The “Slave Bible” Is a Stark Reminder of How the Holy Book Can Justify Evil
By Sarahbeth Caplin, November 29, 2018

As a reminder that the Bible has been used to justify atrocities, the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. is now featuring an exhibit with what is known as the “Slave Bible”: a heavily censored version of the holy book that highlights the necessity of slavery… while leaving out every verse mentioning freedom.

According to Adelle M. Banks of Religion News Service notes that seeing this exhibit can be jarring to people who are used to seeing the Bible in only a positive light:

Scholars acknowledge that the little-known Bible can be a shocking discovery for students and museum visitors alike.

“When they first encounter the Slave Bible, it’s pretty emotional for them,” said Holly Hamby, an associate professor at Fisk who uses the artifact as she teaches a class on the Bible as literature. Many of the students at the historically black university are Christian and African-American, most of whom are descendants of slaves, including those in the West Indian colonies.

“It’s very disruptive to their belief system,” said Hamby, who is currently teaching from a digitized version of the Slave Bible.

The book excludes about 90% of the Old Testament and 50% of the New Testament.



Give credit to the museum for showing an incredibly cherry picked version of the book. This edited version even takes out the entire Exodus story of the Israelites fleeing slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt… which makes little sense, given how that mass “exodus” is how the book got its name.