* Yoke and thong will bow the weak :
And for an evil servant there are rocks and tortureB*(v.a6).
It is necessary to bear the last passage in mind if we are to gain a true and complete picture of this a.spect of Jewish social life (cf. Mt 25^", Lk 12^«, the latter passage showing that very severe corporal chastisement, falling short of loss of limb or life, might be meted out to an ' evil servant ').t Accord- ing to the Mislina(ya(/a»(i iv. 7), it was a subject of discussion among Pharisees and Sadducees as to whether a slave who had committed an injury on another was himself responsible or his master. According to the contention of the Pharisees, the master was not responsible, though he was resiion- siblo if the injury were committed by his ox. Thus the Pharisees (in contrast with the Koman Varro above cited) emphasized the distinction between an unreasoning brute and a slave. They argued, moreover, that a slave might otherwise easily wreak his spite on his master by committing an injury on another which the master had to pay. According to Babd kammd (viii. 4), the slave, if he committed an injurj' on another, was liable to make compensation when he obtained his release.
liespecting the conditions of release of Gentile slaves owned by a Jewish master we have not many data to guide us ; see al)Ove, under 5 B, ad Jin. Every facility was all'orded for the manumission of
• ' Me plus quam sen'i mors drhere videbatur conimoveniU' t We are led to suspect that tiirse sterner traits o( Jewish treatment reflect Gnoco-Koman intlueDC&
468 SERVANT, SLAVE, SLAVERY
SERVANT, SLAVE, SLAVERY
Gentile slaves. According to the prescriptions of the Talmud, the Gentile slave received release through (1) redemption purchase (Maimonides, *Abadin^ v. 2), (2) letters of manumission (ib. 3), (3) testamentary disposition, (4) siluut reco<,^nition of his freedom {Peahj iii. 8), (5) by becoming a Jew {i.e. a proselyte), (6) by marriage with a free woman, etc. (Uamburger).
In Schurer, GJV^ (iii. p. 53), interesting details are furnished respecting the influence of Greek legal procedure on Jewish practice in the release of slaves. The act of release took place iT( T»jf Tfiofuix^f* *■«- in the synagogrue before the assembled congregation (probably with some reference to Ex 21*>; see above). Full freedom was granted to the slave, xo'P'f *f t^^^l T>,» Tflcrtux*:^ BaiTiioci n xa.'t irooffKtt^Tipr.Jia^ [cf. ■rpoiixaipiipi'iM in Ac 2-*i« 114 6*. Ro 1212, Col 42], i.e. with the exception of regu- lar worship in the synagogue to which the slave was bound. Accordingly, this mode of release in a sacred place involved a definite pledge on the part of the released slave to honour its religious usages. We have a parallel in Hellenic custom, whereby the procedure took place in a temple, and consisted in a fictitious sale of the slave by the master to the deity, the slave himself bringing the purchase -money. This did not in reality make the emancipated slave mto a temple servant. He became .actually free, and only morally appropriated by the deity. These facts are certified by documents discovered at Panti- capajuni and Qorgippia (cf. Schurer, ib. p. 18). The same tradi- tion p;i^sed into the Christian Church m the eastern provinces of the Roman empire, and was called manumissio in ecclesia ; see Schiirer, p. 53, footn. 63.
The treatment of slaves in the Jewish household was not only humane, but under a good and pious master it would be even brotherly. Of the most distinguished personages it is related that they readily feasted their slaves with the same food of which they themselves partook, addressed old slaves as 'father' or 'mother,' and regarded their death as that of a beloved relative {Bcra/c/uJth 166 ; Kcthitboth 61; Jems. Babd kammd 6).* Ace. to Bcrakhvth, passim^ slaves are placed with women and children in exemption from shenid and wearing phj'lacteries, though bound in other matters of ritual.
9. The Chri^^tian Attitude to Slavery.— This may best be described as the religious attitude of Judaism expanded to the dimensions of Christ's gospel of universal redemptive love to man. With its advent new powers had entered into the world — new conceptions of human duties and relationships. All these lie implicit in Christ's Gospel of the Kingdom. * To the poor the gospel is preached ' (Mt IF). St. Paul expressed the new consciousness in the words : * All are sons by faith in Christ Jesus . . . As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. . . . There is neither Jew nor GreeK, there is neither slave nor free . , . for ye are all one in Chri.st Jesus' (Gal 3-*'^, cf. Col .3'°' *'). And so the doors were thrown open wide to a world that yearned for salvation.
'The kingdom of God with its sublime universalism offers its invitation to all men as children of a heavenly Father, and liinda those who follow His call into a society. ... In the Christian Church the poor man found the civic rights of the Divine king- dom accorded to him without resene as God's own child. . . . To the slaves, that lowest and most unhappy class of Gncco- Roumn society, the rights of man were restored. In the Church they heard the magic tones of the words ; " Ye are men for whom also Christ has died; redeemed, to whom the same position belongs in the kingdom of God as to your masters." Masiers also heard in the Church the solemn admonition that they were the brethren of their slaves, since both had taken upon themselves bv voluntary choice the voke of obedience to Christ (I Co 721^-, Eph Vfi«-). When Paul uttered thoughts like these in his letter to Philemon, in which he interceded for the runaway slave of the latter, he was writing the charter of emancipation for the many millions of slaves who were held down by a minority In a degrading bondage.' t