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Today in class we discussed the issue of slavery/indentured servitude in the Bible, and there were a few things I wanted to address about this topic. Context of when sections of the Bible were written (and to an extent, who wrote a given section) is critical when analyzing and attempting to understand the Bible. I Timothy 6 was written during the Roman Empire, which lasted from about 27 BC to 1453 AD, and Exodus was most likely written at the same time as the Greek Empire (about 1200 BC to 323 BC). The Egyptian Empire and the Greek Empire existed during the same period of time. All three of these empires used slaves and servants, so it’s crucial to understand the historical and cultural contexts of servitude and slavery of these three empires and how it may effect the authors of the Bible when they write about slavery. Slavery during the time of the Bible was more akin to indentured servitude. People would sell family members, themselves, or the entire family into servitude in order to repay debts. Those who were sold into servitude or willingly participated in it to repay a debt, could buy back their freedom, have it restored by a court (if the master behaved poorly), or have their freedom restored after a period of time, and Exodus 21 lays out the conditions for these restorations of freedom to servants. Slavery in any period of time can’t be looked at through a single lens, but should be studied for its given period in time.

In class on 9/24, we talked about a hypothetical society and what commandments we would have for it. We all agreed mostly agreed on the basic commandments of don’t kill, don’t lie, and be kind. Where we disagreed, however, was the inclusion of the first commandment as being necessary: “I am the Lord your God, thou shall not have any other Gods before me.” Some claimed that this commandment is needed because there needs to be something to act as the foundation, or the reason to follow the rest of the commandants. People said that there should be some sort of divine commandment to have before all the other ones. However, I don’t entirely think that there needs to be such a reason in order to follow a society’s laws/commandments. Why can’t people want to follow them in order to have a society that they want to live in? A society with law, order, freedom, and happiness. I feel like most people would want to follow the rules for that reason, and there doesn’t have to be a divine or religious commandment in order for that to happen. Obviously, there will always be people who break the law. There will always be people to break the commandments, if that’s what they try to follow. In our hypothetical society, this commandment is very exclusive for many people, for example like atheists and Hindus.

This week’s discussion made me think a lot about how the Ten Commandments have influenced me and the law. In Sunday school, I always accepted them for what they were and they eventually became a part of me subconsciously. The “do nots” seemed like the obvious way to do it. The law in America is basically the same, saying “you get in trouble for ____” and we all accept the way it’s written.

Don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal all seem pretty obvious, but how DID God and Moses figure out what to tell the Israelites? We had plenty of trouble agreeing on what kinds of rules to include on our master list in class, but what made these people follow it? Was it really the idea that they were God-ordained? People here break rules all the time, even the most Christian-y Christians. Sometimes people disobey for very good reasons.

Once again, a simple, black-and-white example from Sunday school turned grey because there really doesn’t seem to be a clear answer anymore. The law is complicated, but to me it says something about the role of God in religion and secular life. If the Ten Commandments were really god-sent, which I believe, then this list shows he knows what he’s talking about. “Do not murder” and “do not lie” seem pretty obvious, and seem to have clear exceptions, but just avoiding them in general is a good idea. Especially for the wandering and fragile tribes of Israel. Whether it’s a perfect example for society today or not, it worked for them and there’s definitely some good advice there.

In class on Thursday, we discussed the commandments that we would give a community. It was a hot debate. Most people settled on don’t kill, don’t lie, and don’t steal. I find it interesting that they all start with do not. It is hard to come with laws/rules that are telling a person what to do instead of telling them what they shouldn’t do.

However, I came up with one. Be Kind. In my community, I believe this would be my only commandment. Because if you are being kind, the bad things that happen in a community should be avoided, and the good things should be encouraged. I believe this one commandment would overall create a very healthy, friendly, and simple community. It starts to get too complicated when you put in too many rules. People start resenting the commandments, ruling, etc. Giving people more freedom will usually turn out to be better by encouraging the natural good in people. Maybe some simple clarification of kindness and examples of what would be kind and what wouldn’t be kind would be needed, but otherwise, I would leave it at that. Be Kind.

Reading Exodus was interesting because again, I have never read these texts before (or from what I remember). The idea of the plagues was interesting, and the 10th plague was unexpected where the firstborn dies.

Reading about the Slave Bibles was sad. The manipulation and torture that occurred along with slavery are sad. Slave owners really thought it was okay to selectively edit the Bible in order to instill slavery and avoid rebellion. I feel as this shows that slave owners knew what they were doing was wrong, and had to manipulate in order to make it “okay.” It is disgusting that they kept parts of the Bible that discussed enslavement and listening to masters but cut out the parts that discussed rebellion, uprising, and freedom.

Discussing Biblical Law is something I believe to be important. It is true that you must ensure that the law is truly saying that before perceiving it to be true and demanding others to follow it. I also think its important that laws must change over time and must be adapted or rejected. This reminds me of the Constitution and how some laws must be adapted because it was written by white males who thought slaves are only 3/5 of a person.

This brings me to the next reading of the audience of the ten commandments. It is an important distinction that the audience was aimed at privileged males (mostly white). Knowing the intended audience can help when perceiving the readings.

One of the biggest things I have taken away from these readings is how differently people interpret certain parts of the Bible. Just like how there were different interpretations and views of the story of Sodom that influenced and still influences people’s opinions of homosexuals, there are many passages in the Bible that has influenced people’s views of slavery in the past in America based on how they interpret certain parts of the Bible. Some people take certain areas of the Bible in a literal sense, which then influences their ideas about that certain area of the Bible, which then influences their perspective on a certain idea of society or an idea about humanity. Others may use different areas of the Bible to try to interpret a certain story or passage in another area of the Bible, and this also influences people’s ideas and perspectives in different ways. It has always amazed me how many different perspectives have been made about the Bible, even though it is considered to be one cohesive book and story.

The Slave Bible was the most interesting part of both the reading and the lecture for me. What the abridgement of it tells me about those who enslaved people and give them this new Bible is that they know that they were wrong in their actions of enslavement. If you have to take out 80% of a book in order to justify something to a group of people with very limited reading abilities, then you must know that there isn’t much substance to your argument. It extra doesn’t help that it’s the most holy scripture to Christians. If we know one thing it is that when reading the Bible you need context. This applies to all issues in the Bible, not just slavery. The vastly different interpretations of the Bible by people who dedicate their whole lives to it show how the version of the Bible we have today is already vague in many parts and so removing as much context as they did is just about nullifies everything. This to me is just about the most unholy thing that you can do, use the Bible to blind a whole group of people from the true word of God.

Today in class we talked about a multitude of things held within the bible. Primarily slavery, the ten commandments, and Our classes Commandments. The first of which I would like to talk about is slavery within the bible. As said in class Moses freed the slaves of Egypt and lead them to safety where eventually he brought forth the ten commandments. This was something that historically was left out of the bibles sold to slaves as they did not want slaves to believe that slavery was wrong, they didn’t want them to revolt and run away. I did not know this prior to class and found it very interesting. In addition to this one of the ten commandments we had talked about in class was “You shall not have any gods before me”. This was very controversial for your class as there was a vast difference in opinions. However I am in agreence with it. I say this because it grants a foundation on which no other rules can take its place. No one else can come along and try and change things up. The ten commandment are moral compasses people should follow to live a prosperous life.

On the premise of creating a set of laws for a new society, I would base the society on the equality of all people on the sense of treatment of other people. It would be a welcoming society for all people. So, with this mindset in place, I would like to add my opinion to the controversy about adding the first commandment to a new society that would be hypothetically made. I don’t think that this commandment should be added to the laws because there should be freedom of religion. Therefore, if this were to be added to the laws, there would be consequences for not following the law as with the other laws. If anyone would want to be part of this society, they would have to accept God and be fully committed to this religion. It would push people to the sidelines and bar them from being part of the society, which would ultimately be the opposite of the society’s founding principles. Then there is the fact of enforcing the law; how would there be a way of finding who is not following this specific law? I recognize that this could set a higher being of connection and precedence for people to pay attention to the laws and not break them. However, if people are in a society together, those who set the laws up in conjunction with the people they will draw their power for obeying the laws from the head of the society. The motivation to obey the laws would be derived from the desire to not be punished for breaking the laws. There would be no need for a uniting religious figure if there is a uniting desire to not face the consequences of breaking the law and respecting the governing body.

I had several interesting thoughts when looking into Sodom and Gomorrah. Within the past year at my church at home we had explored this story and other stories that some biblical scholars have interpreted to have a stance on homosexuality. This deep dive put to rest any uncertainties I’ve had regarding the issues. I think that groups that denounce homosexuality, specifically in a biblical sense, are really only looking at the scripture at face value. When we look at the organizations described in the article about Sodom and Gomorrah and the internet I see a lot of problems with them. The biggest of these problems is that they seem to be looking for something in the Bible that agrees with the formulations that they have come up with, generally speaking the opinion that they straight out don’t like gay people whether it’s blatant or not, rather than truly trying to interpret what the text means. With all the parables and proverbs in the Bible we know that the authors were not strangers to figurative and sometimes vague writing and it seems to me that these people really don’t want to know the true word of God but rather back their own opinions using his text.