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EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored ninety-two books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
The word slavery is used differently when it comes to biblical Hebrew, Koine Greek, and in common English (not a Bible translation). Even the Hebrew word (ebed) means different things. The Hebrew ebed can be translated as slave, servant, attendants, bondage, officers, officials, etc. It is not limited to the idea of being owned by others. The Hebrew word ebed can refer to persons who is owned by another person. (Gen. 12:16; Ex. 20:17)
The Hebrew term can also refer to those who are subjects of a king. (2 Sam 11:21; 2 Chron. 10:7) It can refer to conquered peoples who are obligated to pay tribute. (2 Sam 8:2, 6) The term can also refer to persons who are servants of a king, such as cupbearers, bakers, seamen, military officers, advisers, and so forth, whether they are owned by another or not. (Gen 40:20; 1 Sam 29:3; 1 Ki 9:27; 2 Chron. 8:18; 9:10; 32:9) In addition, ebed may refer servants, or worshipers, of God. (1 Ki 8:36; 2 Ki 10:23) More specifically, it may refer to those who hold a unique, notable position, as a special representative of God, such as Moses. (Jos 1:1, 2; 24:29; 2Ki 21:10)
For the most part, it is a servant in the sense of an employee. An indentured servant. Even one Hebrew might sell himself into the slavery of a wealthier Hebrew to get back on his feet financially. When the Israelites had to fight wars with other nations, they had to kill the men of these other nations. Thus, they would take the survivors on as slaves (servants), which actually helped the survivors. It was not like when the Roman Empire took people into slavery after conquering a nation.
Then, the Greek word (doulos) does refer to bondage in the sense of the English word, bondage, where a person owns another. (Matt. 8:9; 10:24, 25; 13:27) The Greek term doulos does correspond to the Hebrew word ebed. It too is not limited to persons that are owned by others. It can also refer to devoted servants of God whether they are human (Ac 2:18; 4:29; Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10), or angels. (Rev. 19:10) Where the word sundoulos (slave) is used; it is used in a figurative sense, to persons who are slaves to sin (John 8:34; Ro 6:16-20) or slaves of corruption. (2 Peter 2:19) So, the answer, in the end, is quite simple, no slavery is not always bad.
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