Slavery in the Bible

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There is no question that the Bible has been used historically both to justify and condemn slavery.

The abolition of slavery in the British Empire was led by William Wilberforce (1759–1833), an English politician and leader of the parliamentary movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. His decades of tireless campaigning successfully culminated in the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807. Wilberforce was an Evangelical Anglican and a leading figure in the late 18th-century Evangelical Revival.

Does Paul condone slavery

Paul’s statements on slavery neither condemn nor condone the institution[1], though his approach carries significant theological weight. Because both slaves and slave owners had become Christians, the early church needed to address master-slave relationships directly[1], and Paul’s response was characteristically nuanced.

Paul insists on the equality of slave and free within the church. Paul writes to the Corinthians:

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13).

Likewise, he writes to the Colossians,

“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11).

And to the Galatians:

“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” (Gal. 3:28).

In line with statements like this, one of the earliest non-Christian sources we have concerning the persecution of Christians suggests it may not have been uncommon for slaves to hold leadership roles in the early church. In an early second-century letter to the Emperor Trajan, Pliny the Younger recounts trying to find out more about Christianity by torturing “two female slaves who were called deaconesses.” Some slaves were able to purchase their freedom, and Paul encourages them to do so if they can:

Were you called as a slave? Do not let it concern you. But if you are also able to become free, take advantage of that. For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave, is the Lord’s freed person; likewise the one who was called as free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought for a price; do not become slaves of people. (1 Co 7:21–23.)

Rather than launching a political revolt, Paul developed his revolutionary vision through the church as a new community where selflessness and love created relationships grounded in mutual affirmation rather than power[1]. Although Paul did not condemn slavery, he distinctly did not condone it—making his treatment of slavery fundamentally different from his approach to marriage and family relationships[2]. His discussion of slaves’ duties and masters’ responsibilities contains nothing affirming slavery as naturally valid or divinely mandated.

The transformative impact of Paul’s teaching becomes apparent in how he reframes slavery itself. The New Testament insists on equality within the church, with Paul declaring that in baptism “there is not Greek and Jew...slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all”[3]. When Paul instructs slaves to serve, he redirects their allegiance from earthly masters to Christ, their true Master who will reward them—emphasizing they serve as sons and daughters of God[3].

Significantly, Paul explicitly condemns “enslaving” as a lawbreaking sin alongside other transgressions, which directly undermines any attempt to justify slavery on biblical grounds. Building on Exodus 21:16, where slave catching is a crime leading to capital punishment, Paul lists “enslaving” alongside other lawbreaking sins (1 Tim. 1:10):

But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and worldly, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the asexually immoral, homosexuals, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. (Ti 1:8–11)

While encouraging slaves to flee could have caused them great harm given their lack of agency, Paul’s vision fundamentally undermined slavery’s philosophical foundation by insisting on the spiritual equality and dignity of enslaved persons.

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