https://mhbxyz.github.io/en/tags/history/Recent content in History on mhbxyz.meHugoenMon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://mhbxyz.github.io/en/essays/why-didnt-god-forbid-slavery/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://mhbxyz.github.io/en/essays/why-didnt-god-forbid-slavery/<p><strong>Why didn&rsquo;t God forbid slavery?</strong> 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. (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus&#43;25&amp;version=NRSVUE">Leviticus 25</a>; <a href="https://www.oca.org/readings/reference/ephesians/6">Ephesians 6</a>; <a href="https://www.goarch.org/-/social-ethos-en"><em>For the Life of the World</em>, §65</a>)</p>