Does the Bible support the practice of slavery?

Ephesians 6:5-6Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you.

Titus 2:9Slaves must always obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back.

1 Peter 2:18You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel.

When we think of the word “slavery,” we often think of the evils that happened in the American Antebellum South. People were kidnapped and forced into slavery. They were dehumanized, treated as nothing more than beasts of burden, and forbidden education—all because of greed and racism. They were abused through beatings, whippings, burdened with heavy workloads, and even forced to serve as sex slaves. Masters had the ultimate authority and no accountability. Sadly, verses like Titus 2:9, Ephesians 6:5-6, and 1 Peter 2:18 were misused to justify and enforce this horrific practice.

Many critics of Christianity today will quote verses like these out of context and claim the Bible endorses slavery. This argument relies on three things: first, the shock factor of the word “slave” and its horrific connotations in our modern world; second, quoting the verses apart from their textual and historical context; third, assuming that by not forcibly eradicating slavery, God approved of slavery and its abusive practices. This is not a simple issue that can be understood by a handful of Scripture texts. It requires study of the full context of Scripture and how slavery worked in ancient cultures.

Ephesians 6:5-9Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.

Titus 2:9-10Slaves must always obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back or steal, but must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way.

1 Peter 2:18-19You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment.

These are the exact same Scriptures as you see above, but this time quoted in the larger context of surrounding verses. On their own, the original verses have been used to imply that masters have a God-given authority to demand absolute obedience from their slaves and punish them however they wish—that masters are intrinsically superior. Within the larger context, these verses make it clear that threats and cruelty are wrong, that slave and free are equal before God, and that slaves aren’t called to obedience because of a master’s inherent superiority. Instead, slaves are called to obedience because that reflects Christ’s character and becomes a witness to God’s good news.

Exodus 21:16“Kidnappers must be put to death, whether they are caught in possession of their victims or have already sold them as slaves.”

1 Timothy 1:10-11The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.

In both old and new testaments, kidnapping people and selling them into slavery is condemned on the strongest terms. The transatlantic slave trade that abused millions of Africans was built on this form of kidnapping that the Bible so strongly opposes.

Deuteronomy 15:12“If a fellow Hebrew sells himself or herself to be your servant and serves you for six years, in the seventh year you must set that servant free.”

Deuteronomy 24:20-21“When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.”

1 Corinthians 7:23Are you a slave? Don’t let that worry you—but if you get a chance to be free, take it.

Slavery in the ancient world was not based on concepts of racism like it was in America. In fact, many people in the ancient world sold themselves into slavery, often to people of their own race. If someone had fallen on financial hard times, there were no unemployment benefits or homeless shelters. Gleaning—the gathering of food left behind in the fields and vineyards after every harvest—was one way God provided for the less fortunate in ancient Israel. But if someone had a large debt or was unable to glean enough food, what then? Selling oneself into slavery (sometimes for a limited time period) was a desperate emergency option.

Deuteronomy 23:15-16“If slaves should escape from their masters and take refuge with you, you must not hand them over to their masters. Let them live among you in any town they choose, and do not oppress them.”

In the Antebellum American South and in most places in the ancient world, escaped slaves were supposed to be captured and returned to their masters. In ancient Israel, God explicitly prohibited this.

Exodus 21:9-11“If the slave’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave but as a daughter. If a man who has married a slave wife takes another wife for himself, he must not neglect the rights of the first wife to food, clothing, and sexual intimacy. If he fails in any of these three obligations, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.”

In the Antebellum American South, masters often forced their slaves to have sex with them without obligation. In the Old Testament, God insisted on marriage, and he insisted that as wives, slave women deserved all the same rights as free women. If after marrying a slave, the husband did not give his slave wife her rights as a wife but kept treating her as a slave, she had every right to leave as a free woman.

Exodus 21:12-27“Anyone who assaults and kills another person must be put to death. . . . If a man beats his male or female slave with a club and the slave dies as a result, the owner must be punished. But if the slave recovers within a day or two, then the owner shall not be punished, since the slave is his property. . . . If a man hits his male or female slave in the eye and the eye is blinded, he must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. And if a man knocks out the tooth of his male or female slave, he must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.”

Many skeptics quote Exodus 21:20-21 out of context, claiming, “The Bible says masters can beat their slaves within an inch of their life without punishment because slaves aren’t people, they’re property!” But looking just a few verses earlier in the passage, we see that the word “punished” refers specifically to the death penalty. If slaves weren’t viewed as people, why would the death penalty be enforced on masters who killed their slaves? The verse goes on to say that if a slave doesn’t die, the master is exempted from the death penalty.

But why does the verse say, “since the slave is his property”? Again, looking a few verses later, we get an answer: Whether the slave dies or not, the master isn’t exempted from consequences. There we read that if a master so much as knocks his slave’s tooth out, then the master is punished financially by losing his slave. That slave goes free. Out of context, Exodus 21:20-21 seems to support abuse, but in context, it’s a strong civil law against abuse.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4“Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house. When she leaves his house, she is free to marry another man. But if the second husband also turns against her, writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away, or if he dies, the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the Lord.”

Matthew 19:8Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.”

1 Corinthians 7:23Are you a slave? Don’t let that worry you—but if you get a chance to be free, take it.

Divorce is not a desirable thing. It does not fulfill God’s desire that marriage be loving and for life. Yet if Old Testament laws had ignored divorce, divorce would have happened without regulation, and husbands would have cast their wives onto the streets and married new ones (or remarried old ones) on a whim. The civil laws about divorce in the Old Testament were a concession to human stubbornness and sin. God recognized that a loving relationship could not be legally enforced, so laws were written to allow divorce yet restrict it in order to help prevent abuse.

In a similar way, slavery (or indentured servitude) is not a desirable thing. It was not part of God’s original plan for human relationships. But in that ancient context, if someone was in deep debt or desperately poor, selling oneself into slavery—at least for a time—was sometimes the only way to survive. The Old Testament instructions about slavery were a concession for the economic realities of the time and were meant to limit the evils of slavery.

1 Timothy 6:17Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.

James 2:2-4Suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

Wealth and social standing is temporary and shouldn’t hold sway in a Christian context. We are all servants of the same Master. The early church lived this out. Being rich didn’t earn you a leadership position in the church, and many slaves became elders.

Philemon 1:16-18He [Onesimus] is no longer like a slave to you. He is more than a slave, for he is a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord. . . . If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me.

The book of Philemon is the story of a slave, Onesimus, who ran away from his Christian master, Philemon. Through unknown circumstances, Onesimus met up with the apostle Paul in prison and became a Christian. Paul then wrote a letter to Philemon explaining what had happened, and encouraged the two men to reconcile as brothers in Christ. This mindset—that slaves should be treated as equal brothers, not property—undermined the foundations of slavery. Reading between the lines, many scholars believe that Paul was requesting for Philemon to free Onesimus (see Philemon 1:8-16, 21 in particular). We don’t know all the details of Onesimus and Philemon’s story or how it ended. Still, many respected Christian leaders in the early church—including Clement of Rome—were slaves or former slaves, and some early church traditions claim Onesimus himself became the bishop of Ephesus.

1 Timothy 5:2Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters.

Philemon 1:16He [Onesimus] is no longer like a slave to you. He is more than a slave, for he is a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord. . . . If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me.

Changing the way we define a relationship changes the way we live out that relationship. A brother does not treat his sister with impurity, and no one would treat a beloved brother as mere property. Paul may not have preached the forcible eradication of slavery, but he planted the seeds of its destruction.

Zechariah 7:9-10“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor.”

James 1:27Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

From the Old Testament to the New, justice is an important theme. Undermining slavery and creating a better social safety net for those in need was one of the ways early Christians changed their culture for the better. William Wilberforce, Moses Brown, Harriet Tubman, Reverend Thomas James, Fredrick Douglass, Austin Steward, and many other Christians spearheaded the fight against slavery in the 1700s and 1800s. In our modern day, sex trafficking is a growing slave trade that many Christian organizations are combating. There will always be injustice in our world, and Christians should always be on the front lines, caring for the poor, the vulnerable, and the enslaved.

1 Samuel 16:7“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Matthew 20:25-28Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Ephesians 6:8-9Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.

James 2:1My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?

The kingdom of this world is built around the master and the slave, the wealthy and the poor, the admired and the despised, the oppressor and the oppressed. The Kingdom of God is built on something far different. It is not the powerful who are admired, but the slaves—those who put the needs of others above their own; the ones who complete the necessary task, no matter how inglorious or menial; the ones who, rather than seeking glory for themselves, seek glory for their master. Jesus was not a conqueror or a politician. He washed feet, and he calls us to do the same.