For Tuesday’s class, we read and discussed the topic of slavery.
First, an important perspective going into these readings and discussions were necessary. I once read a quote that said, “we cannot judge the past with standards of the present.” This is important when we are reading anything from a different time period, especially when it comes to the Bible.
Second, an important distinction that we made was the difference between ancient slavery and American slavery, with which I am more familiar with. Beforehand, I didn’t know about this distinction. Ancient slavery was more similar to being a servant, compared to American slavery where slaves were actually bought, traded, and owned. In ancient slavery, it was more of a choice and volunteered to become a slave. Most people sold themselves, or their kids, into slavery in order to pay off debt. Of course, this is not something they preferred but was a better option than dying. American slaves were forced just because of their skin color and had no say. In the Timothy reading, I found it interesting that they said “those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful.” Does this mean those who don’t have believing masters can be disrespectful? It only matters if the master believes? It doesn’t matter if the slave believes or not?
Thirdly, we discussed the difference in the economy and idea of the property that took place at these times. The economy was mostly agriculturalists. Most people had land and relied on crops and animals in order to feed themselves and to make money. This is why the idea of slavery was so prevalent because it was easy to get in debt and necessary in order to survive. The idea of the property being different is also important because they did not think of slaves as property, but things like land and animals and crops as property.
Lastly, we discussed the types of battles happening. Dr. McGrath explained that the battles of slavery are over. And to this, I might argue. People in the US agree that slavery is bad, but there is secretly a lot of slavery still happening in other parts of the world where people still think it is okay and are abusing people. However, I did agree that there are other parts of the Bible that are still being battled. These battles include social policy, laws, and rights. These battles are important for our future.