Biblical slavery and rape, explained
Jesus says to worship the father. Jesus says "be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect".
Jesus says "why do you call me good? There are none good except God."
God is the same today as tomorrow. God doesn't change. If God is the foundation of our morality, what God says is okay should be okay today as well.
We will address more Christian apologetics/excuses at the end of this post.
On the topic of slavery:
If you ask a Christian about the slavery in the bible, they will most likely reply with "they were indentured servants". This answer is how you can tell that they've never read the bible.
"They" refers to the Israelite men. But what about everybody else?
I'll break this down as simply as I can for all the different groups of people and the rules for enslaving them according to the Bible.
Israelite men can sell themselves into indentured servitude where "they" are "not to be ruled over ruthlessly as you do your other slaves". (Leviticus 25) The 7-year jubilee only applies to Israelite men and that even comes with its own exceptions. We'll talk about that in just a moment.
Then you have the random men in the community who are looking for work. These people can be redeemed by their families if the families can pay off their debt to the slave owner. If their families are unable to pay off the debt, that person remains as slave.
Another category of slaves is the prisoners of war. Whether it's the war that the Israelites themselves went to or when they buy those prisoners from other people. Leviticus 25 "you may buy your slaves from the heathens in the Nations around you". These are the slaves that you can "beat as long as they survive by the end of the second day" (Exodus 21: 20-21) What happens if you beat a slave and they don't die by the end of the 2nd day? Thanks for asking. Absolutely nothing. No punishment for beating your slaves.
When the Israelites would go to war, they would make a "peace offering". (Deuteronomy 20) the peace offering simply said, be our slaves or we're going to kill you.
The daughters of Israel would be sold into a sexual slavery where "the women are not to go free as the men do". (Exodus 21:7) This means, slaves for life. The Israelite daughters were only sold to Israelite men. The bloodline of the Israelites remaining pure was very important.
The exception I spoke of before regarding the Israelite men going free at the 7-year jubilee depends on if the slave owners / master gave his Israelite man slave a wife. If Israelite man was given a wife, then at the end of his term of indentured servitude, he would have to make a decision. Does he walk out on his family or does he stay a slave forever with his wife and children in slavery? The women and children are slaves for life. (Exodus 21:4)
The last category of slavery is female slaves who are not Israelites. These are the concubines / sex slaves. These women are taken during wartime and are kept as "spoils of war".
This leads right into the next topic.
On the topic of rape:
There are at least four different places in the Bible where it talks about instructions on raping women.
From the peace offering I mentioned above, whether you kill or enslave the men, the women and children are called spoils of war.
That peace offering was a generality that's not specific to one city or group of people. One would assume that this would apply to many different cities they've encountered.
There's another section in Deuteronomy that talks about the rules for combat where you bring your concubine back home and wait 30 days and then you have sex with her.
Depending on the version of the Bible you use, it will either say "make her your wife" or "have sex with her".
Many of the laws written in the Old testament come from the code of Hammurabi. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth are just some examples of copies from the code of Hammurabi. In the code of Hammurabi, it explains that a marriage is not valid until you make her your wife which entails having sex with her.
Another part in the Bible where it talks about raping girls is in numbers 31. The Lord instructs Moses to kill everyone but to save for themselves the daughters who have not known a man by laying with them. Aka, the Virgin daughters. The chapter goes on to call these virgin daughters "The spoils of war".
Are you not convinced yet that the god of the Bible remotes rape? Fine. Let me give you another verse from a prophecy about what will happen in the future.
Zechariah 14:2 when God's people reclaim Jerusalem from the people who overtook Jerusalem, houses will be plundered and the women will be raped/ravished. This is something that Christians have to look forward to. Yay God!
Let's dial back the tone a little bit and get into more Christian ignorance and excuses.
When Christians try to defend that the Bible does not permit slavery, they ignore all the verses that obviously confirm it and go to versus that talk about kidnapping people. The verse they bring up talks about it being against the law to kidnap somebody or to be in possession of someone who has been kidnapped. In Leviticus 25, it says you can buy your slaves.
Do Christians know the difference between kidnapping and buying?
An example that I use frequently is at a gas station. If you want a bottle of water and you take one out of the cooler, you have two options. Option one is to pay for it or buy it. Option two is to kidnap it or steal it. Do you want to understand the difference? Many Christians don't.
Another verse they like to use which completely ignores everything else in the Bible is an excerpt from Galatians. Something along the lines of "there is no slave or free in Christ. All are free in Christ".
This is such a dishonest verse to use since this is clearly metaphorical for how Jesus perceives people and their salvation and completely ignores in spits in the face of the inhumane treatment that the rest of the Bible is talking about. How God views our spirit has nothing to do with how one man deals with his fellow man.
Many Christians will say "where did Jesus say these things are okay?" Well, see the top of this post.
Many Christians will say "that's the Old testament" or "we have a new covenant".
That's still the same God though, right? God is the same today as tomorrow?
Where do they even talking about with the new covenant? Does that mean old covenants are no longer valid? There are seven covenants in the old testament. Are they all invalid? Does that include the everlasting covenant that God made with abraham? Did God lie to Abraham about the everlasting covenant?
A common slavery apologetic rhetoric says that the people in that time needed help so all they could do was sell themselves into slavery. This was how they would get help.
If you're not aware, help somebody without making them your slave.
Christians are among the most insulting, dishonest and disingenuous people I've ever met.
The Bible summary in a nutshell: God orchestrated a series of events to make himself look like the good guy so we would worship him forever.
The most famous bible verse: John 3:16 God sent God to save God's creation from God's design.
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