Kingdom Come

Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord / master being old also?” (Genesis 18:1-12)

The common title lord is equivalent to master, slurred in English to Mister, defines the authority required to fulfill responsibilities to provide for and protect the landlord’s people, especially in times of crisis like war or famine. Everyone needs a person in this role in their social circle to whom they can turn to for help.

To turn this title into slander is either gross ignorance or deliberate defamation.

Most of all, this accusation against the Bible deceives its intended – obviously ignorant – audience regarding the fact that it is the Roman Empire’s culture – LAUDED by humanists such as this American Atheists Organization – which is responsible for slavery for the last two thousand years, including its political control over the nation of Israel when the New Testament was written, and its perpetuation into our current modern era by elitists’ exploitation of the masses.

This sorry excuse of a criticism smears itself, not the Bible.

Slavery was an ever-present feature of the Roman world…As many as 1 in 3 of the population in Italy or 1 in 5 across the empire were slaves and upon this foundation of forced labour was built the entire edifice of the Roman state.

Slavery, that is complete mastery (dominium) of one individual over another, was so imbedded in Roman culture that inequality in power, freedom and the control of resources was an accepted part of life ‘freedom…was not a general right but a select privilege’ (Potter, 627). 

In absolute contrast, the Law of Moses established fair treatment of all individuals in society: “Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 25)

Under the Law of Moses – which was still in full force when the New Testament letters were written – see Acts 15:18-24,  Acts 28:17-24 – only non-citizens of Israel were to be enslaved permanently. Nationals could be temporary indentured servants only.

“of the heathen that are round about you [and]…the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy…

“if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee…as an hired servant, and as a sojourner / temporary, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him…” (Leviticus 25:17-41)

Being bought as a slave under the Mosaic Law is YHVH’s blessing on persons who have no stable means of life support. Think of it like a homeless shelter in the dead of winter: life-saving and – significantly! – something to be desired.

Or as the song says, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers...

One typical scenario was the freeing in the master’s will of a devoted servant after long years of service…

[But!] Legislation under the early Roman Empire put limits on the number of slaves that could be freed in wills (lex Fufia Caninia, 2 BC), which suggests that it had been widely used…[Because] Freeing slaves could serve the pragmatic interests of the owner.

Primarily, the financial requirement to house, feed and clothe them.

At the time Julius Caesar seizure of power (49 BC) the number of people living on social welfare assis-tance had increased to a staggering 1/3 of the city’s 1 million inhabitants. [Then] Publius Clodius Pulcher began distributing the grain for free. The result was a sharp increase in the influx of rural poor into Rome, as well as the freeing of many slaves so that they too would qualify for the dole. 

OK, but where do the freed slaves sleep at night?

In one of the stories in the Arabian Nights, a slave owner threatens to free his slave for lying to him. Clearly this is a threat of punishment, not a reward for good behavior, and indeed the slave protests against this excessive punishment, saying, “I have no handicraft whereby to gain my living”. 

And all over the world people are still being drawn into institutionalized slavery because they have no other means of support. Human trafficking…also known as modern slavery—affects an estimated 40.3 million people globally and earns traffickers at least $150 billion annually, making it one of the world’s most profitable crimes. Human trafficking often begins with traffickers targeting their victims’ poverty. Women and girls account for 71 per cent of all victims – one in every 130 women and girls – living in modern slavery.

Until the Industrial Revolution, there were no steady wage-based jobs. If your family didn’t inherit land, or have family money to invest in trade, you struggled to survive as day laborers.

“A householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard…agreed with the labourers for a penny a day.” (Matthew 20:1-7)

The Bible provides the current exchange rate for that day’s wage: “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny”. In other words, a man would work all day to provide the bare basic bread and water diet, with inferior nutrition of barley bread instead of wheat bread for a family of just 3. And that’s not guaranteed every day.

Manual labor requires mobility in the most readily available jobs of soldier, sailor, caravan laborer, farm worker or ranch hand. None of these are amenable to family life.

Cowboys were mostly young men who needed cash for day to day living expenses. They didn’t earn enough to support a family. Workdays lasted about 15 hours, and much of that time was spent on a horse or doing other physical labor.

Between 1 and 3 million migrant farm workers leave their homes every year to plant, cultivate, harvest, and pack fruits, vegetables and nuts in the U.S. Migrant farm workers are predominantly Mexican-born sons, husbands, and fathers averaging about 31 years of age.

“And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields… And when he came to himself, he said…I perish with hunger! (Luke 15)

The number of undocumented immigrant crossings at the southwest border for fiscal year 2022 topped 2.76 million, breaking the previous annual record by more than 1 million, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

An older man about to lose his privileged servant position describes his disastrous situation.

“What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig / perform manual labor; to beg I am ashamed.” I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship [in this house], they may receive me into their houses.

The villas of Ancient Rome were typically country Roman houses, with villa rustica being a functioning farmhouse estate permanently occupied and worked on by servants and a superviso, and villa suburbana, being a weekend retreat on the edge of cities 

So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.

Clever man. Investing in a year-round time share resorts pass by relieving the debt of an entire portfolio of clients. Not to mention the subtle hint of blackmail reporting them back to his old boss which would force them to pay their tab, with interest. But it also sounds like a poisoning hazard to me with this group of backstabbers. 

Modern society is split into two classes—the working class and the capitalist class. The working class…produces a surplus of wealth over and above what it gets back in wages. It is this unpaid surplus which creates the vast differences in the ownership of wealth between those who produce but do not own and those who own but do not produce.

This simple fact provides the answer as to why seven per cent of the population owns eighty-four per cent of the personal wealth; why some people can spend more on race horses, sex, alcohol in an hour, a day, a week, than some (the vast majority) can earn in a year or a lifetime. 

The rival system to capitalism is socialism.

In socialist economies, the government owns and manages the economic resources…The citizens of the country work to generate wealth, which is then distributed to everyone…

A socialist economy ensures that the basic needs of [all] the people are met…like shelter, education, healthcare, economic security, etc. It does come with some shortcomings, basically few incentives to worker any harder than slackards can get away with, with consequent poor productivity.

A biblical society is a form of socialism. This should lead us to question the authenticity of the Religious Right’s support of capitalism.

As far as lack of incentive, the biblical moral imperative is to “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” (Philippians 2:4)

The Old Testament patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were leaders of clans who worked together – leaders and followers – to meet the needs of everyone in the clan, even facing death to safeguard the weaker members of the household.

 According to a recent article, men actually become richer after getting divorced…they actually seem to benefit from no longer having a spouse.. Separated women are three times more likely to fall into poverty compared to separated men… Some studies have even suggested that a child’s ability to earn is significantly reduced after his parents divorce, with an average wealth decrease of 46%. possibly due to a disruption in education.

It should be evident that belonging to a household where you could be provided with all of life’s necessities for the duration of your life in exchange for what might be much less return from what you have to bring to the relationship is a huge benefit to the worker. 

Loyal and diligent slaves could be gifted with adoption.  Loyal servants could be adopted permanently into the family, note Abram’s intention towards his steward.

And that is what YHVH as Lord and Master offers to human.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” (Ephesians 1:3-5)