Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity

Abstract

Slaves were ubiquitous in the first- and second-century CE Roman Empire, and early Christian texts reflect this fact. This book argues that enslaved persons engaged in leadership roles in civic and religious activities. Such roles created tension within religious groups, including second-century communities connected with Paul’s legacy. Archaeological materials, epigraphy, and literature from Ephesos and environs illustrate these power struggles with clarity. Enslaved persons were religious specialists, priests, and leaders in cultic groups, including early Christian groups. Thus, the book paints a complex picture of enslaved life in Asia Minor to illustrate how enslaved persons enacted roles of religious and civic significance that potentially upended social hierarchies which privileged wealthy, slaveholding men. Yet even as the enslaved engaged in such authoritative roles, Roman slavery was not a benign institution nor were early Christians kinder and more egalitarian toward slaves. Both early Christian texts (such as Philemon, 1 Timothy, and Ignatius’s letters) and archaeological finds from Ephesos defend, construct, and clarify the hierarchies that kept enslaved persons under the control of their masters. This book brings together archaeological materials and literary texts using feminist rhetorical criticism. In doing so, it shows how archaeological materials attempt to persuade viewers, readers, and inhabitants of the city. Early Christian texts similarly attempt to persuade readers that slaves should not hold leadership positions. Thus the book illustrates a historical world in which control of slaves must continually be asserted. It demonstrates that master-slave hierarchies were unclear, disjointed, and even subverted in everyday religious activities.