Did the Old Testament Endorse Slavery?

By: Joshua Bowen

Narrated by: Seth Andrews

The God of the Old Testament commanded and endorsed many practices that we find morally reprehensible today. High on the list was the institution of slavery, which features prominently in several sections of the Hebrew Bible. Fathers could sell their daughters into slavery, masters could beat their slaves, creditors could carry off children for failure to repay a debt, and foreigners could be kept for life, passed down as inherited property. How are we to make sense of all of this from our modern point of view?

Atheists and skeptics will often say that the God of the Old Testament was a moral monster for endorsing such atrocities. Christians will often respond that the slavery in the Hebrew Bible wasn’t as bad as we think, and was more like having a job or owning a credit card. While both sides of this debate are sincere in their positions, neither are ultimately correct. Our conclusions must derive from a thorough understanding of both the Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern contexts.

This extensively revised and expanded second edition includes a wealth of information and analysis, including three additional chapters and two new appendices. Dr. Bowen thoroughly explores law collections of the ancient Near East, asking why they matter, and how they influence our understanding of slavery in the Old Testament. A comparative analysis of the legal provisions made for the treatment of slaves in the ancient world sheds extensive light on how slavery in the Old Testament should be viewed in relation to other ancient cultures, and an entire chapter explores biblical slavery after the Old Testament, through the New Testament, early church, and down to the antebellum south.

This book will:

• Provide a detailed overview of slavery laws and practices in the Old Testament and the ancient Near East.
• Examine the significant – and highly controversial – passages in the Hebrew Bible that deal with slavery, including laws about beating your slave, taking foreign chattel slaves, and what to do if a slave runs away from their master.
• Answer the most challenging questions about slavery in the Old Testament, including, “Could you beat your slave within an inch of their life and get away with it?”, “Were slaves just property that had no human rights?”, and “Did the Old Testament really endorse slavery?”
• Consider how the biblical treatment of slaves changed from the Old to New Testament, and whether Old Testament slavery was substantially different to slavery in the American antebellum south.

©2023 Joshua Aaron Bowen (P)2023 Joshua Aaron Bowen

Great separation of early and modern religion

I must admit that I came with my defenses up. They were put to rest when I saw the presentation argued from a judge's or attorney's stand point. The book was positioned as very fair and balanced reasoning. I would have liked to see the author expand on the possible results of taking a less modern approach to Christianity, but I believe he was delicately treading the line of remaining scholarly free from modern persuasion. In todays day and age, such a topic is highly scrutinized with the modern moral system. Gotta say, good work and for what it is worth, God bless!

Educational without boredom

Dr Bowen has a way to educate people about abhorrent practices, in a way that doesn’t bore the reader/listener, and still lets people know all the facts he is presenting.
His collecting of information from the surrounding civilizations and cultures of the biblical texts shows how similar they all were.

Excellent book. But no appendices available digitally as promised in audio book appendices.

This is an excellent book. However, the book promises digital appendices available. Those are pretty important supplemental materials. There’s simply not available. Very disappointed.