Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 26:1 (Spring 2022)
Article: Why Didn’t The Mosaic Law Prohibit Slavery?
Author: David Fredrickson

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Why Didn’t The Mosaic Law Prohibit Slavery?

Dave Fredrickson

Key Words: Slavery, Mosaic Law, Redemptive Movement Hermeneutic, Anti-slavery, Gentiles

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If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. . . . As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession. . . (Lev. 25:39, 44–45).2

Introduction: The Problem And Prior Approaches To Solutions

Christian apologists with a belief in both God’s moral perfections and Scripture’s veracity in reflecting those perfections would like to be able to defend the following syllogism:

P1: God’s character is such that he is against human slavery.

P2: The law of Moses reflects God’s character.

C: The law of Moses is against human slavery.

Crafting a robust apologetic for this syllogism would be a valuable undertaking because its success would fortify the claim that all Scripture infallibly reflects a perfectly moral, changeless God. There would be a recent, additional benefit to defending an

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anti-slavery ethic in particular, within Moses’ law in particular: it would provide a direct rebuttal to the unstated but unavoidable conclusion from the Redemptive Movement Hermeneutic (hereafter RMH) that the earliest canonical Scriptures exhibit a fallible morality regarding the institution of slavery.3 This unspoken conclusion follows from the conclusion they will state, that the pro-slavery law of Moses (by their reading) provides some of the best evidence that Scripture, when chronologically read, reflects a flawed-but-improving trajectory in its morality regarding slavery. In their view this ever-improving slavery ethic trajectory across (chronological) Scripture finally intersects with God’s perfect (anti-) slavery ethic only, unfortunately, beyond the latest pages of the New Testament.4 As William Webb has stated it, the New Testament’s teaching on slavery or any topic:

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