My question is based off of the views that I often hear concerning how did ancient Jewish people compare ethically to their neighbors. As we know, God did not control what was written and what was written may not necessarily be accurate to what God believed. We read of slavery, animal sacrifices, concubines, women’s rights or lack of and laws about justice for crimes. The picture that is painted is a society most of us would have gross and brutal compared to modern America. Our response as modern people is that slavery is evil and we don’t see justification for trying to come up with ways to have more compassionate slavery, excluding talk around prison systems and so on.
So don’t get lost in the sauce. What’s above is to frame the reality that modern social norms are far more progressive in general than those that we see in the old testament . But often I am told, well those laws restricted how abusive something like slavery could be because of how much more brutal it was in surrounding nations. So I’m curious on comparative resources on were ancient Jewish people during the time of the OT more progressive than their neighbors. Just like how in a thousand years someone may look at Canada’s healthcare and think it’s wicked compared to theirs even if it was more progressive than their neighbors now.
So to state the question again. Were they more progressive than their neighbors?