Slavery In the Bible | What Did "Slave" Mean in the Ancient Near East?

Описание: What was slavery in the Ancient Near East & how does that differ from our understanding?

Slavery is one of the most emotionally charged and morally difficult topics in Scripture. Dr. Mark Chavalas begins a new mini-series by starting with the Ancient Near Eastern world first, showing that “slavery” wasn’t one simple category but a wide spectrum (debt servitude, famine survival, war captives, household labor, and even political “servant” language)

The episode ends by setting up the key question for the next installment: how Israel’s approach to slavery may look similar on the surface to surrounding cultures, but is ultimately shaped by a different theology and view of human dignity.

📚 Sources mentioned in the transcript
Raymond Westbrook, “Slave and Master in Ancient Near Eastern Law,” Chicago-Kent Law Review 70 (1995)
Seth Richardson & Ella Karev, “Rethinking Slavery in the Ancient Near East,” ANE Today (ASOR)
Martha T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (SBL Writings from the Ancient World)
Daniel Snell, Flight and Freedom in the Ancient Near East (2001)

💬 Let’s talk in the comments
When you hear Exodus 21 read out loud, what’s your first reaction—and what do you wish Christians would stop saying about this topic?

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#BuriedBiblePodcast #BibleContext #AncientNearEast #Exodus21 #OldTestament #BibleStudy #DrMarkChavalas #KeeganWalz #BiblicalStudies #AncientHistory #christianpodcast





00:00 — The tension: “Why is there slavery in the Bible?”
01:10 — New mini-series setup + what this episode will (and won’t) cover
03:05 — Mark’s method: start with the ancient mind + Genesis 1–2 “ideal”
05:25 — Reading the hard text: Exodus 21:2–10
09:45 — Why it hits modern ears like condemnation
12:05 — The key problem: “slave” as an ambiguous category in the ANE
15:10 — Slavery as dependency: modern job analogy (McDonald’s)
18:05 — Law codes + where slavery shows up (contracts, edicts, letters)
22:10 — Debt servitude / pledges: sons, daughters, even spouse scenarios
28:10 — Famine slavery: “Keep me alive and I will be your slave”
33:10 — Complexity: property, court testimony, movement, marriage
38:10 — Runaways: why “slavery was not cool” (Flight & Freedom)
41:15 — Hammurapi 141: wife becomes “slave woman” (status downgrade)
46:15 — Siege documents: selling a child for survival
50:05 — Landing the plane: Genesis anthropology, fallen-world law, Israel’s difference
54:00 — Wrap + what’s coming next