why did people go into debt in old testament
173-174). Godâs laws in the Old Testament not only regulated slavery (so that those enslaved would be given many rights that they otherwise would not have had), but they also supplied the means whereby fairness could be meted out with regard to criminal activity and debt.T]here is no reasonable doubt that the New Testament, like the Old, not only tolerated chattel slavery (the form prevalent in the Greco-Roman world of Paulâs time) but helped to perpetuate it by making the slavesâ obedience to their masters a religious duty.