A Postscript on Slavery & Genocide | From Mosaic Law to the Church Fathers

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This episode concludes a four-part series examining slavery, polygamy, and genocide in biblical texts. The discussion addresses remaining questions about the moral gap between Mosaic law and early Christian teaching, arguing that Scripture reflects a progressive moral pedagogy rather than an immediate ideal. The framework employs natural law theory and Eastern Orthodox theology to distinguish between morally impermissible slavery and morally acceptable servitude arrangements, while contextualizing Old Testament ethics within the Ancient Near Eastern cultural baseline from which God drew his people toward eventual Christian perfection.

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00:00:00 Introduction 

00:01:20 Recapping the Slavery Episode 

00:08:20 Recapping the Polygamy Episode 

00:10:00 Recapping the Genocide Episode 

00:11:27 Why a 4th Episode? 

00:15:00 Slaying of Innocence 

00:19:45 Possibility #1 

00:20:30 Possibility #2 

00:22:15 Possibility #3 

00:23:40 The Rich Man and Lazarus 

00:27:30 The Most Troubling Psalm 

00:36:17 Lingering Concerns with Genocide 

00:42:35 Are the Innocent Damned? 

00:46:35 Loose Ends with Slavery 

00:53:29 The Law and Moral Progress 

01:00:50 Sensitivity of Moral Faculties 

01:06:15 The Ideal of the Logos