The eighth commandment

Leviticus 25.44-46

“As 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. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.”

From our perspective of post-abolition and civil rights, it is difficult to understand the teaching of God’s Law about slavery. The people of Israel were allowed to own slaves, and they could purchase them from other nations or even from the foreigners who sojourned in their midst. These slaves became their property and could be bequeathed to children upon the owner’s decease.

Slavery in Israel, however, was not like slavery in the surrounding nations; nor was it like the chattel slavery that characterized the early years of the American experience. Slaves were protected by the Law of God, which recognized them as human beings and deserving of love from their masters. Yes, they were slaves, and their freedoms were thus limited. But, as we shall see, slavery was neither a condition of oppression nor of finality in ancient Israel.

And, as Paul’s treatment of Onesimus indicates, it was not an institution Christians should continue in the age of the Spirit and the Gospel.

This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.