Hello Mark,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

You said:

I appreciate your fervent effort to defend your hypothesis. Perhaps you're correct, but it doesn't seem to be supported in the writings of the Rabbis.

Read wider, my friend.

By no means am I alone in this interpretation.

You said:

As best as I can tell, slavery existed long before Israel came into existence, and the Tenach attempted to regulate the practice by providing rules on how slaves should be treated and some legal framework as to how ownership would work.

Slavery indeed existed long before Israel. It was ubiquitous throughout the ancient world.

The Tanach certainly provides regulations for how you treat those who work for you.

But by no means can the Tanach's rules allow slavery.

There is no ownership allowed. Exodus 21:16 prevents it -- anyone found in possession of a person shall be put to death.

By one sentence, slavery is outlawed.

You said:

One rabbinic writer suggested that the rules were written with the recent enslavement in Egypt close to mind.

They absolutely were.

God is explicit about that:

13 And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. 14 You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. 15 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

16 But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you, 17 then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way. (Deuteronomy 15:13-17 BSB)

Notice a few things here:

- God's commands are based on Israel being redeemed from slavery. Treat people well. Don't treat people as though they are lower than you. Don't regard your workers or poor people as though they are lesser. Remember that you all were slaves in Egypt. Therefore, treat everyone well.

- Servants were loaded down with wealth before being sent away. They were not slaves. They were paid handsomely for their years of service.

- Both men and women are cared for in this manner. Neither is lesser than the other.

You said:

Ultimately, if God had wanted to prohibit slavery, it would have been as easy as one of the commandments... Though shalt not have slaves. That doesn't seem to exist anywhere. Instead, we have rules and guidance on how slaves are to be treated.

We do have it.

We have a one-sentence command that prohibits all slavery:

"Anyone who steals a person and sells them, and anyone found in possession of them, shall be put to death." (Exodus 21:16).

This one verse eliminates slavery.

You can't steal people against their will to make them slaves.

You can't sell people as though they were property.

You can't possess people as property.

Doing any of these actions results in the death penalty.

You'll notice that throughout the Scriptures, if a person is being sold, they are only selling themselves. Over and over, it's the phrase "if a person sells themselves to you." It never says, "if a slave trader sells a person to you."

This is then followed immediately with requirements to treat the person well, to treat them as hired hands or better, rather than as slaves.

Selling people as slaves is expressly forbidden by Exodus 21:16. This is why you never see slave markets or slave traders anywhere in Israel throughout all the narratives of the Bible.