What do the law codes say about slavery? Exodus 21 and Leviticus 25

The passages

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

Exodus 21:2

And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

Exodus 21:20-21

Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

Leviticus 25:45

Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee.

Deuteronomy 23:15

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.

Ephesians 6:5

The problem

The Law regulates slavery as an ordinary part of life. It limits the term of a Hebrew slave to six years and bans kidnapping (Exodus 21:16), but it allows the permanent enslavement of foreigners, treats them as inheritable property, and in Exodus 21:20-21 sets a lighter penalty for beating a slave to death if the slave survives a day or two. The New Testament instructs slaves to obey and does not call for emancipation. For many modern readers, a moral law that did not forbid owning people is hard to square with a God of justice.

What believers and scholars say

Compared with the rest of the ancient world. Wright, Sarna and others point out that Israel's laws were milder than its neighbors' in some ways: the release in the seventh year, the ban on returning escaped slaves (Deuteronomy 23:15), the law of the Sabbath for servants, and the punishment of masters for deadly abuse. The text regulates a practice that existed rather than endorsing it.

Debt service, not chattel slavery. Many of the laws concern indentured labor to pay off debt. The word 'ebed covers servants, officials and slaves. This applies to the Hebrew cases and is less convincing for Leviticus 25:44-46.

Seeds of abolition. Some Christians read the whole arc of the Bible as moving toward freedom: the Exodus, Galatians 3:28, and Paul's plea to Philemon to receive Onesimus "not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved". William Wilberforce and many other abolitionists argued from these themes.

The uncomfortable record. Noll and others document that in the American debate before the Civil War, pro-slavery Christians had the plainer verses on their side, and abolitionists had to argue from the spirit of the Gospel. Critics take this as evidence that the text itself allows slavery. Defenders say it shows how readers can use a text badly.

Where this leaves it

The law codes regulate slavery without prohibiting it, and the later church read them both ways. The question for a reader is whether Scripture is a moral code that applies to every age, a record of progress within an ancient culture, or something else. How you answer will shape your view of many other entries on this site.