Enslaved People

Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian living between 60 to 30 BC. Concerning the lives of the slaves in the Roman Empire, he wrote,

The slaves who are engaged in the working the mines produce for their masters’ revenues in sums defying belief, but they themselves wear out their bodies by day and by night in the diggings under the earth, dying in large numbers because of the exceptional hardships they endure. For no respite or pause is granted them in their labors, but compelled beneath blows of the overseers to endure the severity of their plight, they throw away their lives in this wretched manner; indeed, death in their eyes is more to be desired than life, because of the magnitude of the hardships they must bear (5.38.1).

Historians tell us that one in three people in the Roman Empire were slaves. Some were educated and served in high places, whereas others were in lowly places like Diodorus’s description.

Peter instructed the house slaves (iketi from ikos “a house”). They would have had a less severe life than those who worked in the mines; nevertheless, it would have been difficult.

“House slaves, submit with fear in everything to your masters – not only those who are good and gentle but also to the crooked because there is a reward if, with the conscience of God, someone endures all kinds of pain and unjust deeds. What grace/honor/reward [charis] is there if someone sins and endures beating? But if someone does good and endures sufferings, this is a grace/gift [charis] from God because you have been invited just as Christ was: he suffered for you, leaving you an example that you follow in his footsteps.” (1 Pet 2:18–21)

S

ome house slaves did wrong and were punished justly, while others were punished without reason. If they were punished unjustly, they were in Jesus’s shoes, who suffered without a fault of his own, and he left them an example to follow.

Peter used charis twice, which usually meant “grace,” but the context determines their meaning as “honor/reward” and “gift.” Those enslaved people wouldn’t have thought of beating as grace, gift, honor, or reward, much less “a gift from God.” But it was a gift from God because it invited them to share in similar agony to Christ, who was innocent and suffered unjustly, just as they were. God was their defender, just as he was Jesus’s defender. That was the gift.

It is a poor comparison to equate Peter’s instructions to the slaves to our lives and workplaces. Roman slaves were not ill-treated like the Western world ill-treated African slaves in the past few centuries. They were treasured workforce for their masters. Many learned to read and write. Freed slaves held high official places. Publius Helvius Pertinax, a Roman Emperor in AD 193, was the son of a freed slave. Nevertheless, some of the slave masters ill-treated their slaves. Whatever their situations, they were not workers or employees like we are – free to leave when the work was done and have a separate life. They were always their master’s property. Sure, they had rights – they could even take their masters to the law courts. But they were not free until their debts were paid.

We can draw a few principles. We submit to our employers as much as possible and do our tasks faithfully. And we thank God that we are not slaves.