's temple when it was built by slave labor? (I Kgs 5:13-18; 9:3, II Chr 3:17-18)
hatred against/love of gentiles: Ps 22:27-28, 60:6-8, 82:8, Rom 11:12, Rv 15:4
Why does Israel get to be the “chief of the nations”? (Jer 31:7)
I find it disturbing that the Jew is given so much prestige over Gentiles. (Zec 8:23)
What’s wrong with the Ammonites and those of Seir saying that the house of Judah is like all the other nations? (Ezk 25:8-11) This to me displays an appalling sense of superiority and entitlement.
Should they have met them with food and water? What for! Why did God think the Jews were entitled to special treatment? (Neh 13:2, Dt 23:4)
If it was pollution to the Jews to intermarry, why were they allowed to marry captive women who were foreigners (and so rape them on top of that)? (Ezr 9:2, Dt 21:10-14)
The bible says that it is a good thing that the Israelites will own Gentile slaves. (Is 14:2) Not only this, but it seems that the Gentiles will be the ones to help them enslave them!
How could God let the Hebrews keep slaves (and why would they want to keep slaves) since they had been slaves themselves? (Lv 25:44-46)
Why was it OK to abuse a Gentile slave and do all manner of evil against Gentiles, but then God turns around and says you are not to mistreat him and you are to love him as yourself? Now which rule is right, and which one is overruled by the other? (Lv 25:44-46, Ex 21:20-21, 26-27, 32) How can a human life not be avenged? What did God tell Noah? (Gn 9:6) What does it matter whether the slave dies immediately or after a day or two? How can a person be considered money? (Lv 25:53, Dt 10:19) Why are there two laws for the Jew and the Gentile?
I don’t get it. If you wanted to take God’s covenant with Abraham seriously and the Mosaic Law seriously, no slave would be a slave for longer than 7 years (the longest amount of time a Jew could keep a fellow Jew in slavery, then he had to let him go), because when God made his covenant with Abram, he said that anyone born a Jew, or anyone even bought by a Jew, had to be circumcised, so he would have God’s covenant in his flesh. This means that any foreign-born slave would automatically become a Jew at his purchase as a slave, so then the Jew who bought him could only keep him for 7 years. Then why in the Mosaic Law does it say that you can keep a foreign salve till he dies? Unless it’s just talking about the female ones, in which case, that would be royally unfair. (Gn 17:12-13, Lv 25:44-46)
You’re supposed to give the laborer his wages (Lk 10:7), but a slave would only have gotten half of what the hired laborer would have gotten for the same work (Dt 15:18). How then could the early church have allowed slavery? (Ti 2:9-10)
God told the Israelites that if they ever went to war against a city, they were to first try to make peace, and if the city agreed, they were to make them all slaves. How is this fair? (Dt 20:10-11)
OK, I could see how God would forbid the Israelites from eating things that died naturally, because that’s just gross and dirty, but what’s up with selling it to a foreigner, so that he or she can be infected with disease? (Dt 14:21)
How is the slave law about a master keeping a freed slave’s wife and children fair? Marriages aren’t to be separated. (Ex 21:4-6) Also, Israel was a patriarchal society. So how come the children are considered the woman’s (and therefore her master’s) and not the man’s? This is so inconsistent, when it comes to the benefit of the slave owner. And how can an owner have more of a right to ownership of a wife and children than their own husband and father? (Ex 21:4)
How can anyone have the right to sell anyone else, especially a parent his child? What about boys? (Ex 21:7-11)
This is too harsh! A man isn't worth an animal? (being sold into slavery for stealing an animal) (Ex 22:3)
Why are only the Israelites sealed on their foreheads, and no other believers? It’s not fair. (Rv 7:3-8)
Were slaves ever leaders of churches?
Why did the early church have no problem with slavery? The only anti-slavery thing the bible says is to not bring a runaway slave back to his master. (Dt 23:15) How could a Christian possibly own other people and deprive them of their rights (unless the slave was the one who sold himself)?
How could God honor Solomon's temple when it was built by slave labor? (I Kgs 5:13-18; 9:3, II Chr 3:17-18)
