Early Christian Views on Slavery
Early Christians taught slaves to obey their masters, but they also told masters to stop threatening and to treat slaves fairly. Clement, Origen, Irenaeus, and Peter of Alexandria all connect this teaching to Bible passages about household duty and God’s judgment. Other passages use slavery as a picture of sin or spiritual bondage, so the word is not always about human slavery. The evidence is strong for household instructions and mixed for any direct attack on slavery itself.
132 early-church witnesses · 213 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about slavery?
Early Christian writers do not reject slavery in a modern abolitionist way, but they do insist that masters must be gentle, stop threatening, and remember that slaves and masters answer to the same Lord. Writers like Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Irenaeus, and Peter of Alexandria use Bible passages to say Christian slaves should obey, while Christian masters must act with justice and restraint.
Some texts also praise freedom from sin, the devil, or the world, so the word slavery is often used as a picture for spiritual bondage rather than only household slavery. The evidence is broad for rules about slave behavior and master conduct, but thin for a direct early Christian call to end slavery itself. A few witnesses also suggest that conversion and Christian brotherhood lowered social barriers by calling slaves and masters equal before God.
Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christian writers urged slaves to obey and masters to act with mercy and fairness.
- They treated both slaves and masters as accountable to the same Lord.
- Many passages use slavery as a picture for sin, desire, or spiritual bondage.
- The evidence is weak for a clear early Christian command to abolish slavery.
Questions Answered by the Sources
How did early Christians say masters should treat slaves?
The sources consistently quote or echo apostolic teaching that masters should act justly, stop threatening, and remember they too have a Master in heaven. Some early writers also call masters and servants fellow-servants under God.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching
...pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, lest they become discouraged. Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh. Do not serve only when watched, like people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. And whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, as serving the Lord and not men. For you know that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will receive the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, give your servants justice and fairness, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all.” And the earthly Church is the image of the heavenly, just as we also pray that the will of God may be done on earth as in heaven. Matthew 6:10. “Therefore, put on compassion, gentleness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering. Bear with one another, and forgive one another, if one has a complaint against any man. Just as Christ has forgiven us, so also let us do. And above all these things, put on charity, wh
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
But what need is there to point out how agreeable to sound reason, and unattended with injury either to master or slave, was the law that one of the same faith should not be allowed to continue in slavery more than six years?
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
And, you servants, be subject to your masters, Ephesians 6:5 as to the representatives of God, with attention and fear, as to the Lord, and not to men. Ephesians 6:7
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Colossians 3:22 Supporting witness
Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.
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Ephesians 6:5 Supporting witness
Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;
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1 Peter 2:18 Supporting witness
Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.
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1 Timothy 6:1 Supporting witness
Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed.
Did early Christians call slaves and masters brothers or fellow servants?
Several sources say Christians should see slaves as brothers, fellow-servants, or equal in spiritual standing before God. The emphasis is not on abolishing the social order in these passages, but on shared dignity and accountability before the same Lord.
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Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching
... shadow and image of us beforehand. When God was their guardian and avenger, they escaped the harsh slavery of Pharaoh and Egypt—that is, of the devil and the world. Yet they were faithless and ungrateful toward God. They murmured against Moses, looking back to the hardships of the desert and of their labor. Not understanding the divine benefits of liberty and salvation, they wanted to return to the slavery of Egypt—that is, of the world from which they had been brought out—when they should instead have trusted and believed God, since He who delivers His people from the devil and the world also protects them after He has delivered them. "Why have you done this to us," they say, "by casting us out of Egypt? It is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness." And Moses said to the people, "Trust, and stand firm, and see the salvation that is from the Lord, which He will do for you today. The Lord Himself will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." Exodus 14:11-14 The Lord also warns us of this in His Gospel, teaching that we should not return again to the devil and to the world, which we have renounced and escaped from. He says, "No man looking back
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Methodius, Three Fragments on the Cross and Passion Direct teaching
...throwing the rule of the tyrants—that is, the demons—He might deliver our souls from their terrible slavery. Because of this slavery, our whole nature, made drunk by draughts of wickedness, had become full of confusion and disorder, and could in no way return to the memory of good and useful things. Therefore it was also more easily led away to idols, since evil had completely covered it and had spread through all generations because of the change that had come over our fleshly tabernacles as a result of disobedience. This continued until Christ the Lord, by the flesh in which He lived and appeared, weakened the force of Pleasure's attacks. By these attacks, the powers of hell that were armed against us had reduced our minds to slavery. And He freed mankind from all their evils. For this purpose, the Lord Jesus both wore our flesh and became man, and by the divine arrangement was nailed to the cross. His purpose was that, by the very flesh in which the demons had proudly and falsely pretended to be gods, after they had carried our souls captive to death by deceitful tricks, by this same flesh they might be overthrown and shown to be no gods. For He stopped their arrogance from r
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Tertullian, De Corona Supporting witness
you have lost the freedom of Christ, fancying it is slavery.
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Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness
When he speaks of the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, Galatians 5:1 does not the very phrase indicate that He is the Liberator who was once the Master?
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness
For He says, “He that committeth sin is the slave of sin.” Inasmuch, then, as He terms those “the slaves of sin” who serve sin, but does not certainly call sin itself God, thus also He terms those who serve mammon “the slaves of mammon,” not calling mammon God.
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Galatians 5:1 Supporting witness
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
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Galatians 5:13 Supporting witness
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
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Romans 6:18 Supporting witness
and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
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Romans 6:20 Supporting witness
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Did early Christians think freedom from slavery was better?
The supplied sources include both literal and spiritual freedom language. One early Christian witness says a believer should not remain in slavery more than six years, and related Bible passages plus Christian writers stress freedom from sin and from human bondage.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
...cept our people. Someone may say, "Are there not some among you who are poor, and others rich; some servants, and others masters? Is there not some difference between individuals?" There is none. Nor is there any other reason why we give one another the name of brothers, except that we believe ourselves to be equal. For since we measure all human things not by the body, but by the spirit, although the condition of bodies is different, we have no servants. Instead, we regard them and speak of them as brothers in spirit, and in religion as fellow servants. Riches also do not make men distinguished, except that they can make them more noticeable by good works. For men are rich not because they possess riches, but because they use them for works of justice. And those who seem to be poor are, for this reason, rich, because they are not in need and desire nothing.
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Aristides, The Apology Direct teaching
Further, if one or other of them have bondmen and bondwomen or children, through love towards them they persuade them to become Christians, and when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction.
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Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Supporting witness
and good masters to their servants, those who have been redeemed from utter slavery.
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness
Zonaras: But on the free people, that is, the masters of the servants who were forced to sacrifice, he places a penalty of three years. This is both because they only pretended to sacrifice and still clearly seemed to give in completely, and because they forced their fellow-servants to offer sacrifice. They did not obey the apostle's command to stop threatening their servants, since the masters themselves are also servants of God and fellow-servants with their own household servants. They were quick to save their own lives, and they drove their fellow-servants, who might have escaped, into idolatry.
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness
In the case of those whose Christian slaves were sent to offer sacrifice for them, the slaves were in their masters' power. In a sense, they were also under their masters' control and were threatened by them. Because of fear, they came to this and fell away. They must, during the year, show the works of repentance. In this way they may learn for the future, as slaves of Christ, to do the will of Christ and to fear Him. They should listen especially to this: "Whatever good thing anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is slave or free." Ephesians 6:8
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness
Zonaras: Some people have sent their own Christian servants, even against their will, to offer sacrifice in their place. Therefore, although these servants did not act by their own free choice, but were forced by their masters, this father orders that they must spend a year in penance. He also instructs them to remember that, since they are among the faithful, they are servants of Christ, and that they ought to fear Him instead. For whatever a person does, says the great apostle, that same he will receive back, whether he is slave or free.
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness
In the case of those who have sent Christian slaves to offer sacrifice for them, the slaves indeed as being in their master's hands, and in a manner themselves also in the custody of their masters, and being threatened by them, and from their fear having come to this pass and having lapsed, shall during the year show forth the works of penitence, learning for the future, as the slaves of Christ, to do the will of Christ and to fear Him, listening to this especially, that whatsoever good thing any man does, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Ephesians 6:8
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness
since they also, the masters, are the servants of God, and the fellow-servants of their own domestics.
Did early Christians use slavery to describe sin or the world?
Many of the strongest texts use slavery metaphorically for bondage to sin, passions, the belly, the world, or evil powers. This is one of the clearest patterns in the evidence and is broader than the household-slavery passages.
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Ignatius, Epistle to Polycarp (Syriac Version) Direct teaching
Despise not slaves, either male or female; but neither let them be contemptuous, but let them labour the more as for the glory of God, that they may be counted worthy of a more precious freedom, which is of God.
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Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Direct teaching
Ye masters, do not treat your servants with haughtiness, but imitate patient Job, who declares, “I did not despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me.
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Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas Direct teaching
Thou shalt not issue orders with bitterness to thy maidservant or thy man-servant, who trust in the same [God], lest thou shouldst not reverence that God who is above both;
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
...loved the Church. Let those who are joined together love one another as their own bodies. Children, obey your parents. Parents, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Servants, obey those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, with sincere hearts, as to Christ, serving with good will from the soul. And you masters, treat your servants well, and stop threatening them, knowing that both their Lord and your Lord is in heaven, and with Him there is no partiality.
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness
...because they pretended to sacrifice and seemed to agree to it, and because they forced their fellow servants to offer sacrifice. They did not obey the apostle, who told them to stop threatening their servants, since the masters themselves are servants of God and fellow servants with their own household servants. Then they hurried to save their own lives, and drove their fellow servants into idolatry, even though those servants might have escaped.
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Supporting witness
...d by penance for three years, both because of their pretending and because they forced their fellow servants to offer sacrifice, since they did not obey the apostle. He wants masters to do the same things to the servant, and to stop threatening them, in Ephesians 6:9, knowing, he says, that both our Master and theirs is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with Him, in Romans 2:11. Now if we all have one Master, with whom there is no partiality, since Christ is all and in all, among barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, in Colossians 3:11, they ought to consider what they have done in wanting to preserve their own lives. They have led their fellow servants into idolatry, though those servants would have been able to escape if they had given them what is just and equal, as the apostle says again.
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Ephesians 6:9 Supporting witness
And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
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Colossians 4:1 Supporting witness
Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
Common Questions
Did early Christians support slavery?
They generally accepted slavery as part of life, but they told masters not to threaten and slaves to obey with sincerity. They also said both groups belong to the same Lord.
Did early Christians want slaves and masters treated equally?
They taught equal worth before God, but not the same social role. Some writers called slaves and masters brothers and fellow servants in Christ.
Did early Christians call for slavery to end?
Not in a clear, direct way in these texts. The strongest early teaching is about fair treatment, obedience, and freedom from sin, not legal abolition.
Source Index for Slavery
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 213 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 132
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 81
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.