Does the Bible promote slavery?

[nazra7]

Hello everyone. I often hear that the Bible promotes slavery. I admit that it really does seem like slavery was encouraged in the old testament, especially since the word "slave" is often used. The most common implication of slavery that I am told is that the slaves were bought and sold as legal property.

Ofcourse, I'm sure that you all have heard the rebuttal about using the KJV instead of the NLT because the KJV is more accurate. But in doing this, we don't say that slavery is encouraged in the old testament because of the existing words "slave", but rather because of them being bought and sold as property.

From what I understand though, slavery has two conditions. One being that a person is legal property of another. The second is that the person was also forced to obey their master. Every dictionary definition seems to agree.

But in as far as my knowledge extends, there really isn't any evidence to suggest that the slaves or servants were forced to obey their masters. In addition, I've seen evidence that suggests the contrary (Deuteronomy 23:15 for example).

So isn't the notion of slavery in the old testament really contingent on the fact whether or not the slaves or servants were forced to obey their masters?