How would you improve the Ten Commandments?

That's one individual case, where Paul begged for his own son to be freed. And pretty much completely refuted by... why, it's Paul again, who repeatedly tells slaves to obey their masters, even if their masters are cruel.


"Yes, have many children and repopulate the earth and subdue it."
I'm sorry, I... don't see it.
In fact, if you read further in that same chapter, you see Noah curse one of his sons:

“A curse upon the Canaanites,” he swore.
“May they be the lowest of slaves
To the descendants of Shem and Japheth.”

Then he said,

“God bless Shem,
And may Canaan be his slave.
God bless Japheth,
And let him share the prosperity of Shem,
And let Canaan be his slave.”

www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+9&version=TLB

Those are the only references to slavery in that chapter. And God had no problem with this, because apparently he made it so.


On the contrary, it is questionable ethics for all who have modern ethics. So those who defend the Bible in terms of slavery, are - practically by definition - the ones with very poor ethics.

God is explicit about things he does not want you to do. He tells you explicitly not to steal, not to murder, not to wear clothes made for the opposite sex etc. But at no point does he instruct us not to have slaves. He had every opportunity to do so (or rather, the Bible authors did), but there was never any condemnation, any kind of condemnation, of slavery.