The New Testament book of Philemon references Onesimus - "no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord." Philemon 16.

As far as versions go, I offer these quotes from the BibleGateway.com:

"Recent research on the oldest and best Greek manuscripts of the New Testament has been reviewed, and some passages have been updated for even greater fidelity to the original manuscripts."

"The original NASB has earned the reputation of being the most accurate English Bible translation. The NASB update carries on the NASB tradition of being a true Bible translation, revealing what the original manuscripts actually say--not merely what the translator believes they mean."

The difference between the NIV and the NASB is that the NIV was intended as a "thought-for-thought" translation:

"The Committee held to certain goals for the NIV: that it be an Accurate, Beautiful, Clear, and Dignified translation suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing, and liturgical use. The translators were united in their commitment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God's Word in written form. They agreed that faithful communication of the meaning of the original writers demands frequent modifications in sentence structure (resulting in a "thought-for-thought" translation) and constant regard for the contextual meanings of words."

From a scholarly standpoint, the NASB is the more accurate translation, but reviewing the NIV and others will help anyone who wants to know what the Bible says. I took Greek in college, although I never took Hebrew, and I found that the NASB was the better translation.

Regardless of which translation you use (and it really should be a translation rather than a paraphrase), the important thing is to read the Bible itself, instead of what someone else says about it.

There also are some great tools available to for Bible study, including concordances (which are cross-references for words in the Bible - Young's is good, Strong's is good), commentaries (some are better than others), and Greek and Hebrew lexicons.

The way to actually study the Bible is to read the passage, and answer (for yourself) a few questions: what did the writer say? What does the passage mean? What does it mean to me? Chuck Swindoll has a great outline for the Bible itself and how to study it on his website at: http://www.insight.org/ToolsForGrowth/Article.asp?ArticleID=1000086.

1) The first eleven verses of Exodus 21 clearly deal with the treatment of Hebrew slaves, but then the text begins to discuss the legal handling of injuries in general. When we get to v. 20-21, we see that they apply to "slaves" in the NIV translation whereas 1-11 apply to "servants." While I don't know if the Hebrew words here were different, the intervening non-slave-related passages certainly cast doubt on whether these passages applied to Hebrew slaves. Also note that in v. 26-27, if a master causes a "servant" to lose an eye or a tooth, the servant must be set free. Does it make sense that beating a servant to within an inch of his/her life would not be punishable, but causing him/her to lose a tooth must be repaid by freeing him/her?

Verses 1-11 and 26-27 of Exodus 21 refer to the treatment of Hebrew slaves/servants. The same Hebrew word, "eved", is used for slave and servant. The Jewish Publication Society translation uses "slave" in both places.

The reason for the law allowing the servant to go free if his master beat him and knocked out his tooth or eye was to teach that ANY physical abuse, no matter how slight, of a servant was not to be tolerated. If the loss of single tooth was sufficient to free a servant, how much more so for a severe beating?

Be well,
Joseph

If you look at all the verses dealing with slavery in the Old Testament(Moses, the Law), we find they all restrict bad treatment by the "slave owner". Things like slavery result from sin. The whole of creation is fallen and decaying because of sin. So basically you want to complain to God that He hasn't done enough in restricting man's sin.
Be carefull about calling God into court. Here's what the last guy we know of who did it successfully had to say about the experience.
Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Then again I guess that wouldn't be so bad after all.

"So, does the Bible endorse genocide?"

In a word, yes. That's why I consider the Bible to be morally errant.

How can we compare God to man? God at one time killed every living being on earth except Noah and his family. Did God have a right to do that? Yes, He did. At one time Adolf Hitler ordered millions of people to be killed. Did he have a right to do that? No, he did not. No one has a right to destroy human life which God creates.

God created everything. He creates, and in His perfect judgment and righteousness He can destroy as well. Any person that holds the Creator and Sustainer of the universe to any act of unrighteousness simply does not know God the Father.

Many people think that God should be some big puppy dog who will always love and never judge. On the contrary, God will judge us and hold us accountable, and He will do so in perfect wisdom. The thought of being held accountable by a power greater than ourselves is the reason people scoff at God. We cannot begin to fully understand God from a human perspective. How do finite creatures, such as us, speak for the actions of an infinite Creator?

That being said, how awesome is it that the infinite Creator of the universe wants to have a personal relationship with us! That He would come down and pay the penalty for our sin, which is death. I do not know about anyone else, but I trust God the Father with my life. He can make better use of it in a week than I can in a lifetime.

"...how awesome is it that the infinite Creator of the universe wants to have a personal relationship with us! That He would come down and pay the penalty for our sin, which is death. I do not know about anyone else, but I trust God the Father with my life. He can make better use of it in a week than I can in a lifetime."

Amen!!

Slavery is mentioned (see: condoned) in the new testament too, you know.