Slave

Slavery as an institution pervaded the ancient Near East, and the biblical text both regulates and ultimately subverts it. The Hebrew and Greek words typically translated servant in English Bibles (eved, doulos) more accurately mean slave — bound service with no legal autonomy. The Mosaic Law established important limitations: Hebrew slaves were released in the seventh year (Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12–18), brutal treatment could result in the slave's freedom (Exodus 21:26–27), and the law forbade returning a runaway slave to his master (Deuteronomy 23:15–16).

The book of Philemon addresses slavery directly: Paul sends back the runaway slave Onesimus with a letter asking his master Philemon to receive him no longer as a slave but better than a slave, as a dear brother (Philemon 16) — a request widely read as an implicit appeal for manumission. Paul's theological reframing is decisive: in Christ there is neither slave nor free (Galatians 3:28), and both master and slave have the same Master in heaven (Ephesians 6:9). The trajectory of biblical ethics, embodied in the Jubilee legislation and the gospel, is toward freedom (Isaiah 58:6; Luke 4:18).