Sven

This is an offshot from For inquisitive01 - Slavery in the Bible. I think my question deserves its own thread, because it's more of an history than a bible question. But if the mods think otherwise, feel free to merge them together.

OK, here we go. inquisitive01 posted this in the other thread:
This lead me to think: If there had indeed been a ban of slavery in the Thora , and if the Israelites would indeed have followed it - would they have been able to survive at all?

To elaborate: All other nations around them who lacked a belief in their god / their scripture would have continued to use slaves. Slaves are obviously much cheaper than paid servants, so the nations around them would have had more money for other things, such as an army. To make a long story short: If the Israelties didn't have used slaves, they likely would have been conquered or even extinguished.

I leave the fact aside than an omnipotent god certainly would have found a way around this problem, my question simply is:

Would a society which didn't use slaves have had any chance to survive in ancient Israel?

Casper

Is that necessarily true in a culture of serfdom?

Sven

Well, I don't know. That's why I asked. But unfortunately, no one seems to be interested in this thread.