The Institution of Slavery Among the Ancient Hebrews

The Institution of Slavery Among the Ancient Hebrews PDF

Author: M. Mielziner

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-01-09

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9780428148010

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Excerpt from The Institution of Slavery Among the Ancient Hebrews: According to the Bible and Talmud Israel, since his deliverance from Egypt, has entered the service of God - be come his servant. But the servant of the Lord ought not to become the servant of men. Perpetual and real servitude can not, therefore, exist among Israelites, for that would be a virtual denial of the sovereignty of God. 2 Hence the re striction as regards the time during which an Israelite might be kept in servitude, and the rule that he should not, during that period, be treated as a bondman or serf, but as a hireling only. It is true that this second principle accrued directly to the benefit only of a citizen of the Hebrew commonwealth, yet it is certain that in its enforcement the way was already prepared for the total abolition of slavery, not only among the Israelites, but among all nations. For, with the diffusion of the knowledgexof God among all nations, these would also be ele vated to the dignity of servants of God, and thus the principle, that he who serves God can not become the slave of man, would not only be applied to them, but also be adopted by them. 3 So long, however, as this had not yet taken place, so long as the heathen nations remained in their false relation toward God, and thus recognized for themselves the possibility of their being degraded into a state of bondage to men, the law regarded their slaves as such, and insisted for the time being, only upon the observance toward them of every possible considera tion of humanity and kindness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade

Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade PDF

Author: Eli Faber

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2000-07-01

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0814728790

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In the wake of the civil rights movement, a great divide has opened up between African American and Jewish communities. What was historically a harmonious and supportive relationship has suffered from a powerful and oft-repeated legend, that Jews controlled and masterminded the slave trade and owned slaves on a large scale, well in excess of their own proportion in the population. In this groundbreaking book, likely to stand as the definitive word on the subject, Eli Faber cuts through this cloud of mystification to recapture an important chapter in both Jewish and African diasporic history. Focusing on the British empire, Faber assesses the extent to which Jews participated in the institution of slavery through investment in slave trading companies, ownership of slave ships, commercial activity as merchants who sold slaves upon their arrival from Africa, and direct ownership of slaves. His unprecedented original research utilizing shipping and tax records, stock-transfer ledgers, censuses, slave registers, and synagogue records reveals, once and for all, the minimal nature of Jews' involvement in the subjugation of Africans in the Americas. A crucial corrective, Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade lays to rest one of the most contested historical controversies of our time.

Jewish Slavery in Antiquity

Jewish Slavery in Antiquity PDF

Author: Catherine Hezser

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2005-12-22

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 0191515663

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This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Jewish attitudes towards slavery in Hellenistic and Roman times. Against the traditional opinion that after the Babylonian Exile Jews refrained from employing slaves, Catherine Hezser shows that slavery remained a significant phenomenon of ancient Jewish everyday life and generated a discourse which resembled Graeco-Roman and early Christian views while at the same time preserving specifically Jewish nuances. Hezser examines the impact of domestic slavery on the ancient Jewish household and on family relationships. She discusses the perceived advantages of slaves over other types of labor and evaluates their role within the ancient Jewish economy. The ancient Jewish experience of slavery seems to have been so pervasive that slave images also entered theological discourse. Like their Graeco-Roman and Christian counterparts, ancient Jewish intellectuals did not advocate the abolition of slavery, but they used the biblical tradition and their own judgements to ameliorate the status quo.

Jews and the Civil War

Jews and the Civil War PDF

Author: Jonathan D. Sarna

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2011-09

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 0814771130

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"An erotic scandal chronicle so popular it became a byword... Expertly tailored for contemporary readers. It combines scurrilous attacks on the social and political celebritites of the day, disguised just enough to exercise titillating speculatuion, with luscious erotic tales." —Belles Lettres This story concerns the return of to earth of the goddess of Justice, Astrea, to gather information about private and public behavior on the island of Atalantis. Manley drew on her experience as well as on an obsessive observation of her milieu to produce this fast paced narrative of political and erotic intrigue.

Slavery and Society at Rome

Slavery and Society at Rome PDF

Author: Keith Bradley

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1994-10-13

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 131613914X

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This book, first published in 1994, is concerned with discovering what it was like to be a slave in the classical Roman world, and with revealing the impact the institution of slavery made on Roman society at large. It shows how and in what sense Rome was a slave society through much of its history, considers how the Romans procured their slaves, discusses the work roles slaves fulfilled and the material conditions under which they spent their lives, investigates how slaves responded to and resisted slavery, and reveals how slavery, as an institution, became more and more oppressive over time under the impact of philosophical and religious teaching. The book stresses the harsh realities of life in slavery and the way in which slavery was an integral part of Roman civilisation.

The Curse of Ham

The Curse of Ham PDF

Author: David M. Goldenberg

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-04-11

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 1400828546

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How old is prejudice against black people? Were the racist attitudes that fueled the Atlantic slave trade firmly in place 700 years before the European discovery of sub-Saharan Africa? In this groundbreaking book, David Goldenberg seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unprecedented in rigor and breadth, his investigation covers a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam. By tracing the development of anti-Black sentiment during this time, Goldenberg uncovers views about race, color, and slavery that took shape over the centuries--most centrally, the belief that the biblical Ham and his descendants, the black Africans, had been cursed by God with eternal slavery. Goldenberg begins by examining a host of references to black Africans in biblical and postbiblical Jewish literature. From there he moves the inquiry from Black as an ethnic group to black as color, and early Jewish attitudes toward dark skin color. He goes on to ask when the black African first became identified as slave in the Near East, and, in a powerful culmination, discusses the resounding influence of this identification on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking, noting each tradition's exegetical treatment of pertinent biblical passages. Authoritative, fluidly written, and situated at a richly illuminating nexus of images, attitudes, and history, The Curse of Ham is sure to have a profound and lasting impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery, and on the study of early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Slavery as Salvation

Slavery as Salvation PDF

Author: Dale B. Martin

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-03-30

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 166670072X

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Early Christians frequently used metaphors about slavery, calling themselves slaves of God and Christ and referring to their leaders as slave representatives of Christ. Most biblical scholars have insisted that this language would have been distasteful to potential converts in the Greco-Roman world, and they have wondered why early Christians such as Paul used the image of slavery to portray salvation. In this book Dale B. Martin addresses the issue by examining the social history and rhetorical and theological conventions of the times. The first half of the book draws on a variety of historical sources – inscriptions, novels, speeches, dream-handbooks, and agricultural manuals – to portray the complexity of slavery in the early Roman empire. Concentrating on middle-level, managerial slaves, Martin shows how slavery sometimes functioned as a means of upward social mobility and as a form of status-by-association for those slaves who were agents of members of the upper class. For this reason, say Martin, “slavery of Christ,” brought the Christian convert a degree of symbolic status and lent the Christian leader a certain kind of derived authority. The second half of the book traces the Greco-Roman use of political rhetoric that spoke about populist leaders as “enslaved” to their followers, especially to members of the lower class. This provides the context for Paul’s claim, in 1 Corinthians 9, that he has enslaved himself to “all” – that is, to those very people he is supposed to lead as an apostle. Martin thus interprets this statement to mean that Paul identifies himself with the interests of persons with lower status in the Corinthian church, calling on those with higher status to imitate his self-debasement in order to further the interests of those below them on the social scale.