Acts5:41 #fundie

Acts5:41 #fundie rr-bb.com

Biblical slaves were to be released in the year of Jubliee, every 7th year, unless they wanted to stay. If they chose to stay God elaborated a special ceremony, and the slave carried a scar on his ear indicating his choice.

Biblical slavery was also a sort of welfare system for the very poor.

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old comment by David B.

No, Leviticus 25 states quite clearly "You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way."

Oddly though, since fellow Israelites were "never to be treated this way", Exodus 21 has this to add about Hebrew slaves, "If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I would rather not go free.' If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong to his master forever."

So you would be freed after 7 years, but only if you were Hebrew, and willing to leave your faimily in slavery.

So anyone but fellow countrymen (and only men, note) were perpetual property. So at best it's a "welfare system" for domestic douchebag deadbeat dads and no-one else.

For everyone else, it's unmitigated slavery.

old comment by gumby

leviticus 25

35 “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. 36 Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. 37 You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

39 “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves. 40 They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property of their ancestors. 42 Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. 43 Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.

old comment by Tempus

Jubilee wasn't every 7 years, it was every 49. You didn't even get THAT right.

The parts about charging no usury and the land and property being turned over to its original owners are actually kind of interesting, but people like you always start screaming and yammering mindlessly about Communism and ZOMG REDISTRIBUTION!!!one when anyone talks about doing anything even remotely similar now.

In any event, slavery was repulsive in the past and it's equally loathsome now, and I find it morbidly fascinating that the mealy-mouthed mumbling about how it wasn't really so bad is slowly getting louder and louder. I figure that the far right is testing the waters just a bit, just floating the idea out there to see how well it flies with the public. After all, the prison system is already very profitable, and there's a LOT of unemployed and unemployable people out there, and I figure that some of the neofascists are salivating over the prospect of being able to get some forced labor for no pay out of them. So I'm pretty sure that we'll be seeing a lot more of these "Slavery: Was it really so bad?" pieces coming over the next few years as they try to spin the notion into something more palatable.

old comment by John_in_Oz

Nah, selective biblical quotation. That didn't apply to non-Jewish slaves.
http://www.evilbible.com/Slavery.htm
Except for murder, slavery has got to be one of the most immoral things a person can do. Yet slavery is rampant throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. The Bible clearly approves of slavery in many passages, and it goes so far as to tell how to obtain slaves, how hard you can beat them, and when you can have sex with the female slaves.
... The following passage shows that slaves are clearly property to be bought and sold like livestock: However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance."
Even with Jewish slaves, if a slave marries he has to choose between a lifetime in slavery or abandoning his wife and kids.

“If they chose to stay God elaborated a special ceremony,”
You leaned them against a doorway and nailed and awl through their ear. That’s the ceremony.
Also, the REASON they might not have want to leave, their wlave wife and slave kids didn’t go with them. They weren’t freed along with the (Hebrew) slave.
That’s not welfare, that’s straight up slavery, ownership of people.

Acts5:41 #fundie rr-bb.com

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