One way the Bible’s moral authority is seriously called into question today is critics pointing to its alleged support for slavery. Some question that if the Bible is a revered guide to morality, why didn’t it abolish slavery? Rather, it seems to give support to it with commands regulating “slavery” in the Old Testament and instructions guiding it in the New Testament:
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
Ephesians 6:5
Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them,
Titus 2:9
“Except for murder, slavery has got to be one of the most immoral things a person can do. Yet slavery is rampant throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments.”
anti-Bible website
Why not just stop it, period? What if in the wisdom of God, the New Testament (NT) sowed the seeds for an entire counter-cultural movement that grew into the overturning of the practice on a widespread scale. In God’s story of restoration of the world from the brokenness of sin, recovery from slavery occurred from the bottom-up: one convert, one gospel appeal, one wrong righted at a time. In the previous blog, we saw how God set the foundation in the Old Testament. In this post, we will chart out how the NT made it a world-wide movement.
Slavery: From Brokenness to Freedom
Previously, we have seen that the story of the Bible can be understood in six acts. Let’s unfold this as it relates to the topic of slavery.
Act 1: The World’s Beginnings God created humanity in a world with flourishing beauty and life-giving abundance without anything to spoil it. Slavery, as with any exploitation of one human or group of people by another, was NEVER part of God’s plan original plan.
Act 2: Humanity’s Rebellion People rebelled from this original divine artistry and purpose. They traded life-giving abundance for a world governed by self-centered brokenness. As the world descended into a moral fall, severe economic scarcity and the exploitation of the powerful over the weak became the norm.
Act 3: Israel’s Quest God stepped in to save his story and set in motion a plan to restore the world from this place of brokenness by taking one nation (from the descendants of Abraham) and setting them apart to be a light and guide to other nations. This was the dawn of this restoration from brokenness. As Israel emerged as a nation under Moses, they came from slavery and saw it widely practiced around them. As they did, one option in response to the issue would have been for God to flat out command, “You shall not enslave another person.” Had God spoken that, it would have meant that those who fell into loan default would have been sold as slaves to other nations where they would have been treated as human chattel with forced conditions of backbreaking labor and no laws defending the worth of the alien. (See previous blog for more detail.) So, what God does is take this broken system and opens up a pathway of restoring freedom to people who fall into economic bondage. The God of Israel will change slavery to a voluntary debt-service.1 It would be different from slavery in at least five ways:
- It would be voluntary and never forced.
- It would only be for a person’s labor, not the person.
- It would have a six year limit.
- It would give provisions so that the condition would never become permanent.
- It would give rights and protections.
By the time of the New Testament, there was no permanent economic underclass like that of the nations around them because of these laws.
Act 4: The King’s Arrival At the height of this story, God sent Jesus to the earth: truly God and truly man who lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and rose to vanquish sin and the darkness of evil. He was the very standard of understanding how God viewed humanity and how we should treat one another. He completely upended the model of people using their power over others for personal gain by making clear that we are to be servants for the good of others. For instance, after washing his disciple’s feet, he made this astounding declaration:
“‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.‘”
John 13:13-17
In another place when two of his disciples wanted to be “top dogs” among their discipleship clan, Jesus responded:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:24-28
This call to servanthood was unheard of and without parallels historically. It started a revolution in people’s thinking and conduct.
Act 5: The Kingdom Coming With the inheritance of Israel’s example of establishing guards against an economic underclass, and Jesus calling humanity to the standard of servanthood; the church is launched on a mission to expand this life-giving freedom and dignity to all of humanity. So, why didn’t the NT writers speak more forcefully against slavery?
Why Doesn’t the New Testament Have a Message of Abolition?
Paul did call out those who worked on the slave trade where slaves were forcibly bought and sold as, “ungodly and sinful, the unholy.” (see 1 Timothy 1:8-10) As a whole, though, a call for total abolition would have been disastrous for many. Here are two decisive reasons:
- Political Impossibility A wholesale abolition was not a possibility until later in history. The church is launched into the world as a small minority of several thousand in a population of around 70 million in the Roman Empire. Slavery was socially-embedded consisting of 30 to 40% of this 70 million. The practice was backed by a powerful authoritarian state. Were any of the NT writers to incite slaves to rise up against their masters, they would essentially have been compelling them to death, possibly crucifixion, as was the fate of the 6,000 who revolted with Spartacus in a previous century.
- Social Harm While there were certainly dehumanizing forms of slavery in the Roman world, many served in more dignified positions as professors, property managers, tutors, bookkeepers, and doctors. This provided for some a better life than what they otherwise would have had. In fact, some people sought certain forms of slavery as a means of a better life. These slaves often became like family or what is known as “household slaves.” These were addressed in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 and would have fit in this category:
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right…. Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
Ephesians 6:1-6
Colossians 3:18-25 is another example of this. It is evident by the placement of these passages among advice to household members that these were slaves who were a part of the family. According to historical texts, the lives of slaves in these households in ancient times were often better than that of peasants in the same era. For the NT writers to compel a revolt would have been deeply irresponsible and horribly destructive. Instead, the NT gives a much wiser approach.
Start of a Revolution
“…recovery from slavery occurred from the bottom-up: one convert, one gospel appeal, one wrong righted at a time.”
The NT’s guidance for slaves who had converted to Christ assumed that the world was fallen with oppression, and it was the church who would carve out an alternative space of dignified living as “strangers and pilgrims” in the world. (1 Peter 2:11, KJV) Following the example of Christ, they plowed a counter-culture revolution which changed society from within: the transformation of hearts and minds. As Christ taught, they erased social distinctions in the church and treated everyone as family, beloved brothers and sisters.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
One stunning example of how this transformation took place is seen the book of Philemon. Addressed to a Christian slave owner whose escaped slave, Onesimus, had come into contact with Paul while Paul was in prison. During the course of this encounter, Onesimus became a Christian and was discipled by Paul. Paul then sent Onesimus back to Philemon, carrying the letter, in which Paul tactfully calls upon Philemon to receive Onesimus back:
“…no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.“
Philemon 1:16
Paul wants Philemon to accept him as a full member of the Christian community, and he even promises to pay from his own pocket for any of the damages Onesimus’ flight may have cost Philemon.
If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back—not to mention that you owe me your very self.
Philemon 1:18-19
Due to the diplomatic way in which Paul makes his requests, Paul subtlety urges Philemon to free Onesimus by the fact that he states that he wishes Onesimus would remain available to him in order to help in his ministry. Here is where the story gets more interesting. A few decades later, a church leader Ignatius referred to an elderly bishop of Ephesus named Onesimus. He wrote:
“I received, therefore, your whole multitude in the name of God, through Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love, and your bishop in the flesh, whom I pray you by Jesus Christ to love, and that you would all seek to be like him.”
Ignatius
Who is this Onesimus Ignatius refers? Many scholars, based on the timing and the context of Ignatius’ reference, believe this to be the Onesimus of Philemon. Going from a slave to a bishop was astounding for the times. This was Christianity changing the world from the bottom up: one convert, one gospel appeal, one wrong righted at a time.
Slavery’s Abolition
As Christianity grew in numbers in the Roman Empire so did the decline of slavery. The very first writer that we have on record to ever bring a sweeping challenge to slavery as an institution was not a Greek or Roman, but a Christian church father, Gregory of Nyssa. Gregory, born around AD 330, raged against the sinful presumption of enslaving people created in the image of God:
“If God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God’s?”
Gregory of Nyssa
More and more, reforms began to be made where it was collectively understood that slavery was against God’s design. Bishop Agobard of Lyons reflected this growing realization when he spoke sharply:
“All men are brothers, all invoke one same Father, God: the slave and the master, the poor man and the rich man, the ignorant and the learned, the weak and the strong…. [N]one has been raised above the other… there is no… slave or free, but in all things and always there is only Christ.”
Bishop Agobard of Lyons
In Conclusion
Did Christianity support slavery? Even Friedrich Engels, one of the atheist writers of the Communist Manifesto (along with Karl Max) wrote:
“Christianity was originally a movement of oppressed people: it first appeared as the religion of slaves and emancipated slaves, of poor people deprived of all rights, of peoples subjugated or dispersed by Rome.”
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Nietzsche, the most influential atheist thinker in history, hated Christianity because it was started by a “weak and crucified Galilean” and enabled the feeble of society to overthrow the powerful. It did this through the ministry of benevolence and promoting the dignity of all people. This lifted up the weak, reducing Rome’s greatness. To Nietzsche’s criticism of lifting up those who were on the low end of the social ladder, we can declare Christianity to be, GUILTY AS CHARGED.
- The word translated “slave” has more of the meaning of a servant.
Story of Grace 