Transcript from podcast (so sorry for spelling mistakes)
Wildfire podcast is an extension of Wildfire, which has a focus of igniting men and women of God into a deeper discipleship with Christ, instilling people with a passion to radically and relentlessly pursue Christ wherever that leads.
That God's truth will spread like a wildfire.
Hey everyone, how's it going?
So this is just another video, and today we're going to be discussing slavery in the Bible, okay?
This is such a hot topic.
People talk about this all the time.
People use it as evidence against God.
People say that this is why they don't want to accept God, because God is this moral monster, because the Bible itself condones slavery right throughout, and they go to the Old Testament to highlight this or illustrate this.
And we're going to show in this video why that is just not the case.
So let's just jump in.
Point number one that we want to highlight is, what is the definition of slavery?
Whenever I say slavery to you, you automatically think of a certain thing.
You already have this image in your head, you already have this conceptual understanding.
And so many people do this.
So whenever slavery is then addressed or brought up in a topic, people immediately think of the negative implications and effects and they think of their concept and their definition of slavery.
However, if you were to go up and search the definition of slavery now, people will then highlight that there's three different stages of slavery, four different stages.
People highlight that there's only one type of slavery.
People highlight all these different types of definitions towards slavery.
Throughout our history, people have a different definitions of slavery.
Even today, nations have different understandings.
Different groups and organizations have different definitions of slavery.
People highlight different criteria that has to be met in order for something to be diagnosed as slavery.
So, what we're trying to highlight is that slavery and the definition is rather ambiguous.
There is no one set definition even today as we understand it.
Now, you can get an underlining principle of what slavery is, but the reality is there is so many different criteria involving that.
You also got the historical meaning of slavery.
For example, as we have it today, slavery is completely different than it was, say, for example, in the triangular slave trade, the colonial slave trade that took place in America and Britain.
That is so often whenever people mention slavery in the Bible, how it condones it, they immediately think that the Bible condone that form of slavery.
What we're trying to highlight is you cannot allow your presuppositions, your biases, your prejudices, your 21st century concept to shape, especially something that happened over 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, ancient documents such as that.
Rather, you take the document in question, which in this case is the Bible, and then you then understand what did slavery mean within that context?
What was the internal factors?
What is the external factors?
And what was the definition?
Okay?
And whenever we actually go in and we read the Hebrew term for slavery in the Bible, whenever it says slave and you read that, it can be translated as servant, okay?
So the Hebrew word is abed, and it can be translated as bond servant or servant.
And so whenever you go into the New Testament, it can also be translated as diaconess, which also is servant, okay?
So whenever we're reading a scripture and it's talking about slavery and God has given us precept commands concerning that slavery is better translated as servant.
And so many translations do this.
They basically just say that this is what it means, servant, although the first word was slave.
Slave means servant within that context.
And that is what the Hebrew meant.
It literally means servant.
You also got the historical meaning that you need to attach on to it, as in what was happening within Israel in that time, and what did the slavery or servitude actually entail, which is what we're going to discuss.
So whenever I mention slavery, or whenever you read about slavery, the Hebrew word is abed and the Greek is diakonis, and they can be translated as servant.
Okay?
You've also got what does master mean?
Because again, people think that slave means this and master also means this.
And you can go and you can read in the Hebrew Bible, and you can find out that the Hebrew is adon.
And this is a masculine noun meaning lord or master.
The most frequent usage is a human lord, but it's also used of divinity.
It generally carries nuances of authority rather than ownership.
Okay?
So nuances of authority rather than ownership, which is something that is vitally important to highlight and understand.
Point number two, we just want to highlight some preliminary points.
Before we get into the passages themselves, is what we need to understand and highlight and have clarity upon is that slavery or servitude with regards to the Old Testament was a form of vindication or retribution.
That is, if you were in debt, that is, if you committed a crime, these would be forms of or a means of reconciliation.
That is, you would voluntarily sell yourself in order to pay off those debts or absolve the crime that was in question.
Point number three is whenever we read the New Testament and the Old, the Bible is one book, one narrative.
So you can't have the old without the new.
And the whole Bible in its entirety, Old and New Testament is pointing towards God.
It is displaying the character of God.
And we have to get a full holistic understanding of who God is and who the character of God is.
So whenever you talk about the Bible condemning slavery here, that is completely contradictory to so many scriptures in the Bible right and you have to have a consistent view and understanding.
You can't create contradictions.
And so in the New Testament, we understand that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
And whenever we read in the New Testament, we read of the Book of Philomene, where Paul was imprisoned and then there is a gentleman who is in this servitude and he comes to Paul and Paul then sends him back to his master, whoever he is, ascribes the title now, Onesimus, which means no longer slave but beloved brother.
Okay.
So he is then telling the master that you should no longer treat him as a bond servant, not a slave, a servant, but actually as a brother in Christ.
And we also read of so many other scriptures, right throughout the Old and the New Testament.
So for example, Colossians 4, masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
It says in Exodus 23, 9, you shall not oppress a surgeon or you should know the heart of a surgeon or for you were surgeon or in the land of Egypt.
James 2 verses 8 to 9, if you really fill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
You're doing well.
But if you show partiality, that is bias, form of classism, racism, you're committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
It then goes on to talk about James 5 and 4, 1 Timothy 1, 9-10, Leviticus 19, 33-34, Ephesians 2, 13-14, 1 Corinthians 12-13, Ephesians 4-32, Galatians 3-28 says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
All of us are made in the Omega Day, the image of God.
And Genesis 1, 26-27, all of those verses and scriptures I just read to you, they show that slavery, a derogatory oppressive form of slavery, is not found in the Bible, but rather right throughout Old Testament to New Testament, the Bible talks about justice and equality and equity.
Okay?
They are important things to highlight and understand.
We also got the ministry of Jesus.
Jesus himself came and quoted from Isaiah in Luke chapter four, where he said he's coming to give freedom to the captives.
And the word freedom there in the Greek is actually a phessis.
And it is referring back to the Old Testament and the year of Jubilee, whenever a servants would have been released, that is they would have been redeemed, they would have been ransomed and delivered, their deaths would have been paid and the crimes would have been acquitted for.
And so Jesus is then saying that he has come to give liberty and freedom to all, to all.
And so, and Jesus is God.
So Jesus himself said that.
And so that would then be a contradiction of God who condoned it here in the old NN is then saying in the new that he's come to provide freedom for the oppressed and the captives.
Again, it's that one narrative that we need to understand.
The Bible is consistent right throughout.
Now, what I want to also highlight is point number six, which is that there's so many people, billions and billions of Christians who oppose slavery.
Some of the most notable people is Martin Luther King.
He opposed not only slavery, he also fought for civil rights, he fought for equality, and he used the Bible as that foundation.
He was fueled by God.
It was God who was telling them that all are created equal, that there's no need for subjugation on any level.
And also William Wilberforce, who helped abolish slave trade within Britain in 1807 and 1833 with acts that were passed.
So these are men that were fueled by the relationship of God, by scripture, and they believe that scripture was teaching equality, not subjugation, not slavery.
And they were key proponents in opposing slavery.
And rightly so, because the Bible does not uphold slavery with regards to subjugation.
Point number seven is there's so many scholar interpretations.
I'm going to leave in the link below so many different articles and websites and books and sources that you can read to follow up on this and not just take my word for it.
And point number eight is that I want to also highlight that in the Old Testament, you had all these other pagan nations and they were all endorsing this form of subjugation and slavery.
Okay.
Yeah.
In the Theocracy of Visual, God then radically changed the view, obviously, because all men are created equal.
That is in the Omega Day of God.
And within the Theocracy of Visual, God instituted key laws.
And so he then said that you could go and buy slaves from other countries.
However, in order to be bought, you first have to be sold.
So these peganations have no knowledge of God.
They are sinful, they're inherently wicked, and they are selling these people.
Yet on the other side, the Israelites are then allowed to go and take the slaves, bring them into the Theocracy of Israel, give them rights, give them liberties, give them equality, allow them to establish a relationship with God, with Yahweh.
And so it's this option or it's this option.
And within the option of the Theocracy of Israel, it was talking about servitude, and it was radically different to all the nations that surrounded it.
Also, what I want to highlight is a series of key points that just really convey the point that the Bible is opposed to slavery in the Bible.
Old Testament slavery was not race-based for servitude.
It was a voluntary means of working off debt or keeping captives from mustering a rebellion.
Slave training is condemned in the Bible, Exodus 21, 16, 1 Timothy 1, 10, and it was punishable by death in the Old Testament.
Teachings all are made in the image of God, slave and master equally human, protected and one in Christ, Exodus 21, 20, Deuteronomy 23, 15, Job 31, 13 and Galatians 3, 28.
Jesus came to set the captives free, as we've already highlighted, in Luke 4, 18.
And the Bible's main goal is spiritual redemption, not social reform, but redemption achieves the reform.
That is, the coming of Jesus Christ achieves that idea of how we are all one through the blood of Jesus Christ, through our faith in God.
So again, they are just key points.
And I'm just gonna list, I know this is all like a speed run, but it's given me a lot to digest and think about and to go and research all of these different points that I've highlighted.
What I also want to understand is that there's two key passages that people use.
That is Exodus 21 and Leviticus 25.
And there's key contextual points that you need to put in place before you read those passages.
That is you need to understand the biblical narrative.
You need to understand the context of the theocracy of Israel.
You need to understand other biblical passages such as Jeremiah 34, where God openly shows his justice and wrath on the Israelites whenever they do not practice the servitude.
And then they follow these other nations and this idea of slavery and oppression.
And God condemns that.
Also Isaiah 58 talks about social justice.
It talks about pleading the case for the poor and the widow.
And we also need to understand what the definition of a slave is, which we've highlighted, what the definition of a master is, which we've highlighted.
What are the internal factors within the passages and how are they saying servitude is carried out within the theocracy of Israel?
What is the law within its entirety?
So don't just take isolated, which is what people do.
The laws are layered and you can't take them one without each other.
And there's a confluence of laws listed.
Again, need to be taken in their entirety.
So, key passages that we want to highlight and address are Exodus 25.
And there is some really key verses in there.
And these are the fundamental passages that people use in order to try and say that the Bible itself supports slavery, which it doesn't, of course.
So if we were to go down to Exodus 21, and you were to go to verses 1, I'm not going to read all of them, but just take out key verses, and you can actually just be able to understand what the Bible is talking about with regards to servitude.
It says, when you buy a heap of slave, he shall serve six years, and the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing.
That is the year of Jubilee, so the poor don't remain poor, and the rich don't remain rich.
It then goes on to talk about some of the criteria and how those slaves were then to be given a provision and purpose and protection.
It then goes on to say that, if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go free, then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door of the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
Okay, so people then take the verse, he shall be his slave forever, okay, and they just ignore all the context points of what slavery means, and how the slave himself is actually saying, I love my master, okay?
So if it is this idea of this race-based derogatory, subjugative form of slavery, then why is this here slave saying that he loves his master?
That's because it's within the theocracy, and rather there is equality, equity and justice for all.
We then go on to read it again, more passages about providing provision and purpose and protection for those who then leave, make sure they're not going empty handed.
Verse 16, which is really important, it says, whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone finding possession of him shall be put to death.
The Bible literally says, you can't kidnap, you can't steal and you can't sell people, which is the form of slavery which we are talking about.
Within the Thoacra visual, it was voluntary, it was economic, it was to do with servitude, that was not race based.
It is again completely different.
The Bible is literally saying this form of slavery that people in the Bible of supporting literally says that it is wrong here.
Then got verse 20, which says, when a man strikes a slave male or female with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.
That is, if you have within the Thoacra visual that a master then starts beating his servant to the point of death, he will be avenged.
That is, there is judicial capital punishment.
There is this form of retributive justice, okay?
Which is if you kill someone yourself, will then face the death penalty for it.
It then says if the slave survives, he is not to be avenged for the slave is the money.
So that is, if the slave is beaten, however he does not die, then you do not then kill the master because the slave did not die.
So that then mean is left with the question.
So can masters just beat their servants?
No, that is not what is being said here at all.
Again, if you were to kill them, it would be retributive justice.
However, if you hurt them, you then initiate what is called Alex Talahones, which is this idea for an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a burn for a burn.
That is anything you do, you yourself will face the consequences for that.
And this is then illustrated in verse 26.
When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye.
If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.
That is, so if you kill someone, you will then face the death penalty.
If you were to hurt any of your servants, then you yourself would then initiate the Alex Talahones, which is this idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
That is, there was retribution and specific laws that ensured that people were prohibited and that there was no cruelty of servants and that there was proper social care being initiated.
We then want to go to another passage, which is Leviticus 25.
And we just want to highlight, again, it talks about this idea.
If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself, he then goes to someone richer than himself and sells himself.
So it's voluntary and it's an economic transaction that takes place within Israel.
God explicitly says that he does not want anyone to rule ruthlessly over each other.
It then goes to talk about sojourners, which I'm probably butchering, but people who were not actually Israelites, but were coming from other nations and had no residing place, and how they too could voluntarily sell themselves and enter this economic bond.
And it then goes on to talk about ask for your male and female slaves whom you may have.
You may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you.
That was the end point in the rate which I highlighted earlier about how you can take from foreign nations to bring in to the Theocracy of Visual under those laws that talk about servitude and respect and dignity and honor.
And it talks about how they bequeath them to your sons after you inherit as possession.
Now it's important to understand that just because it says that they're a possession or property, that does not mean they're just reduced to that.
These are just legal terms.
Whenever you talk about within sports, of how someone is then bought or traded, that is not reducing them or their identity.
It's just the legal terms that are used to describe it.
And that's what's happening here.
It's important that people then just take, oh, they're saying that you're allowed to have them as possession or property and they ignore all the points that we've just highlighted and the context.
And these are just legal terms.
And how they are still to be treated with dignity, respect and with honor.
And it's important that those who had no, all these other paganations within the Thuxavigil, they then could then come under their master and serve there permanently forever.
And they were given provision and protected some purpose.
And they then could become part of that clan and that family and part of the possessions of everything that was pertaining there.
And how we highlighted earlier, how they would say they love their master because it was a beautiful transaction, a beautiful experience, not this form of oppression that was highlighted.
It then goes on to highlight Thrite Leviticus 25.
Again, it concludes with saying, For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants.
They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.
So it's important to understand that here you have the paganations and what they are doing with regards to slavery and subjugation and oppression and how they support it.
The Theocracy of Visual, God is actually prohibiting any form of slavery, any form of kidnapping or selling, but rather you're allowed this servitude whereby a servant can serve the master.
It was voluntary.
It was an economic transaction.
They could then pay off their debts.
They could be released at the end of the six years.
If there was this idea of taking slaves from other nations, which is another subcategory, they too were given dignity, respect and honor and were treated as those within the theocracy of the visual.
They were then the property and possession, which as we've established, it was not them reducing them the title because they were all made in the Omega day of God.
And they were given provision, purpose and protection and could serve forever under Yahweh, under God and have a fundamental, strong relationship with God.
So I know that was a summary.
There's so many points, but the reality is the Bible does not support this form of slavery that people associate today.
It requires a lot more secondary explanation.
I'm going to leave a link in the description of so many other sources that you can read and highlight and you can go and research this for yourself.
So to make sure that I am not biased or prejudiced in any way, but just looking at the Bible's historical document and what it is illustrating and what it is saying.
So anyway guys, thank you so much.
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