Biblical Compensation

Compensation is another word for reparation. Reparation is sought by those themselves or family members who feel they have been wronged in the distant past by something or someone that is affecting one’s present and future outcomes.

Slavery is often used as a reason for reparation. An excellent example is the State of California’s (as of Monday, July 3, 2023) 800-billion-dollar reparation proposal (1.2 million per California African-American resident). Of course, seven other states are currently involved in reparation; one could also use it as an example.

At the time of this article, the estimated cost of reparation nationwide would be around ten trillion dollars, with a cap of about 11.5 trillion dollars (approximately 800,000 per qualified African-American household).

This is known as H.R. 40 in the U.S. Congress and had the support of only two members in 2014. Today, that support is 143 members and counting.

The negativity of this across America comes in at a question, “Where would the African Americans be today if it weren’t for slavery?”

With all fairness and respect to the African-American society across our nation, I’m not trying to take sides here; please, I’m just a writer giving (or trying) to address both sides of a story that is a three-headed monster (for the record; I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for a top Sergeant in Vietnam who saved my ass, who just so happened to be an African-American from Alabama).

Now for the Biblical compensation (the third monster) of this article:

“Christians are slaves to a God who believes in slavery.”

Approximately 80% of African Americans are Christians. What’s wrong with this picture?

It is a known fact that southern enslavers in the 1800s leading up to the Civil War used the Bible as proof that almighty God himself ordained slavery.

Ultimately, wiser heads prevailed, the Bible was conquered, and the enslaved people were free. But! If it had been up to Christianity, the past one hundred and fifty-eight years of slavery would have been a thing of the future and not the past.

One must remember that the Bible was in Greek before being translated into English. To hide some of its absurdities and maintain its air of invincibility, some Bible publishers altered Greek words while they were being translated into English. An example would be the Greek word “Doulos,” which means an enslaved person, which, when translated into English, was changed to “servant.”

(KJV) New Testament Laws of Slavery

“And the servant, (slave) who knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beating with many stripes” (Luke. 12:47).

“But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes” … (Luke. 12:48). *This means that the innocent enslaved person who did wrong but did not know it was wrong was beaten all the same.

“Servants (slaves) obey in all things your master according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God” (Col. 3:22).

*Meaning if your master wanted sex, you gave it up in the name of the Lord.

“Masters, give unto your servants (slaves) that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven”(Col, 4:1).

“Let as many servants (slaves) as are under the yoke count their masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed” (1 Tim. 6:1).

“Servants (slaves) be subject to your masters with fear; not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward” (1 Pet. 2:18).

Additional comments on slavery can also be found in the New Testament in Matthew, Luke, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, Titus, 1 Peter, and the Book of Revelations.

(KJV) The Old Testament Laws of Slavery

“If his master has given him a wife, and she has born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s” … (Ex. 21:4). *This was for all enslaved people regardless if they were Hebrew, Black, White, or any enslaved man walking.

“And if a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservant do. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation (Ex. 21:7-8).

*Note: These daughters in question could be as young as 12 years old and be sexually abused by their master as he saw fit, and afterward, if he didn’t want her anymore, he could sell her to someone in another country. In some cases, a master of enslaved people would have his concubine made up of other men’s wives and daughters sold into slavery to be abused as he saw fit, all with the approval of a watchful God!

“Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaid (slaves) which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them you shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids” (Lev. 25:44). *In other words, God said you could have anyone as your slave; but not one of his chosen; the Israelites.

“Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for you children after you, to inherit them for a living; they shall be your bondmen for ever (Lev. 25:45-46).

*In other words, once enslaved, always enslaved. After you die, your children are enslaved. Once your children die, their children are enslaved. Once they die, their children are enslaved people in one perpetual motion, blessed by God!

If you did battle with the Israelites and lost all your women and children, you would become the property of the Israelites, who could do to them as they saw fit according to the laws handed down to Moses from a loving God.

In the case of the African American, I’d be looking toward Christianity for any further compensation, for Common Law is binding law.

Ivan Peter Kovak