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When we lived at 33, Union Road, Clapham, London, our telephone exchange was
Macaulay, and many roads in the vicinity were named after the "Clapham Sect" which
under the leadership of Wilberforce brought about the freeing of slaves under the British
flag. While this is something for which we must ever be thankful we are conscious that
the whole human race, under any and every flag is in bondage, a bondage that no sect or
Parliament can touch. We must remember too, that there were many slaves who were
members of the early church. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul said:
"You were a slave when you were called? Never mind. Of course, if you find it
possible to get free, you had better avail yourself of the opportunity. But a slave who is
called to be in the Lord is a freedom of the Lord, just as a free man who is called is a
slave of Christ" (I Cor. 7: 21-23, Moffatt).
When, he said "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Gal. 6: 17), he
referred to the "slave owners' stamp" the stigmata, and, champion of liberty as he was, he
gladly confessed that he was not merely a "servant" but a "bondslave (doulos) of Jesus
Christ" (Rom. 1: 1).
Bondage
In the Apostle's day he could speak of Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, and while
some forms of slavery are now obsolete, the bondage of corruption, the yoke of bondage,
the bondage of ordinances, the bondage of the fear of death and the bondage of sin, are
all alas as evident today as ever.
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves bondslaves to obey, his bondmen ye
are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness"
(Rom. 6: 6).
It will "put us in the picture" if we consider the law and custom connected with the
freeing of a slave, the privileges of a freeman, and the bearing of all this upon the term
"adoption". While this has been considered elsewhere, the subject is of such importance
that it bears repetition. A slave could be freed by a process called "manumission".
North, translating Plutarch, says this about manumission:
"Then Valerius judging that Vindicius the bond man, had well deserved also some
recompense, caused him not only to be manumissed by the whole grant of the people, but
made him a freeman of the city besides; and he was the first bondman manumissed that
was made a citizen of Rome."
There is a slab in the walls of Delphi that records such a manumission, and contains
some terms that are found in the N.T.:
"Date. Apollo, the Pythian bought from Sosistus of Amphisa for freedom, a female
slave, whose name is Nicaea, by race a Roman, with a price of three and half minae of
silver."
Note the words "bought with a price", which are actually quoted in I Cor. 6: 20, and
would speak movingly to any slaves or freedman in the Church at Corinth. In numerous
records of manumission, the enfranchised person is said to be free "to do the things that