Handbuch der Geschichte der Sklaverei: Eine Globalgeschichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart

Abstract

Biblical scholars have studied the references to “slaves” in the Bible in detail. They appear right from the Patriarchal narratives onwards in legal, narrative and prophetic texts (indictments of selling fellow Israelites into slavery or the large scale human trafficking of neighbouring nations) and probably played a much more pervasive role than becomes apparent from the biblical texts. In the context of various conquests and the exile, many ancient Israelites themselves experienced deportation and enslavement. Also, for the sake of comparison, scholars have examined slavery in the ANE, in particular legal stipulations in various codices. In the NT the focus has been on slaves and masters in the parables of Jesus, on the so-called household codes of the letters, metaphorical uses of slaves and slavery (see, e.g., John Byron, Slavery Metaphors in Early Judaism and Pauline Christianity: A Traditio-Historical and Exegetical Examination, WUNT II.162 [Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003]), on studies of the identity and social make-up of the early Christian communities and the indictments of human trafficking directed against “Babylon” in Revelation 18:10-13.