What Scripture says
The New Testament addresses slaves and masters directly:
- “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling… Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him” (Ephesians 6:5–9, ESV).
- “If you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity” (1 Corinthians 7:21).
- Paul condemns “enslavers” (slave-traders) alongside murderers (1 Timothy 1:10).
- “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
In the letter to Philemon, Paul sends back Onesimus, a slave who had run away and become a Christian, asking Philemon to receive him “no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother” (Philemon 16), and to “receive him as you would receive me” (17).
What the evidence says
Context
Slavery in the Roman world
Slavery was everywhere in the Roman Empire. Estimates suggest 10–20% of the population of Italy, and perhaps more in some cities, were slaves. People became slaves through war, debt, birth or sale. Roman slavery wasn’t race-based. Some slaves were educated and held responsible positions, such as doctors and managers; many others worked in brutal conditions in mines and fields. Freedom was common: many slaves were freed by their 30s.
The early Christians were a small, powerless minority with no ability to change Roman law. Open revolt, like Spartacus’s slave war (73–71 BC), ended in mass crucifixion.
What the New Testament did
- Treated slaves as full persons and moral agents, addressing them directly in the letters, which Roman household codes rarely did.
- Put masters under God: masters answer to the same Lord and must treat slaves justly and fairly (Colossians 4:1).
- Erased status in the church: slaves and masters were brothers and sisters, sharing the Lord’s Supper. Some slaves became church leaders; Callistus, a former slave, became bishop of Rome around AD 217.
- Condemned slave-trading (1 Timothy 1:10).
- Encouraged freedom where possible (1 Corinthians 7:21).
Hard texts
Critics point out that the New Testament never directly calls for slavery’s abolition, and tells slaves to obey even harsh masters (1 Peter 2:18). Jennifer Glancy and others argue early Christians largely accepted slavery as normal. Christians respond that these texts addressed people within a system they couldn’t change, and that the principles taught would eventually undermine it.
History
Christians and abolition
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| c. AD 379 | Gregory of Nyssa condemns slavery outright as an offence against God |
| 7th century onward | Church councils in Europe restrict slavery; it largely disappears in medieval Western Europe, replaced by serfdom |
| 1537 | Pope Paul III’s Sublimis Deus condemns enslaving the native peoples of the Americas |
| 1787–1833 | British evangelicals, Quakers and others, led by William Wilberforce, campaign until the slave trade (1807) and then slavery (1833) are abolished in the British Empire |
| 19th century | American abolitionists, many motivated by faith, oppose slavery |
But Christians were on both sides. Many slaveholders in the American South used the Bible to defend slavery, and churches split over it. Frederick Douglass, a former slave, wrote that he loved “the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ” but hated “the slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land”.
Where they meet
The New Testament addressed slaves within their reality, but planted principles that undermined slavery (Galatians 3:28, Philemon). Christians led abolition, though others defended slavery.
What’s still open
Why the New Testament didn’t condemn slavery more directly, and how to read texts that instruct slaves.
Bottom line
It addressed slaves within their reality, but planted principles that undermined slavery (Galatians 3:28, Philemon). Christians led abolition, though others defended slavery. This is rated Debated.