I'm no expert in etymology (or anything, really), but the word 'slave' comes from 'slav', referring to the Slavic people, who typically were used as slaves (or servants, or possibly just physical labour under the standards of the time, similar to many slavs today). The origin of 'slav' seems to be all over the place. I think the
earliest I can find is it being from 'slovo', which simply meant 'word' (God's word?). That wiki definition also suggests it may come from 'slawos', which means 'people, nation, folk'. God's people = God's slaves?
A bit related; apparently in Old English, slavs were called '
wined'. They called Slavia 'Wineda Land' or Land of the Wends (land of the slavs). Wined comes from the German 'wend', which comes from the proto-German winidaz, which apparently comes from proto-indo-european '
wenh1-' which means 'to love'.
The word '
ciao' (meaning hello/goodbye) also comes from slav (meaning hello/goodbye your humble servant). Interestingly, that wiki article also makes sure to mention it isn't related at all to the Vietnamese chao, which also means hello/goodbye (I always love finding a word that is pronounced the same in a western and eastern language, but which we are told has absolutely no connection. I wish I could remember others I've found. Some names I remember are Erika (Japanese and German) and Naomi (Japanese and Hebrew). I've always felt like names are the key to finding the true nature of our roots, since names tend to be passed down through generations, even carried to other nations).
So the root for 'slaves' and 'slav' seem to suggest that these peoples weren't viewed as sub-human.
In the New Testament, the Greek word used for 'slave' was
οἰκέτης. According to wiki, this means slave, but the plural means 'household'. So it would be odd for the singular to mean servant or slave, in the manner we use it today. The origin of that Greek word is
οἰκέω which can mean inhabit, colonize, settle, manage/direct/govern, dwell, live, reside. So the sense I get isn't of a 'slave', but of a migrant or settler.
In the Old Testament, ebed is typically used. That comes from abad, which means 'work'. Ebed is someone who works. But ebed is typically translated as 'slave'. Though if you check out biblehub for
ebed, you'll see they also use the word for an 'official' or 'officer'. There are many words for 'slave' in the bibles. Most of them are words with no real origin to slave/servant/work. They seem to just shove 'slave' into places where it seems convenient.
In the New Testament, the word 'Greek' is usually in reference to gentiles (non-Jews), rather than explicitly people from the Greek region (though sometimes 'Hellen' is used to refer to the Greek people). Gentiles means people of a tribe/nation, much like slav. Gentile can also mean a heathen or pagan. In the past, a heathen meant someone who lived on uncultivated land; pagan was someone who lived rurally. When Europe (especially western Europe) was being settled by Christians, they called the people already living there 'heathens and pagans'. A lot of the early churches seemed to be less Christian, and a bit mixed. And it could be that these early churches were meant to be a communal space for both Christian settlers and the heathens/pagans.
Many of those churches had a unique feature; devil doors. These were small doors at the back of the church. Some believe they were just for spirits, but I've believed they were for heathens/pagans to attend the church. Why would the doors be small? The earliest settlers of western europe (especially the UK) lacked trade routes that could maintain a healthy diet. They lacked iodine, which lead to widespread cretinism (pregnant women who don't get iodine have small children that won't grow much). This explains a bunch of the folklore of Europe and little people. With a better diet, cretinism is essentially wiped out, and a few generations nobody believes that large swaths of tiny individuals actually existed.
Anyways, I got a bit off-topic.
In the New Testament, 'ioudaios' is sometimes used for Jew. It's pronunciation is strikingly similar to 'adios', which means 'goodbye', but literally means 'to God'. You'll note that ciao (hello/goodbye) has its root in 'slav'.
If I had to guess, 'slav' is simply a migrant. The bible isn't talking about slavery. It's talking about immigration. Much like how the Jews were a travelling tribe (or tribes). They were expelled (adios/goodbye). Slav took on the meaning of hello/goodbye because of the migrant cycle; they come in for a working season and go back home. The bible focuses a lot on the treatment of slavs or 'slaves', not because it is a book against (or for) slavery, but because it is essentially outlining early employee/employer relations, and how migrant workers shouldn't be taken advantage of, just because they aren't a local peoples.
I feel a lot of the language in the bible has been over emphasized. Any mention of lord or master will almost certainly be ascribed to Jesus, unless it has a negative connotation. So a story about asking a lord for help turns into people praying for Jesus to provide them a miracle. Instead of a lesson about employers/lords/masters providing for their employees/serfs/servants/slaves, it becomes a philosophical tale about how believing really, really hard might lead to God (or Jesus) saving you. It wouldn't surprise me if the ruling class took a document about how they should be responsible, and turned it into a book about how the common man needs to just deal with it. It's basically the original example of regulatory capture, in my opinion.
I hope this comment was appropriate and didn't stray too much. I've never posted here (that I can recall), but I've been up for many hours because my cat passed away yesterday, and I'm just not ready to go to sleep without her. I'm not ready for her to simply become a memory.
