When the Bible was written, it is unclear if the authors considered slavery in the context the world used in the future.
In the Colossians chapter, verse 4:1, “Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, realizing that you too have a Master in heaven”. When it was written it shows that having a slave does not make you their leader, because every slaveholder has a leader in heaven. The authors used various scriptures to show how a slave should treat their slaveholder, and how the slaveholder should treat his slave.
In Eph 6:5-8, it says “Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ, not only when being watched, as currying favor, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, willingly serving the Lord and not human beings, knowing that each will be requited from the Lord for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free”. The slaves are being told to do good things because they will be requited for the good actions they put into the world. The Bible does not only talk about how slaves should act.
There are also verses for the slaveholders, and verses that can be acted upon by both parties. In some cases, the verses, the writing is not meant to be literal but is meant to be metaphorical. Like in John 13:14, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet”. If someone does a good deed, then you should do a good deed.
In John 15:15, “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father”. John is basically saying that if they were slaves, they would have no idea what their master was doing to them.
In the end, the authors never gave a clear objective as to how they felt about slavery. This just shows you that how you read and interpret it can affect how people do things when they base it on religion.
No comments:
Post a Comment