We should avoid a hermeneutical approach to Scripture that says God’s revelation progresses after the Bible to make us more just, more equitable, and more merciful than the Bible is itself. 

A common narrative is that Christianity slowly, over time, realized that slavery was wrong. Although it took centuries, it followed from the logic that we are all equal before God and created in his image. In the West, a key flashpoint centred on the abolition of the North Atlantic slave trade. This narrative, true in partial ways, has nevertheless strengthened arguments to the mistaken position that Christian morality progresses from worse to better, widening over time.

My argument here is that Christians did not need to progress far enough before they could realize that slavery was evil. Many knew. The example I want to give here is one of Gregory of Nyssa’s homilies on Ecclesiastes, in which he calls out the evils of slavery.

Gregory of Nyssa on the Evils of Slave Owning

Gregory lays out four arguments against slavery:

1. Slavery usurps God’s domain over us as humans.
2. Slavery is contrary to human nature which is free.
3. Slavery gives a price for human life, which is impossible, since life is priceless.
4. Slavery has no real support, because its document of ownership is mere paper.

Slavery Usurps God’s Ownership

First, Gregory criticizes the opulence of the wealthy, pointing out that the rich even consider themselves masters over another human being. In the voice of the rich, Gregory proclaims, “I got me slaves and slave-girls, he says, and the homebrewed slaves were born for me” (Homily 4 on Ecclesiastes, §334.12–13). This attitude, Gregory avers, amounts to a boastful challenge to God. Why? Because “we hear from prophecy that all things are the slaves of the power that transcends all [Ps 119/118.91].” As the psalmist says, “all things are your slaves.” And if that is true, claiming that another human being is our slave divests God of his universal claim.

“So,” concludes Gregory, “when someone turns the property of God into his own property and arrogates dominion to his kind, so as to think himself the owner of men and women, what is he doing but overstepping his own nature through pride, regarding himself as something different from his subordinates?” (§334.15–18). In other words, Gregory’s first argument against owning slaves centres on taking what belongs to God as if it is our own. God owns all, not us.

Slavery Is Contrary to Human Nature

Second, Gregory points out that slavery contravenes human nature, which is naturally free:

“I got me slaves and slave-girls. What do you mean? You condemn man to slavery, when his nature is free and possesses free will, and you legislate in competition with God, overturning his law for the human species. The one made on the specific terms that he should be the owner of the earth, and appointed to government by the Creator – him you bring under the yoke of slavery, as though defying and fighting against the divine decree.” (335.5–10)

According to Gregory, God created humanity to rule over the earth. He cites Genesis 1:26 in evidence, “Let them rule over winged creatures and fishes and four-footed things and creeping things,” and concludes: “You have forgotten the limits of your authority, and that your rule is confined to control over things without reason” (335.12–13, 11–12). Due to God’s creation and mandate that humans have authority over non-rational creatures (i.e., not humans), Gregory finds slavery contrary to God’s original intent in creation.

He further cites Psalm 8:7–8 and 104:14 to show how humans in general have authority over creatures, but not each other. “But,” claims Gregory, “by dividing the human species in two with ‘slavery’ and ‘ownership’ you have caused it to be enslaved to itself, and to be the owner of itself” (336.4–5). And that does not agree with God’s creational intent for us.

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