dlowan wrote:And - I answer my own question - yes, it seems that all these commandments about slavery being neither permanent, unprofitable nor brutal refer only to Israelites - that the god of Israel makes no such commandments about non-Israelites.
Were I to take this god seriously, I would find no reason acceptable to my morality for its attitude to slavery.
I do find the attitude of the deity that, I believe, the Israelites created for themselves (though it seems clear they did not obey their deity's laws) very enlightened, for the time, in relation to slavery of fellow Israelites.
I don't get the chance to mention this often enough -- so let me jump at this opportunity:
The entire of the theological mythology -- or what I personally see as a "theological mythology" was, in my opinion, VERY, VERY enlightened for the people and time.
I think none of us should begrude the ancient Hebrews that.
Fact is, they needed a specific kind of god to protect themselves from the very specific gods of their "enemies" -- and they needed the force of a god to emphasize the need for rules and regulations necessary for an orderly society.
With that said, however, I do not extend those considerations to present day humans who still think this stuff holds water.
But of course, that is just my opinion.
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