- Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. 19For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2
Some slaves lived within the family, and due to their education or race, they were respected and even friends, eventually gaining freedom. Some slaves were branded, wore an iron collar, slept in chains and worked in gangs. Some were galley slaves, chained to the seats where they toiled out their lives.
The slaves of ancient Greece and Rome were overwhelmingly prisoners of war, or the children of a slave woman. (The father could be anyone.) If a soldier knew that he was losing in a battle, he might kill himself rather than be taken as a slave.
The most noted difference between a free man and a slave is that the slave could be flogged.
A female slave had no right to resist intercourse with her master or any males of the household. It was not considered adultery if the master slept with her. Her children belonged to him anyway. A female slave could not gain freedom or buy her own freedom on her own. She could only become free if she were the partner of a male slave who was being freed.
A female slave had no rights over her body, or her children, no hope of independance, and could not protest being used as a prostitute.
I find that the book of Ephesians does not uphold marriage between a man and a woman, but only between a male citizen and a female citizen. It is not about the sacredness of the male-female union but only about the inviolable rights of the master of the household.
Yes, there is a discussion of how Christians conduct themselves within the cultural context, but there is no defense of this context.
Are slaves indeed called by Christ to be beaten?