penguinfan

The New Testament, in my opinion, is pretty clear that a slave is to obey his master. Both slaves and masters are to be kind to each other. However, if a master treats his slave harshly, the slave is to return the abuse with kindness. My question then, is; were the slaves who ran away from their masters in the antebellum South sinning?

Is there any scriptural support to believe that a slave who disobeyed their master and ran away for freedom allowed per the New Testament?

premjan

I'd guess slaves should prefer Islam to Christianity.

Elijah

The message of Christ was spread with submission because a religion that openly supported slave rebellion wasn’t going to be allowed to exist. But if you go with an antinomianistic (sp?) view of “all things are lawful for me” then you are free to do whatever you want as a Christian. 1 Cor 6:12

haitu

i thought the whole term of slaves was meant to be indentured servants, well according to apologists.

DCHindley

Actually,

No.

When Paul crossed paths with a runaway slave, Onesimus, he talked the slave into returning to his former master, Philemon, providing the master with a letter begging him to accept his slave back with no recriminations. Apparently he did.

The Pauline letters are full of advice for slave/master relations that sounds as if most of it is directed to slaves. Some scholars have proposed that Paul's "house churches" were organized around the households of the well-to-do, and as such would be mainly composed of household slaves, and lower-level clients of the family heads = patrons. See if you can find a copy of _Voluntary Associations in the Greco-Roman World_ edited by John Kloppenborg among others.

Also, if you can find it at your library, find the multi-volume revision if Emil Schurer's _The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ_ (4 volumes - the final two are actually billed as volume 3.1 & 3.2 - 1973-1987). Volume 2 has a number of useful inscriptions, and volume 3.1 includes a section on Jewish-Gentile relationships. Together, these sources deal with "God Fearers" and the relations between synagogues and their pagan neighbors.

A few interesting points I noticed were that some pagan slaves were manumitted by their Jewish masters on the condition they converted and served them faithfully. Others suggested that synagogues occasionally bought the freedom of Jewish slaves from Pagan masters when they could swing it and the masters agreed (which suggests that those masters' assent was due to their receiving obedient behavior in good faith from those slaves, but could not afford to manumit them without compensation, although some may not have cared as long as they got paid for them).

DCH

mountainman

Dear penguinfan,

You need to read the Acts of Thomas, in which Thomas is ordered to go to India by Jesus but flatly refuses to go to India. As a result of this disobedience, Jesus sells Thomas as a slave in the local slave markets to a travelling Indian merchant, and receives a bill of sale in exchange.

Best wishes,


Pete

bacht

According to the epistles, the first generation of believers was expecting the end of the world very soon. The traditional divisions between humans (man & woman, master & slave etc) would become redundant in the new age.

Since we're still here I don't see how NT ideas are applicable. The OT has regulations concerning servants, these might be more relevant to your question about the US.

Keep in mind that slavery is primarily an economic phenomenon, using cheap labour for work that others can't or won't do. In the machine age we have reduced the need for this, but slavery was almost universal in the old days (often criminals or prisoners of war).

penguinfan

Thank you for your response. My question, however, is not the political views of Jews and Christians from the era regarding the manumission of slaves. It is, whether slaves who run away from their masters are sinning according to the New Testament? Do you think that there is scriptural evidence to support your belief that runaway slaves are not sinning?

DCHindley

I did NOT say that "runaway slaves are not sinning."

"Sin" in the NT is a technical term from archery meaning "missing the mark" and by extension "making an error".

To run away, and mind you slaves did sometimes run away, was like pissing in the wind. There was NO PLACE FOR A SLAVE TO RUN AWAY TO! No Northerrn states, no Underground Railroad, no promised land, nothing. The repercussions were messy.

My point was that it was OK to free your own slave or buy his or her freedom from another, but IT WAS USUALLY ON CONDITION OF FAITHFUL SERVICE. It happened often enough in ancient times that it was the goal of many slaves. THAT WAS THE ONLY SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE WAY OUT OF SLAVERY! THAT was the bulls eye!

In that time being a master was much to be preferred to being a slave, and there are a number of NT passages that play on this difference in status. But don't confuse this with any NT endorsement for slaves running away. I doubt the the NT even mentions "sinning" and slaves in the same sentence.

DCH

Petergdi

You aren't allowed to force a runaway slave to go back to his master. (see Deuteronomy 23: 15-16).

Paul asked Onesimus to return to Philemon with a letter in which Paul asked Philemon in pretty strong terms to grant freedom to Onesimus. (see Paul's letter to Philemon.)

That's pretty much all there is biblically on the runaway slave question. The Exodus might be taken to imply that running away en masse was a very good thing.

Your question seems to imply that there is such a thing as a catalogue of sins in NT Christianity. As far as I can see there isn't anything of that sort. Yes, you are supposed to obey your master if you are a slave. But the idea that every thing that you shouldn't do is enumerated in some great unwritten catalogue seems to have very little to do with the NT.

If you are making a comparison with the antebellum southern states, it is clear that those helping runaway slaves to escape were behaving biblically even if the runaway slaves themselves were not.

Peter.