AgnosticBoy
Open-minded Skeptic
Not the best way to show that there was consent involved, but one rule says a slave can run away and not be punished. Found this in Deut. 23:15-16![]()
Bible Gateway passage: Exodus 21 - New Living Translation
Fair Treatment of Slaves - “These are the regulations you must present to Israel. “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single...www.biblegateway.com
2 ”If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. 3 If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him.
4 “If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave and they had sons or daughters, then only the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. 5 But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.’ 6 If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life.”
—————————
It's really wrong to put someone in this position.
For starters, maybe the ethics could be equally concerned about fairness to the slave. That would make it more of an indentured servitude kind of things.
Then we'd still have to ask what about foreigners, those captured in battle, etc, etc.
15 If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.
When it comes to selling, there's also this aspect to consider.. did they sell themselves into slavery:
First, none of the “slaves” of the Old Testament could be forced into labor through kidnapping. Exodus 21:16 expressly forbids kidnapping people to keep or sell as slaves, making such acts punishable by death. When other passages speak of “buying” slaves, people may assume that these were auctions of kidnapped slaves held against their will, as with African slaves in the mid-nineteenth century. But even the “buying” of slaves included a voluntary element more akin to indentured servitude, in which slaves often sold themselves into servitude as a form of survival.
Source: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/does-the-bible-support-slaveryIn the New International Bible Commentary, F.F. Bruce points out, “As was the case generally in the Near East, freeborn citizens most frequently fell into slavery through poverty and insolvency.”