Comparing the Bible to Other Ancient Law Codes Proves How Boldly God Outlaws Slavery

Exodus 21: God’s Emancipation Proclamation

When people assume the Bible condones slavery, they often explain it by saying, “The Bible was a product of its time. It can’t be expected to outlaw slavery when no one at the time did.”

I disagree with that. I’ve made several bold declarations in the previous chapters. I’ve asserted that the Bible is the first book in all human history to abolish slavery.

We should be able to tell which one is true by comparing the other law codes of the time.

After all, if the Bible is merely “a product of its time,” then its laws should be similar to the other ancient law codes.

Yet if the Bible is unique, being the first to abolish slavery, then its laws should stand out in stark contrast to the other ancient law codes.

That’s where we’ll go in this chapter.

We’ll focus on each of the three verses discussed in the previous chapters, looking for any laws in the other ancient law systems that are comparable. When we do, we find something shocking: while there are a few laws almost comparable to Exodus 21:16, there is nothing like Deuteronomy 23:15-16 or Leviticus 19:18 in any other ancient law.

Exodus 21:16

This verse serves as God’s one-sentence abolition of slavery. It reads:

Whoever steals a person and sells them, and anyone found in possession of them, shall be put to death.

In this verse, God makes it a capital crime to kidnap someone, sell them into slavery, or possess them. What do we find in other ancient law codes that compares?

The Code of Hammurabi formed around 1750 B.C., roughly in the same time period as the Bible’s Law books. In Law 14, it declares:

“If a man should kidnap the young child of another man, he shall be put to death.”

It’s immediately obvious that this overlaps with Exodus 21:16 with regard to kidnapping. Both laws punish the kidnapper with death.

Yet this law says nothing about selling people or possessing people. It would be quite awkward for the Code of Hammurabi to condemn such practices, given that it directly supports them. The Code of Hammurabi contains extensive sections describing how to run a slave auction — how to sell people and how to come into possession of them.

Law 278 reads:

“If a man purchases a male or female slave and within one month an illness seizes him, he shall return him to the seller, and that man shall take back the silver that he weighed out.”

The Code of Hammurabi will never agree with Exodus 21:16 on prohibiting selling and possessing people, given that it explicitly condones selling and possessing people. It treats people entirely as possessions, to the extent that slaves can be returned to the seller for a refund.

Most other ancient law codes have no direct comparison to Exodus 21:16, but the Hittite Laws from 1650-1100 BC do. Their Law 19 states:

“If a man seizes a free man in his own land and sends him to another land, he shall pay 12 shekels of silver.”

This law addresses both kidnapping and possessing, and potentially selling, if the kidnapper sells the victim into the hands of someone else who takes them to another land. It’s the closest analog to Exodus 21:16.

Yet its sense of justice lags far behind the Bible. Rather than making kidnapping and slavery a capital offense, punishable by death, the Hittite laws assess a small fine. The victim’s life is utterly destroyed, going from a free person to a slave in a foreign land. The slaver (especially if they are rich) may barely notice the fine. A particularly wicked rich person may even judge the fine to be a small price to pay to enslave someone they don’t like and send them away, never to be heard from again.

The Hittite law allows such atrocities, while the Bible outright forbids them. In Israel, if you enslave anyone, you pay with your life.

Deuteronomy 23:15-16

These verses grant freedom to any slave, servant, or worker who wants to be free. In the NET Bible, it reads:

“You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you. Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages he prefers; you must not oppress him.”

How, then, does this verse compare to the other ancient law codes?

In the Code of Hammurabi, Law 15 says this:

“If a man should enable a palace slave, a palace slave woman, or a commoner’s slave to leave through the main gate, he shall be put to death.”

Law 16 builds on this, declaring:

“If a man should harbor a fugitive slave belonging to the palace or to a commoner in his house and not turn him over at the public proclamation, that householder shall be put to death.”

These laws command the exact opposite of Deuteronomy 23:15-16. Rather than granting freedom to slaves, Hammurabi requires the slaves to remain slaves, and puts to death the person who tried to free them.

Even worse, Law 17 reads:

“If a man seizes a fugitive slave in the open country and returns him to his owner, the slave’s owner shall give him two shekels of silver.”

In Israel, if you find a fugitive slave in the open country, the Law requires you to protect that person’s freedom, find them a place to stay, and prevent them from ever going back to their master.

In Babylon (governed by the Code of Hammurabi), if you find a fugitive slave in the open country, you get paid money for returning the slave to its master.

In Sumer, the Code of Lipit-Ishtar (c. 1934-1924 BC) likewise rewarded those who returned slaves:

“If a slave or slave woman belonging to a man’s household flees and crosses the river, the owner shall pay two shekels of silver to the one who returns them.”

In Mesopotamia, in the Eshnunna Laws (c. 1930 BC), the law fined anyone who tried to help slaves escape:

“If a man harbors a fugitive slave in his house and does not surrender him, he shall pay one-third mina of silver.”

The Hittite Laws (c. 1650-1100 BC) likewise require anyone housing runaway slaves to pay a steep price:

“If a male or female slave runs away, the one who harbors them shall give a slave of the same status to the owner.”

The Hittite Laws esteem slavery so highly that they honor the master’s ownership of the slave even higher than a person’s citizenship in his own country:

“If a Hittite man abducts a Hittite male slave from the land of Luwiya, and leads him here to the land of Hatti, and subsequently the abducted person's owner recopizes him, the abductor shall pay him 12 shekels of silver. He shall look to his house for it.”

Instead of setting the slave free when his rescuer brings him home, the rescuer is punished with a steep fine and the slave is returned to the master, even though the master lives in a foreign land.

All of these laws paint a clear picture: every ancient law code punished slaves for running away and rewarded those who returned them. Only the Bible protected the freedom of the runaway slave, guarding their freedom and establishing them as equals.

Finally, note the complete absence of any “return the slave” laws from the pages of the Bible. No matter how hard you search the Law in the Bible, you’ll never find it requiring slaves to be returned to their masters. Every other ancient law code took it as granted, focused on the rights of the master. The Bible focuses on the rights of slave — and by doing so, made slavery impossible.

Leviticus 19:18

This verse encapsulates the heart of God, guiding us to love. In the BSB translation, Leviticus 19:18 reads:

“You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”

Do any ancient laws bear anything in comparison?

Sadly, there is nothing.

Leviticus 19:18 focus on a positive command: love your neighbor. No other ancient law codes contain anything similar.

Leviticus 19:18 focuses on empathy, to understand how your neighbor is feeling and love them as you would want to be loved in their situation. No other ancient law code contains anything similar.

Leviticus 19:18 focuses its command for love on the personhood of God, that you love your neighbor as yourself because God is the LORD. Love is who He is, so love is how you behave. No other ancient code contains anything similar.

The Eloquent Peasant, an ancient Egyptian collection of poetic statutes, provides the closest analog to Leviticus 19:18. It reads:

“Do to the doer to make him do.”

This law promotes reciprocity, of a sort. To get the “doer” to perform a certain action, you do that action to them. To get the “doer” to be kind, you be kind to them.

Yet this law lacks any command to love, and in fact can be entirely manipulative. It does not seek the good of the “doer,” but seeks only to modify their behavior into doing what you want them to do.

It lacks love.

It lacks empathy.

It lacks any connection to a God of love who seeks the good of His children (and who wants them to seek each other’s good, as well).

When we lay these Bible verses alongside the other ancient law codes, we can see it starkly: the Bible was not a product of its time.

The Bible transcended its time.

God wrote the first law code in history that abolished slavery.

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