I think I demonstrated above they do not have the characteristics of property. The KJV translates property as possession in this passage which is actually a better translation. Which is unusual for the KJV, usually it is not the best translation. The term possession can be understood as a privilege. It is a privilege for them to become part of the masters family during this time of economic collapse, ie they are rescued from probably starvation and death. Just as many old hymns and the Bible refer to our conversion to Christ as getting heaven as our possession.
Hear that,
@Clizby WampusCat ? It's a great honour to be taken as a slave! Those fortunate people, who were captured and enslaves in foreign countries during unspecified times of economic collapse that Ed1wolf just made up. How lucky they were to be taken, forced to work, beaten, and to have their descendants doomed to the same lifestyle.
What I always find especially interesting is how Christians, trying to prove that the Bible is not a pro-slavery document, always end up (sooner rather than later) using the same arguments as slavers in the 19th century.
Witness Pastor Warren, speaking of slavery in Georgia, USA, in 1861:
"An unparalleled progress in civilization and Christianity has resulted to them, from this domestic relation. They constitute an element in the social and religious relations of life, not as equals to the master, but as good subjects of a patriarchal government, under their moral and spiritual interests are supplied through the gospel – they are fed, clothed and protected – nursed affectionately when sick, and bountifully provided and tenderly cared for when old. Under this treatment, they cherish an affection for the master akin to the love of children to their parents, and thus
through affection is the yoke made easy and the burden light."
How lucky the slaves were! Whether Pastor Warren's in the nineteenth century, or Ed1wolf's in Biblical times - how fortunate they were that superior peoples should take them into their households and keep them as slaves!
Ed, perhaps we should do that kind of thing ourselves nowadays. There are certainly plenty of people who are poor, hungry and afflicted in the world. Rather than give to charity or try to help their countries economies, perhaps we should enslave them, keep them as property for the rest of their lives, keep their children as property in perpetuity, and beat them as much as we like?
