Need help understanding this interesting Bible verse...

this is the law under Moses, not Christian law. Having slaves isn't a requirement of being a Christian. The scriptures about it simply tell how to treat a slave if a person has one. Slaves in the New Testament were no different from employees. They worked for someone, and they were given shelter and food in return. Before the Common Era. War, poverty, and crime were the basic factors that reduced persons to a state of servitude. Captives of war were often constituted slaves by their captors or were sold into slavery by them. (Compare 2Ki 5:2; Joe 3:6.) In Israelite society a person who became poor could sell himself or his children into slavery to care for his indebtedness. (Ex 21:7; Le 25:39, 47; 2Ki 4:1) One guilty of thievery but unable to make compensation was sold for the things he stole, evidently regaining his freedom at the time all claims against him were cared for.—Ex 22:3. At times slaves held a position of great trust and honor in a household. The patriarch Abraham’s aged servant (likely Eliezer) managed all of his master’s possessions. (Ge 24:2; 15:2, 3) Abraham’s descendant Joseph, as a slave in Egypt, came to be in charge of everything belonging to Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh. (Ge 39:1, 5, 6) In Israel, there was a possibility of a slave’s becoming wealthy and redeeming himself.—Le 25:49. Laws governing slave-master relationships. Among the Israelites the status of the Hebrew slave differed from that of a slave who was a foreigner, alien resident, or settler. Whereas the non-Hebrew remained the property of the owner and could be passed on from father to son (Le 25:44-46), the Hebrew slave was to be released in the seventh year of his servitude or in the Jubilee year, depending upon which came first. During the time of his servitude the Hebrew slave was to be treated as a hired laborer. (Ex 21:2; Le 25:10; De 15:12) A Hebrew who sold himself into slavery to an alien resident, to a member of an alien resident’s family, or to a settler could be repurchased at any time, either by himself or by one having the right of repurchase. The redemption price was based on the number of years remaining until the Jubilee year or until the seventh year of servitude. (Le 25:47-52; De 15:12) When granting a Hebrew slave his freedom, the master was to give him a gift to assist him in getting a good start as a freedman. (De 15:13-15) If a slave had come in with a wife, the wife went out with him. However, if the master had given him a wife (evidently a foreign woman who would not be entitled to freedom in the seventh year of servitude), she and any children by her remained the property of the master. In such a case the Hebrew slave could choose to remain with his master. His ear would then be pierced with an awl to indicate that he would continue in servitude to time indefinite.—Ex 21:2-6; De 15:16, 17. First-Century Christian Position. In the Roman Empire slaves were very numerous, with individuals owning hundreds and even thousands of slaves. The institution of slavery had the protection of the imperial government. First-century Christians did not take a stand against governmental authority in this matter and advocate a slaves’ revolt. They respected the legal right of others, including fellow Christians, to own slaves. That is why the apostle Paul sent back the runaway slave Onesimus. Because he had become a Christian, Onesimus willingly returned to his master, subjecting himself as a slave to a fellow Christian. (Phm 10-17) The apostle Paul also admonished Christian slaves not to take improper advantage of their relationship with believing masters. He said: “Let those having believing owners not look down on them, because they are brothers. On the contrary, let them the more readily be slaves, because those receiving the benefit of their good service are believers and beloved.” (1Ti 6:2) For a slave to have a Christian master was a blessing, as his owner was under obligation to deal righteously and fairly with him.—Eph 6:9; Col 4:1. It was not God's purpose that any of the Israelites suffer poverty. The nation was given an inheritance of land. (Nu 34:2-12) The Law, however, did much to make it easier for the poor to cope with their situation. During the harvest they had the right to glean in the fields, orchards, and vineyards and, therefore, did not have to beg for bread or resort to stealing. To build up his financial resources, he could sell his land or sell himself into slavery, on a temporary basis. So in a sense it was an arangement to make their life easier not harder. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090425090439AA1198m

Times and customs change. If you continue reading, you will find out that a slave could redeem him/herself, or a relative could do it for them. Someone sold that person into slavery. They were not just run down and forced into slavery. They either owed a great debt, or a relative sold them. There were also laws pertaining to the treatment of slaves or bondsmen. They were to be treated decently and fed and clothed properly. And, they were to be given every chance to redeem their freedom. Shalom~Adoniah

Um...Yea... Was it just me or did everyone notice that the first fanatic to respond had a smiling pig as an avatar? Just an observation.... Did you not get the memo? Your supposed to white out all those pages except the part bashing gays, that part stays. You can draw a big smiley face over the white out if you like. Just leave a little speech bubble around the gays part so it looks right. I'll get with the church sometime & make sure your thumped in the head with the updated edited version so you have one.

If you you know the history of Israel, then you would find that hey were not allowed to have Israel slaves. They were all ment to be free. If they wanted to have slaves, they had to make use of the pagan nations, who did not serve God. Those who served God was intended to be free. Slavery was already changed in the Bible, New Testiment. The Apostle Paul was against slavery and slowly more and more slaves became free. If you study slavery in thase time, you would find that slaves were trained as doctors, teachers, etc. Not just for hard labour. The Bible was not written to be a history book, so for those who had all these bad comments, please, if you want to know history, read history books. Stop with your critisizing the Bible of which you do not know it's history. If you want to know something, get your facts together, including concept of time and situations regarding certain things in the Bible. Don't take one vers and seperate it from the truth of the Bible. May you be blessed.

Why is it that when we consider God, we always compare Him to ourselves? Man's ego is such that he believes he always knows better, but his eyes are on the physical and not the spiritual. And while you don't say that you think that man is morally superior to God, you think you must conclude that the Bible is false. There are so many points here that have been taken for a ride, but I will address just a few. Firstly, Leviticus is the law. When we are in Christ Jesus, we are not subject to fulfill the 613 laws of the mitzvot. Christ instead writes the law in our hearts, not in tablets of stone, but fleshy tables of the heart. Secondly, your station and circumstances in life are not as important as your spiritual standing. God allowed His people to be enslaved by the Pharoah for 400 years. During this time, they were still faithful and so was He. He did send Moses to free them in His timing and for His purpose. In the New Testament, Paul tells us that it doesn't matter if we were born slaves or free, we are the same in Christ. Paul says that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all the same in Christ Jesus. Onesimus was a slave who ran away from Philemon, his Christian master, to Paul who was imprisoned. Paul taught the runaway slave about Christ and he became a Christian. Paul then sent him back to Philemon, writing a letter to Philemon asking him to forgive his slave and to welcome him as a brother in Christ. In this way Paul stressed the importance of the spiritual relationship rather than the legal one. God did not create slavery, man did that. But the fact that one was born a slave or born into a rich family has no spiritual consequences. Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks upon the heart. When Jesus said He came to set the captives free, He did not mean freeing slaves, He was talking about spiritual freedom. Man's definitions of right and wrong change with the times. In his day, Christopher Columbus was hailed as a hero. Today he is deplored for his treatment of the native peoples he encountered. Man's perspective changed with the times. God doesn't change, He still commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Any Christian will tell you that Leviticus is outmoded and doesn't apply to modern life nowadays. Except for the bits about gays, of course.

I see you're continuing to work on your relationship with God. I have a hard time understanding some of the things I've read in the Bible. I've tried on and off throughout my life. I can't answer your question, but I felt compelled to reply to this discussion anyway.

Hi Tee, This is an example of why I content that the Bible is not to be taken literally. Regardless of what anyone says I will never be convinced that God spoke those words. Saying that it's okay to take slaves from another nation but not from your own people is wrong and I could never believe in such a God. I don't know who these instructions came from but you can be sure it was a human. I do not condemn the people of that day because it was normal for all people at that period in history. There is much that's good in the Bible but if we take it all literally, there is also much that is bad, at least to our way of thinking today, and I think we have progressed much since that time. There are many who feel that way, including many clergymen. After reading this I realized that my response could still be construed that it was okay to have slaves as long as they were taken from both sides lol. I don't agree with slavery but this was the kind of God that the people of that time imagined. Blessings friend.

The powerful & wealthy men before bought slaves because slaves had low educational trainings. As compared to our generation, men and women have good educational trainings, therefore, you have to pay their services appropriately. Before, very few countries were wealthy, whereas today, many countries are wealthy and strong, so, wars before made many changes of what was written before. However, what was written before is still very useful because men has to mirror whatever decisions he may take for his fellowmen.

The Bible talks about a lot of things. Just because it's in the Bible does not mean that it is condoned. It also says that bribery is effective, which is true, but later it says that bribery is wrong. In Proverbs it says that a "Borrower becomes the lenders slave", This is talking about Borrowing more than slavery. There is also no prison system in the Bible. Even though the OT talks extensively about Crimes and Punishment.

I don't read American Standard or King James Version bibles because there are some words omitted, I stick to the full version of the holy bible which is more accurate and understandable. I don't think Leviticus chapter meant that slavery is okay. Leviticus is an old testament chapter and most chapters in the old testament followed the tradition of times, the practice and holy laws were revised after the resurrection where most disciples followed the rules and scriptures set by Jesus.

Need help understanding this bible verse. Hello there, thanks for reaching out for help. While I don't claim to be an expert at bible theology I don't think that I would be wrong to say that back during that particular time period when the book of Leviticus was being written perhaps slavery was legal then. I can remember that Abraham's wife Sarah had a servant which she gave over to her husband Abraham to have children with. Sarah was barren and couldn't have children. So from my understanding I can only imagine that things were much differently then from the way things are now. It was probably a very common thing to have slaves and life went on everyday as normal and everybody was cool with it. But by the time the New testament was written things had changed so alot of the laws that were written and followed back in the old days no longer carried the same relevancy. Hope this helps you to understand it better......... Happy Mylotting! PS: Sometimes I like to read the old testament just so that I can learn about how God used to do things. It's very interesting to me that he told us not to eat certain foods, surely our Father knew what was best for us but sadly enough people are still doing whatever they want even down to this very day.