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m0darn@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

Kinda mad that if you click on his links, he’s citing a very specific translation of the Bible, flip through them and it’s clearly talking about servants as a blessing.

Can you elaborate? He links to the NRSVUE which is the translation academics use because it focuses on eliminating modern biases.

I think the fact that other versions use “servants” is a reflection of the fact that Christians are embarrassed that the bible endorses slavery, and will tie themselves in pretzels to minimize this fact.

Is he trying to convince Christians that slave owning is okay or something

No, I think he is just being honest about what the bible is saying. Christians should know that the interpretive lens they use has a big impact on what they’ll see the bible advocating.

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Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The NRSVUE removed translation traditions. This is helpful, but the fact that both translations are correct, while for centuries if not millenia (in some cases the RSV versions ignored the Septuagint translations). While yeah, it’s still a valid translation, the word for “slavery” in our modern western lens typically conjures up images of chattel slavery where the slaves were enslaved for life as well as their offspring. Such imagery just isn’t really historically honest. Even throughout different time periods of the Bible’s writing, slaves ranged from bondservants to ones sold through debt.

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- m0darn@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  
  Even throughout different time periods of the Bible’s writing, slaves ranged from bondservants to ones sold through debt.
  
  …and chattel slaves like in Exodus 21:20-21
  
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  - Estiar@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Or chattel slavery in Leviticus 25:44-46
    
    Leviticus 25:44-46 NRSVUE [44] As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. [45] You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you and from their families who are with you who have been born in your land; they may be your property. [46] You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
    
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  - Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Yes, that’s Exodus. Jesus did underline this whole period as a time when Moses wrote compromises because people’s hearts were hard. Another example is divorce which is what Jesus used:
    
    Mark 10:3-5
    
    He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
    
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    m0darn@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Jesus said divorce was bad, did he say slavery was bad? You seem to be in denial of how okay with slavery Christianity was. Christianity changed between the composition of the bible and today.
    
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- chronotron@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  the bible talks about chattel slavery and allows it.
  
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