ContradictionsReading order 16Bible context 12 min read
Does God approve of slavery?
Laws permitting ownership of people and commands to obey masters conflict ethically with demands for liberty, equal treatment, and release from oppression.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Foundational
- A central claim about origins, salvation, divine justice, or religious authority.
Express hereditary ownership of foreigners conflicts substantially with equal treatment and protections against oppression of strangers and fugitives.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Slavery is authorized and enslaved people are told to obey
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:9
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 6
And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Genesis 7:1
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 7