What Scripture says
The Old Testament law regulated slavery, which existed throughout the ancient world. Key passages:
- Hebrew debt-servants were to be released after six years (Exodus 21:2), and sent off with generous provisions (Deuteronomy 15:12–15).
- Kidnapping someone to sell them was a capital crime: “Whoever steals a man and sells him… shall be put to death” (Exodus 21:16, ESV).
- Injury: if a master knocked out a slave’s eye or tooth, the slave went free (Exodus 21:26–27). A master who killed a slave was to be punished (Exodus 21:20).
- Runaways: “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you” (Deuteronomy 23:15–16).
- Sabbath rest applied to slaves too (Exodus 20:10), and Israel was reminded, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 15:15).
But some passages are harder:
- Foreign slaves could be bought and held permanently, and passed on as property (Leviticus 25:44–46).
- A master who beat a slave who survived a day or two was not punished, “for the slave is his money” (Exodus 21:21).
- A daughter sold as a servant did not go free like male servants (Exodus 21:7), though the law gave her protections (21:8–11).
What the evidence says
Context
What slavery meant in ancient Israel
The Hebrew word ebed covers a wide range, from a royal official (“servant of the king”) to a debt-servant to a slave. In Israel, most slavery was debt-servitude: a person who couldn’t pay debts sold their labour for a period. It was a form of social safety net in a society without bankruptcy law.
How it differed from the transatlantic slave trade
| Feature | Old Testament law | Transatlantic slavery |
|---|---|---|
| How people became slaves | Mostly debt, sometimes war | Mostly kidnapping |
| Kidnapping | A capital crime | The basis of the trade |
| Race | Not race-based | Race-based |
| Escaped slaves | Not to be returned | Hunted and returned by law |
| Release | Hebrews freed after six years | Usually lifelong and hereditary |
Comparison with Israel’s neighbours
Israel’s laws were distinctive in their time:
- The Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC) made helping a runaway slave a capital crime (laws 15–16). Deuteronomy 23 commands Israel to shelter runaways.
- In other law codes, injuring a slave was a loss to the owner, compensated to the owner. In Exodus 21, the slave goes free.
Scripture
The harder passages
The law on foreign slaves (Leviticus 25:44–46) is the most troubling. Christians respond in a few ways:
- Some argue it describes a different, longer-term servitude, still governed by the law’s protections, such as the ban on returning runaways and the punishment for killing a slave.
- Many see it as part of what Jesus called concessions to human “hardness of heart” (Matthew 19:8): the law regulated, and limited, an existing institution rather than endorsing it as ideal.
- Critics argue these passages clearly allowed people to be owned as property, and that no explanation removes that.
The direction of Scripture
Many Christian thinkers point to a trajectory:
- Every human is made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27).
- Israel’s founding story is liberation from slavery (Exodus 20:2).
- Job says his servant was formed in the womb by the same God (Job 31:13–15).
- Paul calls slave-traders “enslavers” and lists them with the lawless (1 Timothy 1:10), and says there is “neither slave nor free” in Christ (Galatians 3:28; see 9.6).
These ideas eventually helped Christians such as William Wilberforce argue for abolition, though other Christians at the time used the Bible to defend slavery.
Where they meet
Old Testament slavery regulated an ancient institution in ways that limited abuse and protected the vulnerable, more than any law code of its time. But it did not abolish it, and some passages remain difficult.
What’s still open
How best to understand the laws on foreign slaves, and what they reveal about how God works within human cultures.
Bottom line
The Old Testament regulated a common ancient practice that differed from race-based chattel slavery; kidnapping someone to sell them was a capital crime (Exodus 21:16). It’s still a hard question, so this is rated Debated.