ABSTRACT
Without attempting here any exhaustive examination of the biblical evidence on slavery. 1 I propose to show that the biblical sources (perhaps not accidentally) display two features which are found also in classical antiquity. First, we can distinguish two different paradigms of slavery: captives (and their descendants) and debt-slaves, these paradigms being composed of a number of typical oppositions. Secondly, these oppositions generate a crisis in labelling. Opposition grows to the use of the concept of slavery in relation to debt-slaves. But that is not to say that the institution ceases to exist; it merely continues under a different name. Such a hypothesis makes it necessary for us to distinguish between the rules themselves and their ideological presentation.
