• rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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    il y a 3 mois

    AFAIK, in 1860 about 20% of families in the slave states owned slaves. Lots of those were probably relatively poor farmers - slaves or no, small farmers in the 19th century weren’t that wealthy. Also, since when does the Christian god condemn entire family lines? Is slavery even forbidden by the bible?

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
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      il y a 3 mois

      Punishing descendants is absolutely a part of the bible. Women experiencing pain during childbirth is supposedly a punishment for Eve eating the forbidden fruit.

      • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.uk
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        il y a 3 mois

        Kinda mad that if you click on his links, he’s citing a very specific translation of the Bible, flip through them and it’s clearly talking about servants as a blessing. Not necessarily slaves. The words in question are עֶ֫בֶד and שִׁפְחָה. Basically every other translation I flipped through rendered this as servants, including the likes of culturally significant ones that Christians draw on for doctrine like the KJV and ESV.

        Is he trying to convince Christians that slave owning is okay or something? 🤣

        • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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          il y a 3 mois

          Kinda mad that if you click on his links, he’s citing a very specific translation of the Bible, flip through them and it’s clearly talking about servants as a blessing.

          Can you elaborate? He links to the NRSVUE which is the translation academics use because it focuses on eliminating modern biases.

          I think the fact that other versions use “servants” is a reflection of the fact that Christians are embarrassed that the bible endorses slavery, and will tie themselves in pretzels to minimize this fact.

          Is he trying to convince Christians that slave owning is okay or something

          No, I think he is just being honest about what the bible is saying. Christians should know that the interpretive lens they use has a big impact on what they’ll see the bible advocating.

          • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.uk
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            il y a 3 mois

            The NRSVUE removed translation traditions. This is helpful, but the fact that both translations are correct, while for centuries if not millenia (in some cases the RSV versions ignored the Septuagint translations). While yeah, it’s still a valid translation, the word for “slavery” in our modern western lens typically conjures up images of chattel slavery where the slaves were enslaved for life as well as their offspring. Such imagery just isn’t really historically honest. Even throughout different time periods of the Bible’s writing, slaves ranged from bondservants to ones sold through debt.

            • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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              il y a 3 mois

              Even throughout different time periods of the Bible’s writing, slaves ranged from bondservants to ones sold through debt.

              …and chattel slaves like in Exodus 21:20-21

              • Estiar@sh.itjust.works
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                il y a 3 mois

                Or chattel slavery in Leviticus 25:44-46

                Leviticus 25:44-46 NRSVUE [44] As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. [45] You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you and from their families who are with you who have been born in your land; they may be your property. [46] You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.

              • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.uk
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                il y a 3 mois

                Yes, that’s Exodus. Jesus did underline this whole period as a time when Moses wrote compromises because people’s hearts were hard. Another example is divorce which is what Jesus used:

                Mark 10:3-5

                He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

                • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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                  il y a 3 mois

                  Jesus said divorce was bad, did he say slavery was bad? You seem to be in denial of how okay with slavery Christianity was. Christianity changed between the composition of the bible and today.

                  • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.uk
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                    il y a 3 mois

                    The Gospels would be huge if they recorded literally everything Jesus said - the mention of the Law of Moses being written due to the hardness of hearts is enough.

                    Society was okay with slavery at the time. It didn’t really have much to do with Christianity - slavery was happening and arguably started in pagan society, the nobles got converted, but the peasantry generally didn’t. Slavery basically was just an unquestioned fact of life.

                    It was the Christians who abolished slavery and started questioning it - while the devout ones were against it for a while, it didn’t really garner traction until the 1700s when people were learning to read and the reformation had already taken effect.

        • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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          il y a 3 mois

          If all of the cited passages are actually talking about servants, they’re treating their servants so badly that the difference is merely semantic. Note that American (including both USA and other countries’ colonies in the Americas) chattle slavery was unusually depraved, in mediterranean antiquity slaves were generally treated better than that (or so the surviving accounts would have us believe).

          • KombatWombat@lemmy.world
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            il y a 3 mois

            Yeah, I don’t think it really matters what word is considered a better translation. It is talking about humans becoming property.

            In Exodus 21:2-11, it says Hebrew men are restricted to being indentured servants for 6 years unless they volunteer for more. And Hebrew girls/women are sold forever, just not to foreign nations. And in Leviticus 25:44-46, it directly addresses that gentiles can be enslaved, sold, and inherited with no special restrictions.

            A slave by another name is still a slave.

        • __hetz@sh.itjust.works
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          il y a 3 mois

          Christians already have to convince themselves of that. At least once it’s brought to their attention. It’s not exactly something that gets brought up during your typical Sunday School session.

              • HM King Charles III DG FD@feddit.uk
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                il y a 3 mois

                In Sunday school I learned what a prostitute was (from the story of Jericho) about King Solomon suggesting cutting a baby in half, that dude that sacrificed his daughter because she was the first to come out of her house, how scripture has been misused to justify slavery, how it’s been misused to justify violence, Noah’s nakedness, the left handed dude who used his left handedness to assassinate a king, Asherah poles being destroyed, David cutting Saul’s robe while he was peeing, to name a few

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      il y a 3 mois

      Is slavery even forbidden by the bible?

      No its encouraged, as is your daughter marrying her rapist

      Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations

      In the US they do this with Mexicans now but not Canadians… yet.

      Exodus 21:7. says its ok to sell your daughters into slavery

      as examples, working on the Sabbath ??

      Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death.