Judaism and Slavery - Talmudic Era

Talmudic Era

In the early Christian era, the regulations concerning slave-ownership by Jews apparently became the subject of some confusion, and efforts were undertaken to revise the slavery laws. The precise issues that necessitated a revision to the laws is not certain, but it could include factors such as ownership of non-Canaanite slaves, the continuing practice of owning Jewish slaves, or conflicts with Roman slave-ownership laws. Thus, the Talmud (circa 200-500 CE) contains an extensive set of laws governing slavery, which is more detailed, and different than the original laws found in the Jewish Bible.

The major change found in the Talmud's slavery laws is that a single set of rules - with a few exceptions - governs both Jewish slaves and non-Jewish slaves. Another change was that the automatic release of Jewish slaves after 7 years is replaced by indefinite slavery, in conjunction with a process whereby the owner could - under certain situations - release the slave by a written document (a manumission). However, historian Josephus wrote that the seven year automatic release was still in effect if the slavery was a punishment for a crime the slave committed (as opposed to voluntary slavery due to poverty). In addition, the notion of Canaanite slaves from the Jewish Bible is expanded to all non-Jewish slaves.

One of the few rules that distinguished between Jewish and non-Jewish slaves regarded found property: items found by Jewish slaves were owned by the slave, but items found by a non-Jewish slave belonged to the slave owner. Another change was that the Talmud explicitly prohibits the freeing of a non-Jewish slave, which was stricter that the biblical law which was silent on the issue, and simply permitted slaves to be owned indefinitely. However, non-Jewish slaves could be converted to Judaism and then freed, in some circumstances.

It is apparent that Jews still owned Jewish slaves in the Talmudic era, because Talmudic authorities tried to denounce the biblical permission that Jews could sell themselves into slavery if they were poverty-stricken. In particular, the Talmud said that Jews should not sell themselves to non-Jews, and if they did, the Jewish community was urged to ransom or redeem the slave.