Bible on mhbxyz.me

Why Didn't God Forbid Slavery?

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why didn’t God forbid slavery? We cannot answer honestly by pretending that the Bible had already abolished it, or that every enslaved person in antiquity was simply an employee. The Torah condemns kidnapping and limits the servitude of some Israelites, yet it also permits the purchase and inheritance of foreign slaves. The New Testament proclaims the equal dignity of persons in Christ while instructing both slaves and masters without abolishing their legal relationship. In an Orthodox reading, the image of God, love of neighbor, and fellowship in the Church nevertheless give Christians sufficient reason to reject ownership of another human being. This moral judgment follows from the faith as a whole. It is not a sentence we can attribute literally to Jesus or Paul. It also requires us to acknowledge that Christians, including those in the Christian East, practiced or tolerated for centuries what their theology gave them reason to challenge. (Leviticus 25; Ephesians 6; For the Life of the World, §65)

Genesis, Creation and Orthodoxy: Beyond Literalism Toward a Living Reading

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

In 2025, as science relentlessly dissects the universe and the human mind, returning to the opening chapters of the Bible may seem anachronistic. Yet the account of Creation according to Genesis, far from being a mere cosmological manual, remains a privileged gateway to a harmonious dialogue between faith and reason. This essay offers an Orthodox synthesis, drawing both from the richness of the Patristic tradition and from contemporary intellectual rigor, to move beyond the deadlock of exclusive literalism and propose a reading that is faithful to the letter while attentive to the spiritual scope of the text.

Adam Is Not Alone: A Theological Inquiry into Human Plurality and the Fall

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

The seemingly anecdotal question, “Whom did Cain marry?”, actually raises a major theological issue: the universal scope of the Genesis narrative and Adam’s place in human history. If we limit ourselves to the linear genealogy presented in the first chapters of Genesis, it seems that only Adam, Eve, and their immediate children existed in that primordial time. Yet Cain’s plea, “whoever finds me will kill me” (Genesis 4:14), suggests the presence of other human beings, independent of Adam’s direct descendants.