Part 2: The Most Contentious Passage on Slavery in the Entire Bible
Exploring What the Bible REALLY Says About Slavery
On Monday, we began marching through the most contentious passage in the Bible on slavery. Today we continue, as there’s a lot to unravel.
Let’s now address the phrase “they may be your property.” While we’re at it, we’ll also address the next verse, “You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever” (Leviticus 25:45-46 ESV).
Again, if you’ve been paying attention, you may already hear the verses popping into your head that address this. Let’s quote Exodus 21:16 once more:
“Whoever steals a person and sells them, and anyone found in possession of them, shall be put to death.”
What does this verse outlaw? Kidnapping people into slavery, selling them, and possessing them as property. All three merit the death penalty.
What, then, does this tell us about the two phrases above?
First
First, it tells us that these people have not been kidnapped and forced into slavery. If they had been, the slavers would be put to death in Israel. Also, if they were in forced bondage, they could escape, and Israelite law would instantly grant them freedom, as we keep emphasizing from Deuteronomy 23.
Second
Second, Exodus 21:16 tells us that these people are not being sold. There are no slave markets or slave traders in Leviticus 25. There are no merchants, no intermediaries. No one is selling anyone. The only people present are the wealthy Israelite and the foreigners coming to work for them.
The objection immediately rises: how can you know that no one is being sold? Aren’t you just reading into the text what you want to see?
It’s a good question, and one we must continually ask.
My answer is that Leviticus 25 describes many situations of people entering work contracts, and all of them are doing so willingly — of their own free will, choosing to enter these work relationships. Let’s look at the passages immediately before and after our contentious passage.
Immediately before our passage, Leviticus 25:39–40 describes a fellow Israelite becoming destitute, and what happens next:
“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers” (Leviticus 25:39–40 ESV).
Who is “selling” this poor individual? Himself. No slave trader has access to him. He sees his own situation and chooses to enter into a work contract with a fellow Israelite. He’ll work between one to six years, until the Jubilee, then he’ll be on his own again. When he leaves, the person he worked for will load him down with wealth, as much as he can carry, as the Law commands (Deuteronomy 12:12-15).
He enters of his own free will and leaves wealthier than he entered. No one is being sold against their will.
Immediately after our contentious passage, Leviticus 25:47–54 again finds a person choosing to enter a work contract willingly:
“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. […] And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. (Leviticus 25:47–54 ESV).
The situation echoes what we read, above. A destitute Israelite “sells” himself to a wealthy foreigner. But he is not “sold” as we use the term. Nor is he property. He can be redeemed at any time, and even if he is not redeemed, he’ll be released in the Jubilee, again laden down with wealth, as much as he can carry.
Again, he is choosing to enter this situation of his own free will. He is not becoming property, and certainly becoming a chattel slave. He knows he’ll be released soon, and be wealthier than he was when he entered.
Sandwiched between these two passages lies our contentious passage.
Leviticus 25:44-46, this supposedly “slam dunk” passage for slavery, lacks any sign of people being sold against their will. There are no slave traders, no slave markets, no one selling anyone else. The immediate context of the passage describes people entering work relationships of their own free will. The only people mentioned in the passage are the wealthy Israelite family and the people coming to work for them.
Everything about this passage indicates that no one is being sold against their will. These foreigners are choosing, of their own free will, to be hired as servants.
Third
Third, it tells us that these workers in Leviticus 25 are not being possessed as property, and certainly not as chattel slaves. They can leave. They aren’t someone else’s property.
Why, then, does the text use the words “property” and “possession?” A good question. Both words are the same word in Hebrew: achuzzah.
And what does achuzzah mean? Let’s let God define it Himself a few verses earlier in the same chapter:
“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land. (Leviticus 25:23–24 ESV)
God uses the same word, achuzzah, saying “in all the country you possess.”
Yet God is clear: even if the Israelites possess this country, they do not own it. God is clear: “the land is Mine.”
Achuzzah describes relationship, not ownership. These Israelites have a relationship with their inherited plot of land: it is their plot of land, no one else’s. They can rightly speak of it as “theirs.”
Yet they do not own it. God does.
If this is how God defines the same word in the same chapter, let’s apply it in the same way to Leviticus 25:44-46.
These wealthy Israelites have a relationship with the foreigners who work for them. The foreigners are their workers, no one else’s. They can rightly speak of the foreigners as “theirs.”
Yet they do not own the foreigners. God does.
Imagine any business: a start-up, a corporation, a mom-and-pop shop. How do they speak of their employees? The employees are “their” employees. They work for this business, no one else.
Yet the business does not own the employees. The business possesses them as employees, and as such, they can direct how the employees work. The employees are “theirs” — yet this is a work relationship, not ownership. The employees can leave at any time and look for work elsewhere.
This also provides clarity to a passage like: “you may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever” (Leviticus 25:46 ESV).
We can see that “possession” refers to the work relationship, not ownership. The wealthy Israelite who hired foreign workers can assign them to work for his children after him. In other words, the work contract is made with the family, not the individual.
Both Deuteronomy 23 and God’s definition of achuzzah in Leviticus 25 clarify that no Israelite can own a foreigner. The foreigners can leave whenever they wish, even if they entered into the work contract “forever.”
These future descendants are not inheriting people as property, not as we understand the term. They inherit the work relationship, the right for the foreign servant to work for them, instead of anyone else.