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his former masters. Dean Farrar observes the following in his book The Life and Work of
St. Paul, gleaned from Jewish writings:
"It happened that on one occasion a female slave of Rabbi Eliezer died, and when his
disciples came to condole with him he retired from them from room to room, from upper
chamber to hall, till at last he said to them, `I thought you would feel the effects of tepid
water, but you are proof even against hot water. Have I not taught you that these signs of
respect are not to be paid at the death of slaves?' `What, then', asked the disciples, `are
pupils on such occasions to say to their masters?' `The same as is said when their oxen
and asses die', answered the Rabbi--`May the Lord replenish thy loss'."
Probably not all Rabbis would take the above extreme view, but would hold less
severe ideas. Nevertheless, it seems that Rabbinic tradition would have influenced the
Apostle's mind enough to have caused him to regard slaves as very inferior persons, and
no doubt his position as a Roman, free born (Acts 22: 25-28) would contribute to such
an attitude. But what grace is found in Christ, grace which caused the Apostle to write in
an epistle delivered at the same time as Philemon, and in the context of `masters and
slaves':
"there is no respect of persons . . . . ." (Col. 3: 25).
Paul's attitude to slavery.
It is evident from the foregoing that Paul's Christianity was opposed in principle to all
that Roman slavery stood for. His exhortation to a master to receive a slave `as a brother'
is indicative of this. Yet Paul never attacked slavery as an institution, nor urged believing
masters to free their slaves as a part of their duty to God. It is true, as Lightfoot observes,
that in Philemon "the word `emancipation' seems to be trembling on his lips, and yet he
does not once utter it". He does however in the same epistle put Philemon under an
obligation which far transcends the emancipation of Onesimus:
"receive him as myself . . . . . thou owest unto me even thine own self besides" (17, 19).
Onesimus was in debt to Philemon but the reverse was also true. Philemon owed to
his now believing slave what all believers owe to each other:
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another . . . . ." (Rom. 13: 8).
Such truth in practice would in time undermine the system of slavery, and what was
already true in Christ Jesus, "there is neither . . . . . bond nor free" (Col. 3: 11), would
eventually become true in the flesh. Two Scriptures are helpful in establishing Paul's
view on this system, which was entrenched so deeply into the society of his day:
"Every man should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a slave
when you were called? Do not let that trouble you; but if a chance of liberty should
come, take it. For the man who as a slave received the call to be a Christian is the Lord's
freedman, and, equally, the free man who received the call is a salve in the service of
Christ. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. Thus each one, my
friends, is to remain before God in the condition in which he received his call."
(I Cor. 7: 20-24 New English Bible).