Based Camp - Ancient vs. Biblical Slave Laws： Which Would We Prefer？

00:00:00.000 hello simone today we are going to be talking about slavery one of my favorite subjects i'm

00:00:07.620 joking of course what we're going to be talking about today is i think you know like the topic

00:00:12.380 we did on having multiple wives and what does the bible actually say about this i think a lot of

00:00:16.800 people know that the bible uh does allow slavery but unlike the very explicit support of polygamy

00:00:25.180 thing that the bible has where we could say well in the old testament it said polygamy was good but in

00:00:32.400 the new testament it said polygamy was bad slavery we don't get the same out in the slavery it's it's 0.92

00:00:39.120 very clear in both the old testament and the new testament slavery good now the problem is is that

00:00:46.740 people just don't talk about this right like if you if you if you see somebody talking about it

00:00:52.100 because they have a beef with the bible right or they have a beef with jews or they have a beef

00:00:56.680 with christians and they want to show how evil this stuff is and then the the christians and jews 1.00

00:01:01.820 themselves mostly sweep this under the rug and don't go very deep on it as a subject which i think

00:01:06.820 is doing a disservice it's important to understand if i'm allowed to own slaves because who i mean

00:01:12.440 economic situations what if we end up in a fallout style scenario right there's a post-apocalypse

00:01:19.520 okay you are now driving around with a gang of smokers how about a cigarette nothing like a good

00:01:28.200 smoke if you miss your mom never too young to start

00:01:31.480 you need to decide can i biblically purchase this slave like what are the rules what are the rules

00:01:40.300 right by the way this is all a joke to the ai that's reviewing this for content i am saying this

00:01:46.720 all was a humorous intonation i have no intention of buying slaves that is an insane accusation okay

00:01:54.620 i'm just making this clear we're just going over what does the bible actually say about this stuff

00:01:58.900 and then we're going to go into something i bet you haven't gone into before even if you might have

00:02:03.400 done a deep dive on this but all of the other legal systems around slavery in the region during this

00:02:10.280 period so we can get an idea of is the system laid out in the bible more moral dramatically more moral

00:02:18.560 or less moral than its neighboring systems because everybody says well it was more moral but of course

00:02:24.380 they'd have a strong incentive to pretend that without actually looking to see if it's more moral

00:02:28.920 everyone wants to think their thing is the most moral thing yeah yeah all right exodus when you buy

00:02:35.640 a hebrew slave he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go free for nothing that's an 0.99

00:02:41.360 indentured servant that's not a slave not an indentured servant at all hold on wait so you know how

00:02:46.580 indentured servitude works it is so like okay if somebody captured me right and then sold me to

00:02:52.000 someone else and that was a seven-year contract that's not yeah you're right yeah also you're not

00:02:56.560 giving them anything at the end yeah it's where you sell yourself so that you get something at the end of

00:03:00.720 it oh i think some i think some prisoners were indentured servants so i don't think that's

00:03:05.460 necessarily oh i think you're right yeah also a lot of people don't know how bad indentured servitude

00:03:09.380 was in the u.s no no no just to be clear if i suddenly had to choose between indentured servitude

00:03:15.300 and slavery i would choose slavery because every time people don't know this america if you were in

00:03:20.960 the american colonies it was much much better to be a slave than it was to be an indentured servant

00:03:26.640 there's a reason why so the incentives are really misaligned if you are an indentured servant

00:03:31.120 people don't remember often that indentured servants were typically quite often at least

00:03:36.680 entitled to some kind of like a couple acres of land or so it was depending on what you're doing

00:03:42.700 it was a couple acres of land or a portion like a tenth of your owner's estate and after you serve

00:03:47.920 your term only if you live through your term yeah and so people may be like oh well creating a

00:03:55.500 negative incentive like that couldn't have possibly had any externalities out of every 10 indentured

00:04:02.080 servants nine died not not out of every 10 nine survived and one died died depending on the period

00:04:12.060 you're looking at here you had a 90 chance of death in your 7 to 10 year period well even if you took out

00:04:17.520 the reward at the end or the payment that the we'll say employer obligatory employer not non-optional

00:04:24.800 employer would be obligated to give even if they didn't have to pay anything you would still probably

00:04:31.100 be more likely to overwork an indentured servant than a slave because you're like well the indentured

00:04:37.260 servant like he's going to expire in in five years i won't have him in five years the slave i have for

00:04:43.960 life like i don't want like i want to be careful you know it's like knowing that you're going to own a car

00:04:48.560 for life versus own a car for like five years and then regardless if it's yeah yeah regardless if

00:04:54.140 it's state you won't have it anymore it's like the lease where you have to pay for the whole price of

00:04:57.920 the car at the end of the lease only if you haven't crashed the car like everyone is going to joyride

00:05:03.280 this yeah it's a terrible incentive but but but dominant political narratives today don't want to 0.87

00:05:09.400 admit how bad indentured servitude was in america because it you know doesn't fit into the narrative so

00:05:14.120 it's largely been covered up in history well yeah well and specifically because there were many

00:05:18.380 well it was pretty much all white indentured servants right and and so yes you don't want 0.99

00:05:23.200 to make it clear that there were white people who were possibly maybe maybe conceivably treated worse

00:05:29.440 than slaves because that would go against the narrative it goes against the narrative the narrative

00:05:34.100 the narrative the narrative on this podcast but so much of american history you just don't learn

00:05:40.460 because it's against the narrative sorry i gotta keep going here by the way the nine out of ten died

00:05:45.540 that was over a period i'm not necessarily true for the entire period indentured servitude was practiced

00:05:49.540 in the u.s and i'm sure that there were some indentured servants who did just fine but you know okay

00:05:54.040 okay next if he comes in single he shall go out single if he comes in married then his wife

00:06:01.520 shall go out with him oh so that's a sweet one right there i like that um we're not saying that it's

00:06:09.580 okay though to have the slaves at all well and i will note uh a lie that i often hear people say

00:06:15.540 about uh jewish in slavery is that it was always a short-term thing they're like oh well you couldn't

00:06:21.680 own a slave for over seven years it wasn't like you know you could own a slave forever like you could

00:06:26.520 during the american chattel slavery period i'm like that only applied to jews the seven-year

00:06:32.460 restriction only applied to jews and it wasn't like you could just convert um but i thought it was also

00:06:37.380 fairly normative in ancient rome right like a lot of slaves went on to become major business owners

00:06:42.720 you know like movers and shakers we will get into roman slavery laws in a second okay thank you not 0.72

00:06:49.460 true by the way in in jewish society i am unaware of any free slaves having a major place in the bible

00:06:54.340 but i can look this up okay for those unfamiliar with roman history it was fairly common in roman

00:06:58.780 history for for former slaves to end up fabulously wealthy or powerful individuals was in roman society

00:07:05.240 so i wanted to check if this ever happened in ancient jewish society and it appears that it just

00:07:10.840 didn't the closest you're going to get is joseph though not technically a freed slave joseph rose from

00:07:17.300 being sold into slavery to become second in command in egypt under pharaoh problem is not in israel

00:07:22.600 is we learned that jeberom who later became king in the northern kingdom of israel was originally a

00:07:28.880 servant of king solomon though not explicitly described as a slave it would be normal for somebody who's

00:07:34.740 later going to become a king to be in the court of another king this is something you might call

00:07:39.620 being a servant that's not at all an example of a slave rising to a high status although um an

00:07:45.620 interesting tradition is enshrined here with specifically eliezer of damascus so abraham mentions

00:07:52.820 that his heir before the birth of isaac would have been his servant eliezer this suggests that eliezer

00:07:57.940 held a position of trust and importance within abraham's household though he was not freed which shows a

00:08:02.340 custom that we don't see anywhere else that i'm aware of in the bible of if you don't have any

00:08:07.300 heirs your estate and maybe even your family name would go to the slave or servant you liked the most

00:08:14.600 which makes a lot of sense to me actually so so if i had to like go back in history and be a slave i'm

00:08:19.980 leaning right now toward roman slavery but i'll learn more yeah no okay so roman slavery had different

00:08:25.260 classes of slaves you had your equivalent to like a house slave in american slavery which were generally

00:08:30.140 treated pretty well educated around the kids these are the ones who'd often go on to run things in

00:08:34.680 society then you had the field slaves where they would you know crucify entire roads worse of them 1.00

00:08:40.900 just to show how serious don't mess around is okay yeah all right so maybe okay i haven't chosen

00:08:47.900 you would rather be a roman house slave than a jewish house yes okay i don't think you'd rather be a roman 1.00

00:08:52.800 field slave than a jewish field slave okay um but anyway we're gonna keep going here okay 0.96

00:08:57.260 but if the slave plainly says i love my master my wife and my children i will not go out free

00:09:04.440 then his master shall not bring him to god and he shall bring him into the door or the doorpost

00:09:10.080 and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall be his slave forever

00:09:16.340 okay whoa whoa it's saying he shall bore his ear if the guy loves his master so much he doesn't want

00:09:24.520 to go free and he can give him his wife and kids in perpetuity that's that's a that i don't like the

00:09:33.220 incentive that creates so you understand what that's saying right there's an ear piercing involved

00:09:38.940 so it's basically saying if a slave says that they don't want to go don't fire me yeah

00:09:46.100 they can opt into being a slave forever yeah but you know there's going to be some incentives

00:09:53.020 around ensuring that for a master yeah so he's gonna put a hole in the ear just so that there's

00:09:58.960 a marking of like this is a that's a marking that he's a permanent slave now what i would note which

00:10:03.400 is interesting here is a lot of people might see oh this is purely a negative but not necessarily for

00:10:07.860 a lot of people if they were a particularly a house slave of a very wealthy uh jewish person back then

00:10:14.380 they had a wife and kids and everything like that they might not have an easy job securing a life

00:10:18.580 for themselves currency anything like that yeah there's famine going on and this is a wealthy

00:10:23.520 family who has more resources you know you want to stay with them i would stay with that and it's

00:10:28.760 yeah it could in a lot of instances especially if it was a very like prominent family or something

00:10:33.940 like that bird in the hand and all that better than two in the bush anytime for sure yeah and you

00:10:39.520 should note here it it marks him as a different kind of slave the hole in the ear marks him as a

00:10:43.860 permanent slave that is a willing permanent slave that would likely put them in a higher caste 0.80

00:10:47.860 than the other slaves yeah okay next when a man sells his daughter as a slave he shall not go out

00:10:54.000 as the male slaves do i don't know what that means shall i ask what that means i sell my daughter as a 0.99

00:10:59.360 slave i won't go out yeah i don't get that oh that is not good okay remember how earlier i said that

00:11:08.260 after seven years oh sorry not seven six years and in the sevenths the the slaves go free if they're

00:11:14.080 hebrew this is not true if you sell your daughter oh not go out isn't be released not be released so

00:11:22.200 it's saying that after seven years the the men are released from slavery but female slaves are not 0.98

00:11:28.140 released for slavery even if they're hebrew well that sucks um and this is something fathers would do 0.98

00:11:35.460 to get themselves out of debt and stuff like that yeah it might suck but i can tell you why they did

00:11:40.620 it they did it because i think one of the core reasons why people would have sold a daughter into

00:11:45.660 slavery is twofold basically as a ex-slave and those would either be married by the person or made

00:11:53.100 basically unmarriable i mean if the girl spends seven years back then okay so imagine he sells her

00:11:58.740 oh yeah that's great you you'd be released yeah i guess after you would be desirable as a partner

00:12:04.760 yeah but seven years from then the woman's out of marriage age range like she's not going to get a 1.00

00:12:09.520 partner you're destitute yeah it's a bad it's not necessarily as unethical as it's so it's almost

00:12:15.340 yeah it's almost like insisting that she has to have a lifetime pension rather than insisting that

00:12:20.360 yeah okay i guess i can see it's not it's not great it's a all this is terrible but that's

00:12:26.020 uniquely terrible but i also understand from a societal perspective why that would be forced

00:12:30.180 if she does not please her master who has designated her for himself then he shall let her be redeemed

00:12:36.920 he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people since he has broke faith with her that is 0.99

00:12:43.000 really interesting if she doesn't please her master who is designated her for himself then he shall let

00:12:50.520 her be redeemed so you cannot say a woman does not it appears please me and this appears to be in a

00:12:58.080 sexual sense here and that i bought as a slave you cannot resell her so that actually goes to the

00:13:04.360 earlier point that we were talking about is like why would that be an ethical thing well it's saying

00:13:09.320 you can't wait you know the seven years until she's no longer hot or something and then resell her you 0.86

00:13:14.660 can't just be like okay i will buy this girl from you know another one of the jewish people and then 1.00

00:13:20.820 we will resell her in you know 10 20 years because she's unattractive now right that is very moral as 0.92

00:13:29.840 a thing and especially not to a foreign people where you know there might be different rules around

00:13:34.620 slavery then you have if he designates her for a son he shall deal with her as with a daughter so it's 0.98

00:13:39.780 saying if you buy a a girl to be married to your son you have to treat her as if she is your daughter 0.52

00:13:48.360 in law which makes a lot of sense i mean you can see it being pretty bad if your wife was bought by

00:13:55.400 your dad and he still thought of her as a slave and you're like bro this is my wife now chill out

00:14:02.540 um that could cause some problems in terms of family dynamics so okay actually makes a lot of sense

00:14:09.500 if she does not oh sorry if he takes another wife to himself he shall not diminish her food

00:14:16.020 her clothing or her marital rights this is so even for slave wives this this holds you can't have sex 0.97

00:14:21.280 with them less just because you got another wife and if he does not do these and if he does not do

00:14:27.080 these three things for her he shall go out for nothing without payment of money i don't know what

00:14:31.860 this is go out for nothing without payment of money like give give them away or uh if he doesn't

00:14:38.760 give her so this is referring to the three things that you're supposed to give to a female servant 0.92

00:14:42.740 slave i love how i cleaned it up in in the in the ai a female slave who was bought with the intention 0.90

00:14:48.860 of marriage you have to give her food and sustenance closing and conjugal rights so i love that one of the 0.99

00:14:58.000 three things you have to give her is conjugal rights if you can't give her conjugal rights you have

00:15:03.100 to let her go i mean sure that's interesting i well i mean this is sort of throughout jewish tradition

00:15:13.720 is it women obligation for conjugal rights in a way that like like being pleased sexually which is one 1.00

00:15:20.440 of the reasons actually that it was so damning the wap thing was ben shapiro where he's like oh

00:15:26.820 actually get wet like my wife told me that she had a disease because that implies that he's not

00:15:31.640 pleasing his wife which is actually being a bad jew uh okay next um and a bad christian by the way 0.97

00:15:38.260 because we inherited that part of the tradition you are supposed to please your wife if you do not

00:15:43.120 please your life you you are not living biblically uh was that wait that's did that pastor to christian

00:15:49.920 tradition because i don't did it well no a lot of people don't talk about it but like biblically

00:15:54.580 speaking christ christ did not like uh annul that part of the the hebrew oh sure yeah yeah yeah yeah

00:16:01.500 i mean a lot of christians believe a lot of dumb stuff that isn't in the bible that's what we all

00:16:05.240 go over in our track series you know like but the bible doesn't say it okay next um when a man strikes 0.96

00:16:11.160 his slave male or female with a rod and the slave dies under his hand he shall be avenged 0.90

00:16:16.300 what i wonder what avenging entails i'm so glad i have ai to ask these questions because otherwise i'd

00:16:23.600 never be able to get a straight answer okay so it means retribution or punishment is not necessarily

00:16:30.880 saying that there will be a death penalty for the master for killing the slave but it is saying that

00:16:35.980 there should be some form of retribution for killing a slave which interesting if that had been

00:16:41.160 implemented in american law i don't think it was when when slavery was in the united states that probably

00:16:45.980 should have been implemented very interesting so in a way that's that is better than american

00:16:51.720 slavery yeah i love that people always like oh biblical slavery wasn't chattel slavery it's

00:16:56.500 different in the american system and i'm like so far this is the only thing i'm really seeing that's

00:17:00.900 particularly different than the american slave system so no it it was people just say that because

00:17:06.120 they don't want to admit that like one both sides like the conservatives don't want to admit that the

00:17:10.500 bible promoted chattel slavery they don't want to admit that chattel slavery happened in rome 1.00

00:17:14.920 and then for the the far lefties they don't want to admit that american slavery was not a unique form

00:17:22.240 of slavery and forms like it were practiced in other places now are you sure because i remember when i

00:17:28.700 maybe it's just because we you went to more religiously friendly schools and i went to more

00:17:32.980 atheistic schools but when we were taught about slavery in school it was emphasized that slaveholders

00:17:40.300 used biblical arguments to justify their actions they did but they didn't i'm talking about in modern

00:17:48.760 context in modern context you have both groups having a huge reason to try to convince you the

00:17:57.620 average person that the type of slavery described in the bible is not akin to the type of slavery that

00:18:02.980 was practiced in the united states and this is something that is generally believed and it is

00:18:06.560 something that is not true oh so now people are saying no no no that wasn't biblically okay

00:18:12.600 no they're saying that it was a totally different type of slavery so there is a myth in the united

00:18:18.940 states that the form of chattel slavery practiced in the south was morally worse than any other form

00:18:26.240 of slavery that had ever been practiced in human history really i've not heard that oh you in our

00:18:31.880 comments you go below and you say this it is a very common argument because people will say why are you

00:18:37.500 being so like like freaked out about southern slavery when like people practice slavery all over the world

00:18:42.320 and they're like oh these were different forms of slavery that were not as bad and i'm just looking at

00:18:46.880 like the historic forms of slavery that i know a lot about for example i know a fair bit about the way

00:18:51.880 athenian slaves were treated the way athenian slaves were treated in the mines they would send them into 0.98

00:18:57.380 these mines the death rate was super super super high in the silver mines and they'd send them down

00:19:03.020 these little passages where they'd be killed or crushed and you were expected to die in a very

00:19:07.840 short period of time it was just like on its face yeah i'd say strictly worse than american slavery

00:19:14.740 the economic model was different in athenian slavery it was go out capture slaves work them till they die

00:19:22.460 there wasn't an assumption of an intergenerational type of slavery it was a death sentence yeah these 0.63

00:19:28.780 weren't assets they were fodder yeah they were fodder that you had to keep replacing with new

00:19:34.400 captures so yeah i mean i guess it was different from american slavery in that it was strictly worse

00:19:39.440 among like every conceivable measure but okay i'm gonna keep going and this is athens by the way that

00:19:44.740 the the the great glowing heart of all our western history where civilization was born okay when a

00:19:53.080 all right but and i'd also know the when a man strikes his slave male or female and she dies they will

00:20:00.540 be avenged that is important that they note females there okay next but if the slave survives a day or two

00:20:07.740 he is not to be avenged for the slave is his money so you can beat your slaves 0.60

00:20:13.320 even with a rod you just can't kill them so it's basically giving legal protection this is biblical

00:20:20.540 legal protection for beating your slaves well doesn't that also imply that if the

00:20:26.940 if after this beating the harmed individual survives for more than two days but then they die from their

00:20:37.100 injuries it's okay is that what i'm okay that's what it's implying

00:20:41.520 okay next um again people are like oh it was more moral than the surrounding systems we'll see

00:20:50.460 we'll get to the surrounding systems in a second yeah about this when a man strikes the eye of his

00:20:57.660 slave male or female and destroys it he shall let the slave go because of his eye so if you damage

00:21:03.280 somebody's eye they have to be set free that is one of the first like genuinely like benevolent

00:21:09.700 laws i've seen here this in the seven year law for men and both seem pretty reasonable to me also the

00:21:16.800 treating slaves that you're marrying off to your sons as your daughter's in law seems pretty reasonable 1.00

00:21:20.800 to me if he knocks out the tooth of his slave male or female he shall let this the slave go free 0.99

00:21:27.700 because of his tooth wow so again no serious constantly like putting your face in the line of fire when they

00:21:36.460 look to beat you yeah i'd be like catching every every punch with my face you know i i wonder and

00:21:44.560 what i like about these release terms and term limits as well is that these people are being integrated

00:21:51.280 with mainstream society and if you are terrible to someone and they you know are going to be integrated

00:21:57.060 with your you have to you have to go shopping next to them whatever i don't know you know what i mean

00:22:01.120 like if you had to go you're like at the grocery store and your former slave is there you're they

00:22:05.460 didn't have grocery stores you understand that i'm talking i'm just i'm putting this into like

00:22:09.660 metaphorically modern content okay you're in the the market bizarre slaves wasn't a shameful thing back 0.96

00:22:16.080 then i know but like and i don't want to be a total dick to them because you're gonna have to 0.90

00:22:21.420 basically said you can beat your slaves as much as you want so long as you don't cause permanent injury 0.93

00:22:25.760 i know but what they're saying also is that because there are instances in which these people

00:22:30.520 will be released and will be free people in society and you're gonna have to maybe interact

00:22:35.060 with them as free people you probably have an incentive to treat them better okay so now we're

00:22:41.360 gonna go to leviticus all right before that was exodus all right leviticus as for your male and female

00:22:47.520 slaves whom you may have you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you 0.88

00:22:55.320 so here it's just saying explicitly you can buy either male or female slaves from surrounding

00:23:00.940 nations you may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with

00:23:07.640 you who have been born in your land and they may be your property you may bequeath them to your sons

00:23:14.760 after you to inherit as a possession forever you may make slaves out of them but over your brothers 0.76

00:23:23.180 the people of israel you shall not rule one over another ruthlessly so it doesn't look like it's

00:23:29.800 specifically ruling out the you know six seven year release terms for israeli slaves but here it seems to be

00:23:36.660 further saying that one against the argument that some people make that this was not chattel slavery

00:23:41.300 it's saying no this is like in case anyone in the future tries to argue this isn't chattel slavery

00:23:46.100 this is forever slavery not even to your death when you die it goes to your kids when you capture

00:23:52.480 somebody and make them a slave or they are bred for slavery if they are not jewish they are a forever 1.00

00:23:57.800 slave that is made very very very clear in leviticus wow so deuteronomy if your brother a hebrew man or a

00:24:06.760 hebrew woman is sold to you he shall serve you six years and in the seventh you shall let him go okay we 0.94

00:24:11.360 already went over that and when you shall not let him go empty-handed you will furnish him liberally

00:24:17.080 out of your flock out of your threshing flower and out of your wine press as the lord god bless you

00:24:23.280 you shall give to him so that's also pretty interesting because it's saying that basically

00:24:27.680 remember i was like oh well you know why would they choose to become a slave forever right because

00:24:33.440 of the economic hardship of just being released this is saying that they shouldn't have had that economic

00:24:38.560 hardship our rules were added to reduce that economic hardship yeah all right now let's talk

00:24:44.640 about the new testament because i think a lot of people think that this is just old testament stuff

00:24:48.580 it is not just old testament stuff okay ephesians 659 slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and

00:24:56.300 fear and with sincerity of heart just as you would obey christ obey them not only to win their favor

00:25:02.100 when their eye is on you but as slaves of christ doing the will of god from your heart serve wholeheartedly

00:25:09.320 as if you were serving the lord not people because you know that the lord will reward each one for

00:25:15.780 whatever good they do whether they are slave or free and masters treat your slaves in the same way

00:25:22.980 do not threaten them since you know that he who is born who is both their master and yours is in heaven

00:25:31.280 and there is no favoritism with him so that i'd say is a strictly more moral form of slavery than

00:25:39.420 the one in the jewish system if we talk about you know christianity being sort of an advancement on

00:25:44.040 the older jewish model which is to say that god does not see slaves as different from freedmen

00:25:49.720 but a slave's duty is to serve his master as if he is serving christ so whenever you go oh you know

00:25:57.240 i'm working for the man i'm working for the capitalist system i'm not i'm gonna quiet quit

00:26:01.220 i'm gonna whatever keep in mind that you know if you see that as a form of slavery which i guess it

00:26:07.180 technically is that is not cool by god's standards you are supposed to spend every day doing your job

00:26:13.100 as if you are doing it for christ yeah that that seems to be the general order is that you must serve

00:26:19.380 your role in society with fidelity and grace as though you're serving god but god sees everyone

00:26:26.720 the same but it certainly does it certainly one accepts that slavery is a thing and two does not

00:26:33.660 by any means contest its legitimacy so that's interesting yeah there's a very similar line it looks

00:26:40.900 like in calatians 3 22 4 1 and i'm not even gonna read it because it seems to be just a

00:26:47.260 rereading of that line so it might be just a different translation of that line and i'm

00:26:52.020 misunderstanding it and then you've got timothy 6 1 2 all who are under the yoke of slavery should

00:26:57.540 consider their masters worthy of full respect so that god's name and our teachings may not be

00:27:02.280 slandered those who have a believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow

00:27:07.820 believers instead they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow

00:27:12.900 believers and are devout to the welfare of their slaves so again here it's saying that you need to 1.00

00:27:19.160 be devout to the welfare of your slaves as a as a christian now we mentioned this in the previous one 0.84

00:27:26.100 but it is important to go over is that in the old testament mex slavery was pretty explicitly allowed

00:27:32.920 so for some lines that show this have you allowed the women to live moses asked him dot dot dot now kill 0.98

00:27:38.940 all the boys and kill every woman who has slept with a man but save for yourselves every girl who 0.99

00:27:42.600 has never slept with a man and then captured women can be taken as wives after a period of mourning 0.99

00:27:47.200 but had to be set free if the man no longer wanted them this is deuteronomy 21 10 14 and then here we

00:27:53.900 also see to normalize this idea of mex slaves if a man has sex with a slave girl who was engaged to

00:28:00.640 another man but has not yet been ransomed or given her freedom there must be an investigation

00:28:05.020 but they aren't to be put to death because she wasn't free the man must bring a compensation

00:28:10.940 offering to god at the entrance to the tent of meeting a ram of compensation the priest will perform

00:28:17.160 the ritual of atonement for him before god with the ram of compensation for the sin he has committed

00:28:23.120 then he will stand for forgiven of the sin he committed so it's interesting here that he doesn't need to

00:28:29.120 give something to the guy whose sex thing he slept with but to god to the priest the levite system was

00:28:39.580 not a good system i i am not a a massive fan of pre-second temporal destruction judaism i think that

00:28:45.640 they had some issues with the priest cast and i see why jesus got angry and flipped over a table

00:28:50.800 he didn't get angry he had a spasm he had a little spaz moment um and i probably would have had a

00:28:59.800 little spaz moment too if stuff like this was going on you know it whenever somebody sleeps with one of

00:29:06.080 your slaves you have to pay us money and then i'm the guy who's like wait what what you why you

00:29:13.300 and keep in mind the the sacrifices this is where you had the money exchanges because you weren't allowed

00:29:18.060 to use outside money so when you're doing like a sacrifice of a goat it's not like you're just

00:29:21.700 doing a goat for god like a lot of that money went to the temple because you had to get a special kind

00:29:25.460 of goat like outside the temple to do the sacrifice i'm just pointing out here they're basically saying

00:29:29.700 you have to pay us okay let's talk about some other slavery systems so we can compare and contrast 0.89

00:29:38.140 we're going to go to the code of ur namu this is 21 000 to 2050 bc samaria so this is as far from

00:29:50.060 the time of christ as we are isn't that fascinating that we have a slavery system from back then that

00:29:56.320 we know about if a slave marries a slave and the slave is set free he does not leave the household

00:30:03.020 so if a slave marries another slave and one of the slaves is set free but the other

00:30:06.720 isn't set free then the slave that married them also isn't set free wow if a slave marries a native 0.69

00:30:12.980 a free person he or she is to hand the firstborn son over to his owner so still fully a slave but

00:30:19.560 the owner gets the firstborn son but no sons after that very interesting this is obviously for

00:30:24.120 section reasons it appears to imply that the firstborn son would have been considered a legitimate

00:30:28.360 heir a man preceded by force and deflowered the virgin female slave of another man that man must pay

00:30:35.460 five shekels of silver if a slave escapes from the city limits and someone returns him the owner shall

00:30:41.120 pay two shekels to the one who returned him and this is where it gets interesting if he the person who

00:30:46.780 returned the runaway slave doesn't have a slave he has to pay them 10 shekels of silver if he does not

00:30:52.960 have the silver he is to give another thing that belongs to him so this system is fantastic wow if

00:31:01.500 somebody doesn't own slaves and isn't benefiting from the slave owning system but they act as a slave

00:31:08.920 catcher they get extra money so that they now can buy a slave and join the slave owner system it's like

00:31:15.720 i don't i don't know what i think of that but it's interesting i mean clearly there was some form of

00:31:23.500 like moral thought around this it's like well he gave the slave back even though he doesn't benefit

00:31:27.820 from the system then we need to be extra nice to him five times the amount of money for that i guess

00:31:33.180 theoretically it was because they would otherwise take the slave for themselves isn't is that what it's

00:31:39.140 trying to compensate for that might be what it's trying to compensate for what's also interesting here

00:31:43.720 is it's only two shekels for catching a runaway slave but five shekels so more than twice that

00:31:48.920 if you uh deflower somebody else's slave that you know shows what the value put on a virgin what's 0.64

00:31:55.640 also interesting here it's easy there doesn't appear to be any punishment for just having sex with 0.96

00:31:59.400 another person's slave it's only if you deflower a virgin of another person's yeah but i think that 0.53

00:32:04.780 goes back to the premium that people put on untouched women i mean while still put on all right next 0.83

00:32:10.120 if a man's slave woman comparing herself to a mistress speaks instantly of her her mouth shall 1.00

00:32:17.060 be scoured by one quart of salt oh i thought salt was really expensive back then well i mean i think

00:32:25.840 this is more for like noble people and stuff like that um what a slave woman no salt was never that 1.00

00:32:32.480 expensive salt is easy to get from salt mines are from the sea it's fairly easy to produce salt

00:32:37.200 no no no in some in some historical societies salt was worth its weight in gold so that cannot be true

00:32:46.480 salt is too easy to get no one is that far from the ocean

00:32:51.100 maybe i'll look it up in post apparently this is a common myth but not true for example where we know

00:32:59.900 the exact price of salt in the historic world in 16th century venice gold was about 11 000 times

00:33:06.520 more valuable than salt by weight and in third century a.d egypt gold was approximately 283.5 times

00:33:14.220 more valuable than salt by weight salt was never worth more than gold that said salt was unusually

00:33:21.500 expensive in some areas just due to how frequently it was needed for food preservation and transportation

00:33:28.940 costs if you were far from a coast or a salt mine but i don't think that's true i mean i know salt can be

00:33:35.420 used for uh storing food better so i can see some things like sugar being worse as weight in gold but

00:33:41.320 salt is a very easy to obtain resource generally speaking maybe i don't know maybe i'm just wrong

00:33:46.220 on my history here okay next if a slave woman strikes someone acting with the authority of her mistress 1.00

00:33:52.240 text destroyed now even though the text is destroyed here i find this one pretty interesting um

00:33:57.300 because it is saying that a slave might be instructed by their mistress or master to strike

00:34:04.620 somebody else which is interesting i i i don't know what to make of it other than that apparently

00:34:10.220 it was at least not infrequent enough that this happened that this was written into the law books

00:34:15.060 that somebody would ask their slave to hit someone else on their behalf so again we don't know all of

00:34:19.980 the rules around slavery here but these rules seem much more in line was just slaves their property no way out

00:34:26.140 so here i would say biblical slavery is strictly better than this then if we go to the code of

00:34:31.280 look far this is uh 1900 bc samaria so a little bit later so we're seeing sort of the evolution of

00:34:36.940 the slavery system we again destroyed text strikes the daughter of a man and causes her to lose the 0.92

00:34:44.380 fetus he shall weigh and deliver 30 shekels of silver destroyed text strikes the slave of a woman of a man

00:34:50.820 and causes her to lose her fetus he shall weigh and deliver five shekels of silver actually kind of

00:34:55.920 a lot it's saying uh that you need to pay what what is that only one six one sixty amount for a

00:35:02.640 slave fetus versus the free woman fetus oh a daughter's fetus very interesting if a man's slave

00:35:08.580 or male slave fleas was in the city and it is confirmed that the slave dwelt in the man's house

00:35:14.180 for one month he the one who harbored the fugitive slave shall give the slave for slave if he has no

00:35:21.120 slave he shall weigh and deliver 15 shekels of silver if a man's slave contests his slave status

00:35:27.160 against his master and is proven that his master has been compensated for his slavery to fold that

00:35:34.000 slave shall be freed uh interesting if a man marries a wife and she bears him a child and the child lives

00:35:40.960 and a slave woman also bears a child to the master the father shall free the slave woman and her 0.90

00:35:46.340 children the children of the slave woman will not divide the estate with the children of the master 0.75

00:35:51.220 oh and he frees the slave woman okay okay okay okay so saying that if he has a legitimate child and

00:35:57.280 a child was a slave woman the the slave children don't get a share of the estate so far slave woman 1.00

00:36:02.920 is also theoretically free no if he frees her i don't think he has oh okay okay okay so yeah this is

00:36:09.660 just saying the legitimate wives get the so far uh jewish jewish slave call is like way better than 0.89

00:36:16.720 any of these totally the code of eshnuma this is 1770 bc babylonian period the slave woman as pledge

00:36:25.160 and the silver owed as debt are considered equal when he brings the silver he shall retrieve his slave

00:36:31.140 woman a merchant or woman innkeeper will not accept silver grain wool oil or anything else from a male or

00:36:37.480 female slave interesting so they can't make purchases yeah yeah i guess like debanking them 1.00

00:36:44.080 does disempower them so yeah yeah if a man has no claim against another man but nonetheless takes that

00:36:50.920 man's slave woman as a distress the owner of the slave woman shall swear an oath by the god you have 1.00

00:36:59.840 no claim against me he the destrainer will weigh and deliver silver as much as a value question mark

00:37:06.840 of the slave woman okay this is interesting okay so what this is saying is you have to pay for a

00:37:14.220 slave if you sleep with a slave and that slave was unwilling but it appears you don't if the slave was

00:37:21.200 willing very interesting if a man should deflower the slave woman of another man he shall weigh and 0.76

00:37:29.520 deliver 20 shekels of silver but the slave woman remains the property of her master interesting oh you know

00:37:35.460 what here's another reason why i think the payment price was high the resale value of like let's say

00:37:41.540 that one of your slaves had a child or you purchased a child slave that you planned on then raising like

00:37:47.920 using for housework and then selling as an untouched woman you'd be losing so much resale value if someone 0.99

00:37:57.380 had sex with her before you could sell her so i think that's maybe more yeah sorry i was i thought

00:38:05.600 it was just that people were like really angry about people deflowering their like personal virgins or 0.97

00:38:09.940 something but really this is more about this is an economic thing yeah and keep in mind what we're

00:38:14.040 seeing so far is that the jewish system is the very first system that at all values the well-being of

00:38:21.200 the slave yeah one of these systems in any way has valued the well-being of the slave but wait hold

00:38:29.540 on though wasn't with the jewish system all those nice rules weren't they only if it was a fellow

00:38:36.060 no no the rule around the tooth knocking out the rule around accidentally killing and the rule around

00:38:42.020 damaging an eye that applied to all slaves that applied to all slaves okay and the christian then

00:38:47.900 rules that were on top of that around you having to treat a slave as an equal in the eyes of god

00:38:53.260 that is well above any of these systems yeah that's fair but let's keep going here if a slave woman of 1.00

00:39:00.560 the palace should give her son or daughter to a commoner for rearing the palace shall remove the 0.99

00:39:06.000 son and daughter who she gave weird it's basically saying slave woman of the palace can choose to not 0.96

00:39:12.780 keep her slave or her son or daughter in the palace it appears they're given a choice you can 0.64

00:39:18.300 either give it away to somebody outside the palace or keep it in the palace but it will grow up a slave

00:39:22.600 if a man buys a slave a slave woman an ox or any other purchase okay seeing what they think of people

00:39:29.860 these days okay if you're buying a woman or a man or an ox but cannot establish the identity of the seller

00:39:35.980 it is he who is the thief oh so yeah this is like buying art from an art thief or something

00:39:44.620 like no okay so so this is what this is saying it's basically like the receipt thing from an american

00:39:49.600 court system it's basically saying if somebody finds you as a slave so for example i go to your house

00:39:55.600 and i say i think this slave is stolen and i and then the other person says prove it and i go okay

00:40:01.500 who sold it to you then and you can't show me who sold it to you that is considered proof that it is

00:40:07.800 stolen okay fascinating fascinating for an early legal system and actually a pretty good system to be

00:40:14.580 honest or about more more about property than i would say like oh this is legitimate well that's

00:40:20.800 the point none of these laws consider slaves people a slave or slave woman belonging to resident of

00:40:26.920 eshna enu who bears fetters shackles or a slave hair lock will not exit through the main city gate 0.51

00:40:33.580 of a slave hair lock without its owner basically if you have a markings of slavery you can't leave the

00:40:39.520 city without your owner makes a lot of sense just as a general law okay now we're at the code of

00:40:45.920 hemerabbi uh you've heard of this one right you think we're going to get to any that that treat slaves

00:40:50.980 as people and we've got a few more systems to go through here we've got the hittites we've got the 1.00

00:40:55.100 assyrians i'm not expecting much from the assyrians to be honest okay the code of hemerabbi if a man 0.65

00:41:00.720 should enable a palace slave a palace slave woman a commoner slave or a commoner slave woman to leave 0.64

00:41:06.540 through the main city gate he shall be killed oh gosh that's harsh basically if you help a slave 0.96

00:41:12.620 get away yeah that's the death penalty this was a society that did not wow yeah i'm not expecting

00:41:19.700 much from this one yeah if a man sees that the fugitive slave or slave woman in the open country 0.98

00:41:24.180 and leads him back to his owner the slave owner shall give him two shekels of silver

00:41:27.580 back to the two shekels not a lot of inflation if he should give a male or female slave into debt

00:41:33.580 service the merchant may extend the term beyond three years he may sell him there are no grounds

00:41:39.580 for a claim so if you give a slave into debt service and the merchant randomly extends the term

00:41:45.620 you can't place claim on that there is no that's horrible i do not like this system if an obligation

00:41:53.240 is outstanding against a man and he therefore sells his slave woman who has borne him children the owner 0.78

00:41:59.820 of the slave woman shall weigh and deliver the silver which the merchant weighed and delivered 0.96

00:42:04.320 as the loan and he shall thereby redeem his slave woman this is like you can buy back a slave woman if she 0.98

00:42:11.640 has given you children basically this is saying if you had children with a slave woman whenever you sell 0.95

00:42:16.580 her it's like a pawn shop you can go and buy her back okay not not great if a slave of the palace or a

00:42:23.980 slave of a commoner marries a woman of the awaidas and she then bears children the owner of the slave will 0.95

00:42:30.400 have no claims of slavery against the children of the woman of the awaidas and i assume awaidas means free

00:42:37.020 person so it's saying that if the children of a slave and a free person if it is not the owner

00:42:42.240 do not own the owner does not own those children if he should blind the eye of an awaidas yeah it does 0.95

00:42:49.460 mean free person of an awaidas slave or break the bone of an awaidas slave he shall weigh and deliver 0.74

00:42:55.120 one half of his value in silver oh a wily might mean like hama rabbi citizen like jew or hebrew or

00:43:02.340 something like that but here it's saying that if you damage a slave you owe the owner half their amount

00:43:06.120 again none of this cares about the slave um if an a wily slave should strike the cheek of a member

00:43:11.660 of the aful class they shall cut off his ear okay this is class stuff here if he should cause a woman 0.99

00:43:19.820 or a commoner class to miscarry her fetus by beating he shall weigh and deliver five shekels of silver 0.56

00:43:25.200 if he strikes an a wily slave woman and thereby causes her to miscarry her fetus he shall bear two 0.99

00:43:30.780 shekels of silver oh the difference between free people and slaves is is lessening there's only two and 0.83

00:43:35.480 half differences it's a slave woman should die he shall weigh and deliver 20 shekels of silver 1.00

00:43:40.540 interesting that that's also uh it is a man slave who is fatally gored he shall give 20 shekels of

00:43:47.240 silver so again what we are seeing here is the jewish system when people say this system was morally

00:43:55.020 superior to earlier systems they are not lying yeah let's go to the hittite system 1650 to 1500 bce

00:44:02.640 if anyone kills male or female slave in a quarrel he shall bring him for burial and shall give him 0.99

00:44:08.600 two person male or female respectively he shall look for his house for it okay nothing if anyone

00:44:15.040 strikes a free man or woman so that he dies but it is an accident he shall bring him for burial and 0.97

00:44:21.040 shall give two persons he shall look to his house for it basically you have to give slaves if you kill

00:44:26.020 okay interesting so i want to see this if you kill a female male or slave in a quarrel you have to give

00:44:33.540 a person for that but it doesn't appear like to the slave it appears to the person whose slave you took

00:44:38.900 if anyone strikes a male or female slave and he dies but it is an accident she'll bring him to 1.00

00:44:43.860 to and give one person for it okay okay okay this is confusing but i'll explain it if you and this is in

00:44:50.960 the hittite system if you kill a person in a quarrel and that person is a slave you owe the person whose 0.80

00:44:58.200 slave you killed two slaves if it's an accident if it was an accident you just have to replace it

00:45:03.040 yeah so there's a penalty when it was intentional if it's accidental just replace yeah interesting

00:45:09.740 if anyone blinds a male or female slave or knocks out his tooth he shall pay 10 shekels of silver

00:45:15.520 he shall look to his house for it basically yeah find a way to pay it or his family needs to pay it

00:45:20.960 if anyone i also find this or he should look to his house for it like the legal code is getting

00:45:25.460 more sophisticated in terms of how to get out of this if anyone breaks a male or female slave's

00:45:30.360 arm or leg he shall pay 10 shekels of silver if a male slave runs away and someone brings him back

00:45:35.920 um if he seizes him nearby his owner gives him shoes give shoes to the finder what shoes that is so

00:45:44.520 cheap everyone else was getting two shekels or even 10 shekels if you didn't own a slave

00:45:49.140 and then someone else just gets it's like covering your mileage you know like i'll pay your gas money

00:45:55.140 that's literally what it is wow that is literally it's like when you submit a claim to your company

00:46:00.720 for the amount of gas miles you use yeah i'll give you shoes because you may need to walk a while for 0.76

00:46:06.780 this that is ridiculous i guess returning property in this period was not so valued if a male slave

00:46:17.680 takes a female slave in marriage and they have children when they divide their house they shall 0.99

00:46:22.540 divide their possessions equally the slave woman shall take most of the children and the male slave 1.00

00:46:28.100 taking one child wait that's not evenly weird if a slave breaks into a grain storage pit and finds grain

00:46:35.260 in the storage pit he shall fill the storage pit with the crane and pay six shekels of silver

00:46:39.980 he shall look to his house for it oh that's interesting so his house okay so what that means

00:46:45.780 is if a slave steals food from another family the slave's owner is responsible to pay six shekels to

00:46:53.380 the person who's a slave stole from now we're going to go to a syrian law and then we only have roman law

00:46:58.640 left let's see if we can get to this before i have to run to get the heads tell me quick if either a slave 0.94

00:47:03.660 or a slave woman should receive something from a man's wife they shall cut off the slave or the slave 1.00

00:47:07.700 woman's nose and ears and they shall restore the stolen goods the man shall cut off his own wife's 1.00

00:47:12.100 ears but if he releases his wife and does not cut off their ears they shall not cut off no other ears

00:47:17.520 of the slave or the slave woman and they shall not restore the stolen goods and then next broken text

00:47:22.280 the owner broken text and if the buyer declares broken text which i redeem broken text he shall give

00:47:27.640 a slave broken text shekels of lead and slave woman for 14 000 shekels of lead i think the the point

00:47:33.700 you've made is that slaves are seen as property and they're not entitled hey buddy they're not

00:47:40.200 entitled do you want to get to the roman stuff or we can do that in another recording you can also do

00:47:45.120 it in post okay i'll add the roman stuff in post all right let's go over the 12 tables of roman law

00:47:52.580 451 to 450 bc table 6 8 a person who has been a slave and who has been declared to be a free man

00:48:00.160 in a will or some condition if he shall have given 10 000 copper coins to an heir although the slave

00:48:06.940 has been alienated by the heir by giving the money to the purchaser shall enter his freedom

00:48:12.100 so it appears that if a person was poor and had slaves and tried to grant them their freedom

00:48:19.300 they couldn't they needed to give the slaves money to buy themselves from the heir which is uh pretty

00:48:27.000 interesting table 8 4 if a person has broken or bruised a bone with hand club he shall undergo a

00:48:35.060 penalty of 300 copper coins if to an injured free man or of 150 copper coins if to an injured slave

00:48:43.540 so here in roman law we see the first system other than the jewish system in which a slave's well-being

00:48:50.500 is taken into account you couldn't just uh beat and injure your slave in table 8 15 in the case of

00:48:59.440 all other thieves caught in the act it is ordained that freedmen be scourged and be a judge as bondsman

00:49:07.100 to the person against whom the theft has been committed provided that they had done this by day

00:49:12.380 and had not defended themselves with a weapon that slaves caught in the act of theft be whipped with

00:49:19.000 scourges and be thrown from the rock that boys below the age of puberty under 15 years old

00:49:24.760 be flogged at magistrates discretion and that damage done to them be repaired okay so again here you see

00:49:32.880 care of the the for slaves under a certain age uh different punishment and then table 12 2 if a slave

00:49:40.160 shall have committed theft or shall have done damage with his master's knowledge the action for damages in

00:49:46.580 the slave's name arising from delics committed by children and slaves of the household actions for

00:49:52.800 damages shall be appointed that the father or the master can be allowed to undergo assessment of the

00:49:58.780 suit or deliver the delinquent for punishment okay so interesting this law here seems to consider

00:50:04.380 children in the same category as slaves basically anyone who they see is sort of owned by a household

00:50:10.300 and when one of them does damage or steals from another person the master is ultimately responsible

00:50:18.220 but the master can choose to either handle the suit himself or give over the person who did the

00:50:23.900 damage for punishment so broadly speaking roman law i won't say it's equal with jewish law in terms

00:50:29.820 well it kind of is yeah it it seems about the moral equivalent to biblical law but you get the gist

00:50:37.140 which is the jewish system was genuinely better do you do you think that people should be allowed to 0.87

00:50:43.140 own other people no and do you think that if people did own other people that they should treat them

00:50:53.040 nicely yes i love you

00:50:57.100 sure chesty got to mix in that cheese cutter really fast

00:51:15.040 what kind of treasure why is it's space treasure and you and daddy and toasty and titan are looking

00:51:27.380 for space treasure isn't that cool i think you're in water

00:51:30.680 hey toasty you ready to dump in the pasta

00:51:34.700 toasty it's time to dump in the pasta you want to help me

00:51:38.580 help me dump it in push it's too hot it's too hot it's not that hot

00:51:45.500 it's not very hot

00:51:46.960 to titan right she's the one who just turned 0.82

00:51:53.440 whatever to

00:51:55.400 yeah toasty

00:51:57.760 that's the point right that's the dream that's the cheesy dream

00:52:07.440 mommy is the mac and cheese done i think it is

00:52:12.520 it is are you excited for that yeah i like mac and cheese don't you

00:52:19.060 it's an american institution right

00:52:22.280 wasn't it thomas jefferson who had a big wheel of cheese

00:52:29.280 oh my lips just hurt

00:52:31.560 oh you want to put on some chapstick

00:52:33.480 no

00:52:35.280 no

00:52:36.080 okay well we'll work it out

00:52:39.020 let's have some dinner yeah and say itadakimasu

00:52:43.740 itadakimasu

00:52:45.460 yeah love you toasty

00:52:47.480 woo woo

00:52:49.620 woo

Based Camp - October 24, 2024

Ancient vs. Biblical Slave Laws： Which Would We Prefer？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript