READ THE BIBLE WITH ME! I am currently do the reading plan, "Reading God's Story: One-Year Chronological Plan" - bible.com/r/12 Link to Play List - • Bible in a Year
The actual chattel slavery in the Bible has nothing to do with debt as you said. You mentioned it yourself, this was indentured servitude and not slavery. But actual chattel slavery is in the Bible too and you're ignoring that. And that's the issue entirely. It wasn't voluntary, it had nothing to do with debt, and the slaves were bought and sold. They were owned as property for their entire lives, along with any children born to them. They were passed down to the owners children as an inheritance. This the Bible does actually condone. God Himself even commands it to happen. THIS is the question that needs to be answered. It's the answer I've been searching for for years, and I dove in deep. And frankly the deeper I got the more I realized that this is a really good question. I know I haven't found the answer yet. And I'm sorry, but the Book of Philemon is not the Bible somehow coming out against slavery. Heck, it's not even Paul himself coming out against slavery. To me, Paul is breaking the OT law by returning Onesimus to his owner, and going against his own advice for slaves to gain their freedom if you can (which Onesimus had done). The whole Bible actually never condemns slavery anywhere. It condones it, God commands it, and it never condemns it. And this I do not understand at all.
The actual chattel slavery in the Bible has nothing to do with debt as you said. You mentioned it yourself, this was indentured servitude and not slavery. But actual chattel slavery is in the Bible too and you're ignoring that. And that's the issue entirely. It wasn't voluntary, it had nothing to do with debt, and the slaves were bought and sold. They were owned as property for their entire lives, along with any children born to them. They were passed down to the owners children as an inheritance. This the Bible does actually condone. God Himself even commands it to happen. THIS is the question that needs to be answered. It's the answer I've been searching for for years, and I dove in deep. And frankly the deeper I got the more I realized that this is a really good question. I know I haven't found the answer yet.
And I'm sorry, but the Book of Philemon is not the Bible somehow coming out against slavery. Heck, it's not even Paul himself coming out against slavery. To me, Paul is breaking the OT law by returning Onesimus to his owner, and going against his own advice for slaves to gain their freedom if you can (which Onesimus had done).
The whole Bible actually never condemns slavery anywhere. It condones it, God commands it, and it never condemns it. And this I do not understand at all.