These are the Words...

Eved
עבד

Definition

The word eved means "laborer", from the verb avad meaning "to labor".

The word is used for any kind of laborer, whether an oppressed slave, someone working in the Tabernacle, or someone who has chosen the life of a household servant.

Meaning in Ancient Israel

Genesis 29:15 (with Ya'akov and Lavan) makes clear a laborer is not necessarily a slave lacking wages. In fact, the most important use of eved in ancient Israel had nothing to do with slavery, but was the solution to bankruptcy described first in Exodus 21.

The Bankrupt Relative

If an ancient Israelite went bankrupt, he would live as a servant in a relative's house for six years or until the next yovel year, whichever came first. During this time he would hopefully learn from example how to more responsibly run a household.

The bankrupt relative in Leviticus 25:39-40 is not to be treated as a "laboring laborer" (slave) but a "hireling" (servant).

Deuteronomy 15:12-18 adds that he would leave with a enough money to serve as a "nest egg" for re-establishing his own household. To compliment this, an expectation is made that the eved be twice as helpful as a hired servant during his years of service. Finally, these verses add that this eved can be female: a previously unmentioned case of a bankrupt financially independent Hebrew woman (i.e., a poor widow).

Leviticus 25:40 specifies that the yovel year does apply to this kind of eved. Deuteronomy 15:12-18 clarify that the cycle of sh'mittah (years of remitting debts) does not apply.

If the bankrupt man decided he did not want to attempt financial independence again he could declare his love for his master and his master's family and remain in that household. To discourage this, Exodus 21:5-6 and Deuteronomy 15:16-17 describe an odd ritual with an awl and the door (or doorpost) of the house which physically marked him as part of the relative's household.

Tangent One: The Almah

A Hebrew young woman was not financially independent. What would happen to her if her family was too poor to support her? The rules for the eved do not apply; something else must be done.

Exodus 21:7-11 says she becomes a purchased Hebrew female handmaid, an amah. After six years she may be sold to another Hebrew master if she is still single. But it is expected that either her master or one of her master's sons would marry her, and she stops being an amah when she gets married. She has full marital rights, including a dowry if not married to her master. This situation is not selling a child into slavery, but a poor family offering an arranged marriage for a daughter, who has six years to prove herself a potentially good wife for either this man or one of his sons.

Notice that in both cases, eved and amah, the goal is to have the slave either become one of the family/household or go free.

Tangent Two: A Concubine for the Eved

This discussion might as well also clarify verse 21:4, about a male Hebrew slave being temporarily given a woman.

According to Exodus 23:31-33, a Hebrew man should only marry a Hebrew woman. Exodus 21:4 is about non-Hebrew women captured in war. The master of a married Hebrew male slave is allowed to give him a Canaanite concubine who remains a slave even when the Hebrew male slave is freed. Thus the master, who is financially supporting the male slave's Hebrew family, is compensated by using the male slave to help the Canaanite woman have children who will be slaves until the yovel year. The Canaanite female gains children who are half-Hebrew and will, after the yovel, be able to live in the land as citizens, gehr. Thus assimilation happens, but takes a generation.

Meaning in the First Century

We have not found any historical record of first-century use of this institution of the Hebrew eved to deal with bankruptcy. Apparently it had stopped being used.

Please see the vocabulary essay on douleuo for information about how the Apostolic Writings continue the teaching of serving Adonai with an eved mindset.

Meaning for Messianic Jews in Modern Times

Our Spiritual Bankruptcy

The spiritual situation of a new believer is parallel to the economic situation of Exodus 21:2-6.

However, spiritual propserity requires a constant connection to Yeshua (John 15:5), so our service to Yeshua cannot be temporary. The six years of "trial period" are thus compressed into a moment because departing the Household of God after six years is not a valid option: we cannot mimic life in that household after departing; we must stay permanently.

To become a follower of Yeshua is to declare, "I have had enough of being in charge of my life. When I am the lord of my life it only leads to spiritual bankruptcy compared to the spiritual riches of the Household of God. Let me become an eved in that Household! I am willing to surrender my right to myself and become a permanent member of the Household of God because I know the Father in that household is a loving, caring, master. I love that master and his family! (Hey, he even adopts his slaves as adult heirs!)"

Indeed, loving God and serving God in an eved manner go hand in hand (Deuteronomy 10:12, 11:13).

This is the context of a new believer's immersion. Perhaps the early followers of Yeshua could have begun a tradition of gaining a new earring while joining the Household of God, to mimic the ear-piercing ceremony. But earrings were not culturally symbolic, and immersion was. Furthermore, the seal of having entered the Household of God was receiving God's Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), for which many scriptural metaphors of washing and pouring were well known.

So Yeshua taught his followers to use immersion as a replacement ceremony. People were giving credit to Yeshua's claim that they could become more set apart for God by declaring spiritual bankruptcy, entering the Household of God, and receiving God's Spirit, all by identifying with Yeshua's own surrender to the Father's will, as exemplified in his death and resurrection.

The Benefits of Entering as a Slave

Proverbs 15:33 says "The fear of Adonai teaches wisdom. Before honor is humility." We need our status as slaves to acquire proper fear and humility, which in turn provide wisdom and honor. Adonai does also treat us as children and friends, but in these roles we learn less about fear and humility.

In Job 35:9-12, we read how God provides explanations to those who belong to him, not to those who love him or cry out to him.

As a slave in the Household of God we do not need to fear that our Lord will treat us cruelly; he is a caring master. But we might fear what he could ask us to do. Read Ezekiel 4:1-8, for example, in which the prophet is told to lie on one side for fourteen months! Or learn the stories of people whom God has asked to travel to harsh locales to share the Good News. Serving a kind master means he will treat us well, but does not guarantee he will avoid asking us to do unpleasant work when it needs to be done. Friends would not ask each other to do such unpleasant work, but a master can ask it of a slave.

Yet with the chance of being assigned unpleasant work also comes the more significant benefit of authority. In the eighth chapter of Matthew we read of how authority works, when a Roman army officer who understands authority:

"Sir, my orderly is lying at home paralyzed and is suffering terribly!"
Yeshua said, "I will go and heal him."
But the officer answered. "Sir, I am unfit to have you come into my home. Rather, if you will only give the command, my orderly will recover. For I too am a man under authority. I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes; to another, 'Come!' and he comes; to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."
On hearing this Yeshua was amazed and said to the people following him, "Yes, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such trust!"

The soldier has authority because he too is under authority. As a slave in the Household of God (let alone as an adopted adult heir) we have more spiritual authority than before, when we thought we were free but were actually slaves of our evil inclinations.

Our status as people given authority by God gives us power (also see First Corinthians 4:20).

So God might ask us to play army men with a brick, in public, without moving, for a year, and that's frightening (Ezekiel 4). But it's much more likely he'll ask us to a give a certain person healing, or spiritual freedom, or eternal joy, and that's exciting! God needs fewer people to build toy earthworks now that he has equipped us to move mountains.