The custom of reducing Hebrews to servitude ap- pears to have fallen into disuse subsequently to the Bai)ylonian captivity. The attempt to enforce it in Nehemiah's time met with decided resistance (Neh. v, 5), and Herod's enactment that thieves should be sold to foreigners roused the greatest animosity (Josephus, Ant. xvi, 1, 1). Vast numbers of Hebrews were reduced to slavery as war-captives at different periods by the Phoenicians (Joel iii, 16), the Philistines (ibid.; Amos i, 6), the Syrians (1 Mace, iii, 41; 2 Mace, viii, 11), the Egyptians (Josephus, Ant. xii, 2, 3), and, above all. by the Romans ( War, vi, 9, 8). We may form some idea of the numbers reduced to slavery by war from the sin- gle fact that Nicanor calculated on realizing 2000 tal- ents in one campaign by the sale of captives at the rate of ninety for a talent (2 Mace, viii, 10, 11), the number required to fetch the sum being 180,000. The Phoeni- cians were the most active slave-dealers of ancient times, purchasing of the Philistines (Amos i, 9), of the Syrians (2 Mace, viii, 21), and even of the tribes on the shores of the Euxine Sea (Ezek. xxvii, 13), and selling them wherever they could find a market about the shores of the Mediterranean, and particularly in Joel's time to the people of Javan (Joel iii, 6), it being uncertain whether that name represents a people in South Arabia or the Greeks of Asia Minor and the peninsula. It was probably through the Tj'rians that Jews were trans- ported in Obadiah's time to Sepharad, or Sardis (Obad. 20). At Rome vast numbers of Jews emerged from the state of slavery and became freedmen. The price at which the slaves were offered by Nicanor was consider- ably below the ordinary value either in Palestine or Greece. In the former country it stood at thirty shek- els ( = about $18), as stated below; in the latter at about one and a quarter mina ( =about $20), this being the mean between the extremes stated by Xeno- phon {Mem. ii, 5, 2) as the ordinary price at Athens. The price at which Nicanor offered them was only about $12 a head. Occasionally slaves were sold as high as a talent (about $1058) each (Xenophon, loc. cil.; Jo- sephus, Ant. xii, 4, 9).
(II.) Non-Hebrew Slaves. — (1.) The majority of non- Hebre%v slaves were war-captives, either the Canaanites who had survived the general extermination of their race under Joshua, or such as were conquered from the other surrounding nations (Numb, xxxi, 2fi sq.). Be- sides these, many were obtained by purchase from for- eign slave-dealers (Lev. xxv, 44, 45) ; and others may have been resident foreigners who were reduced to this state either by poverty or crime. The Rabbinists fur- ther deemed that any person who performed the services of a slave becaine ipso fad n a slave (Mishna, Kedush. i, 3). The children of slaves remained slaves, being the class described as "born in the house" (Gen. xiv, 14; xvii, 12; Eccles. ii,7), and hence the number was likely to increase as time went on. Tiie only statement as to their number applies to the post -Babylonian period, when they amounted to 7337, or about one to six of the free population (lOzra ii, (Jo). We have reason to be- lieve that the number diminished subsequently to this period, the Pharisees in particular being opposed to the system. The average value of a slave appears to have been thirty sliekels (Exod. x.xi, 32), varying, of course, according to age, sex, and capal>ilities. The estitnation of persons given in Lev. xxvii, 2-8 probably applies to war-captives who had been dedicated to the Lord, and tlie price of their redemption would in that case repre- sent the ordinary value of such slaves.
(2.) That the slave might be manumitted appears
SLAVERY
797
SLAVERY
from Exod. xxi, 26, 27 ; Lev. xix, 20. As to the meth- oiis by which this might be effected, we are told nothing in the Bible; but the Kabbinists specify the following four methods: [1] redemption by a money payment; [2] a bill or ticket of freedom ; [3] testamentarj' dispo- sition; or [4] any act that implied manumission, such as making a slave one's heir (Mielziner, p. 65, 66).
(3.) The slave is described as the " possession" of his master, apparently with a special reference to the power which the latter had of disposing of him to his heirs as he would any other article of personal property (Lev. XXV, 45. 46); the slave is also described as his master's " money" (Exod. xxi, 21), i. e. as representing a certain money value. Such expressions show that he was re- garded very much in the light of a viancipium, or chat- tel. But, on the other hand, provision was made for the protection of his person: wilful murder of a slave entailed the same punishment as in the case of a free man (Lev. xxiv, 17, 22). So, again, if a master inflicted so severe a punishment as to cause the death of his ser- vant, he was liable to a penalty, the amount of which |)robably depended on the circumstances of the case; for the Rabbinical view that the words " he shall be surely ]iunished," or, more correctly, " it is to be avenged," imply a sentence of death, is wholly untenable (Exod. xxi, 20). No punishment at all was imposed if the slave survived the punishment for a day or two (ver. 21), the loss of the slave being regarded as a sufficient punishment in that case. There is an apparent dispro- portion between this and the following regulation, aris- ing probably out of the different circumstances under which the injury was effected. In this case the law is speaking of legitimate punishment " with a rod ;" in the next, of a violent assault. A minor personal injury, such as the loss of an eye or a tooth, was to be recom- pensed by giving the servant his liberty (ver. 26, 27). The general treatment of slaves appears to have been gentle — occasionally too gentle, as we infer from Solo- mon's advice (Prov. xxix, 19, 21), nor do we hear more than twice of a slave running away from his master (1 Sam. XXV, 10 ; 1 Kings ii, 39). The slave was consid- ered by a conscientious master as entitled to justice (Job xxxi, 18-15) and honorable treatment (Prov. xxx, 10), A slave, according to the Kabbinists, had no power of acquiring property for himself; whatever he might become entitled to, even by way of compensation for personal injurj', reverted to his master (Mielziner, p. 55). On the other hand, the master might constitute liim his heir either wholly (Gen. xv, 3), or jointly with his children (Prov. xvii, 2): or, again, he might give him his daughter in marriage (1 Chron. ii, 35).