The True Dignity of Human Beings - Saint Gregory of Nyssa on Slavery

 

by Fr. Stephen Freeman

Ancient faith / Glory 2 God for all things

Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries 

One of the most rewarding aspects of reading historical material is how it reveals the human mind even at a great remove from our own. There is a myth in our culture that history is the story of progress. It presumes that only in our modern times have we begun to free ourselves from the false ideas of the past. What you discover when you actually read historical materials is that many of the worst ideas ever espoused were specifically “modern” ideas (eugenics, racial superiority, abortion, euthanasia, etc.).

Occasionally, you come across a piece of ancient writing that simply shatters these false assumptions. A case-in-point is this excerpt from St. Gregory of Nyssa’s fourth homily on Ecclesiastes. He is writing in the 4th century, A.D., when the Church is squarely in the Byzantine period. The homily is a commentary on Ecclesiastes 2:7 in which the writer describes his growing wealth and his acquisition of slaves. Nyssa uses the occasion for the most scathing critique of slavery in the annals of Christian preaching. It shows a wonderful clarity of theological insight and understanding – something that would and should have been available and understood both by his contemporaries and by Christians of all times. He did not invent this understanding – he simply demonstrates that its ideas are timeless and not the product of some later historical progress.

There is truth. It abides. There is sin. It obscures.

From the 4th Homily on Ecclesiastes – St. Gregory of Nyssa

Ecclesiastes 2:7
I got me slaves and slave-girls,
and homebred slaves were born for me,
and much property in cattle and sheep became mine.

The writer of Ecclesiastes sets out in careful order virtually everything in his own experience through which the futility of our activities in this life is known. But at this point he touches on what appears to be a more serious piece of evidence from his deeds through which he can be accused of the affliction of arrogant pride. What is there in what he has laid before us so far which leads to such a level of conceit? He has told us about a valuable house, an abundance of vines, elegant gardens and water features, nicely constructed swimming pools, extensive beautiful parkland. Yet, none of this can compare to his presumption that, as a human being he believes he can lord it over people who in essence are just like him. Because then he goes on to say: “I got me slaves and slave-girls, and homebred slaves were born for me”.

Do you detect the excessive arrogance? An utterance like this shows that he is exalting himself against God. We know from the words of the prophets that absolutely everything is subject to the supreme authority in the universe (Psalm 119/118.91). But this man counts as his own what truly belongs to God and gives to the likes of himself the kind of power which makes him think that he can be the master of men and women. When he sees himself as so different from those who are subject to him one can only conclude that pride has led him to go beyond what is appropriate for his nature.

“I got me slaves and slave-girls.” You are condemning to slavery human beings whose nature is free and characterized by free will. You are making laws that rival the law of God, overturning the law appropriate for humankind. Human beings were created specifically to have dominion over the earth; it was determined by their creator that they should exercise authority. Yet you place them under the yoke of slavery, as though you are opposing and fighting against the divine decree.

Have you forgotten the limits of your authority? Your rule is limited to control of irrational creatures. In scripture we read: “let them rule over birds and fish and four-footed creatures”. (Gen 1.26) How then do you go beyond what is subject to you and exalt yourself against a nature which is free, counting people like you among four-footed or footless creatures. “You subjected everything to humankind” declares the scripture through prophecy and it goes on to list what is under human control: domestic animals, cattle and sheep. (Psalm 8/7.8) Surely human beings have not been born to you from domestic animals? Surely cattle have not given birth to human offspring? Irrational creatures alone are subject to humankind. “He makes grass grow for animals and green plants for people’s slaves”. (Psalm 104/103.14) . But you have torn apart the nature of slavery and lordship and made the same thing at one and the same time enslaved to itself and lord of itself.

“I got me slaves and slave-girls.” Tell me what sort of price you paid. What did you find in creation with a value corresponding to the nature of your purchase? What price did you put on rationality? For how many obols did you value the image of God? For how many coins did you sell this nature formed by God? God said: “Let us make human beings in our own image and likeness” (Gen 1.26). When we are talking about one who is in the image of God, who has dominion over the whole earth and who has been granted by God authority over everything on the earth, tell me, who is the seller and who the buyer? Only God has this kind of power, or, one might almost say, not even God. For scripture says that the gifts of God are irrevocable (Romans 11.29). God would not make a slave of humankind. It was God who, through his own will, called us back to freedom when we were slaves of sin. If God does not enslave a free person, then who would consider their own authority higher than God’s?

How can people be sold who have dominion over the earth and everything on the earth? It is essential that the assets of people being sold are sold with them. How can we value the contents of the whole earth (Genesis 1.26)? If these are beyond any valuation then tell me, what is the value of the one who is over them? If you said “the world in its entirety”, even then you would not have found anything approximating to the value (Matthew 16.26; Mark 8.36). Someone knowing the true value of human nature said that not even the whole world is worth enough to be given in exchange for the human soul. So when a human being is for sale, it is nothing other than the lord of the earth being brought to the auction room. This means that creation as we know it is at the same time being put up for public sale. That is earth, sea and islands and all that is in them. How then is the purchaser going to settle the payment? What will the vendor accept considering the greatness of the property involved in the transaction?

Did the little notebook, the written agreement and the calculation in obols trick you into thinking that you could be master of the image of God? What utter folly! If the contract was lost, if the writing was eaten by moths, if a drop of water fell on it and washed it away, where is there any proof that you have a slave? Where is there anything that supports you in being a master? You have somebody who is named as your subordinate, but beyond the mere name I see nothing. What did such power add to your real nature? It did not give you extra years or any genuine superiority. Your lineage is still human, your life is similar, the sufferings of the soul and the body prevail upon you both in the same way, with you as master and another in subjugation you are still both affected by agony and delight, gladness and distress, sorrow and joy, anger and fear, disease and death. Surely there is no distinction in such things between slave and master? Do they not draw in the same air when they breathe? Do they not see the sun in a similar way? Do they not both sustain their life by taking in nourishment? Is not the make-up of their bodily organs the same? Do they not both return to the same dust after death? Do they not both face one and the same judgment? Is not the prospect of heaven and hell the same for them both?

So when you are equivalent in every way, tell me in what particular way you have more so that you think you can become master of another human being even though you are a human being yourself. “I got me”, you say, “slaves and slave-girls,” as though they were a herd of goats or swine. After saying “I got me slaves and slave-girls,” he added the good cheer that comes through flocks and herds. For he says “And much property in cattle and sheep became mine”, as though animals and slaves were subject to his authority to an equal degree.

This text is copied from the website Early Church Texts – edited by Revd Andrew Maguire

1822: The abolition of slavery in Greece

In Greek: 1822: Η κατάργηση της δουλείας στην Ελλάδα

Translation K.N.

The 1821 Revolution had proceeded with daring for the abolition of slavery

Mural in the Hall of Parliament House

When embarking on the struggle for independence in 1821, the Hellenes were already deeply conscious of the meaning of slavery.  They had endured for more than 400 years the force and the brutality of the conqueror, which had rendered free people slaves, and selling them to the slave markets of the Mediterranean. We are witnessing analogous phenomena in our times, under the name of “trafficking”, where women and young children are essentially being sold as slaves in sleazy, “nocturnal” slave-markets.

In 1821, amid the flames of the Revolution, the fighters had also hastened to create institutions for freedom and fair administration. The first, important movement took place with the First National Convention, which had convened in Epidaurus and had voted the first Hellenic Constitution.

With that Constitution, the Hellenes had (entirely innovatively, for colonially-oriented Europe) also instituted the abolition of slavery.

Various European states, mainly after the French Revolution of 1789, had begun to abolish slavery, but only for their own lands. The slave-possessing status quo had entirely hypocritically persisted, throughout all the Europeans’ extended colonies.

Let’s also not forget that when Europeans had essentially wiped out the native population of the American continent, the demand for laborers was covered by slaves brought over from Africa, thus commencing the longest-lasting exploitation of human slavery. It is estimated that from the 15^th to the 18^th century, more than 20 million Africans had been transported to North, Central and South America. 

Movements for the abolition of slavery were noted during the 18^th century; the 1788 Constitution of the U.S.A. had made provision for the liberation of slaves within a period of 20 years; and yet, slavery ad continued to exist, in the southern states of the U.S.A...  At the beginning of the 19^th century, Britain, France, and most of the new, independent nations of South and Central America had abolished slavery.  However, in their new country (America), the Portuguese and the Spanish also covered their “needs” in manpower by bringing over Africans as slaves.

Sample of Theodore Negris’ signature

 Our guide, the 1921 Revolution

Safeguarded in the Archives of the Hellenic Renaissance that are stored inside the Library of Parliament House is a document that is characterized as one of vast historical and humanitarian value.  It is registered as Document 151 and its date of publication is the 25^th of February, 1825.  It is signed by the chief Secretary of State, Minister of External Affairs and President of the Ministerial Council, Theodore Negris.

This document with its immense value is addressed to the War Minister, Notis Botsaris, containing the following statements:

“Per the prescript of the Administration, the War Minister is hereby advised that, because the Administration has as its fundamental principle the abolition of slavery:

A.  Unless a special law be issued, the sale and purchase, throughout the State, of people of either gender, of every nation, is forbidden.

B.  In the event that purchased individuals exist or hereafter are discovered, from that moment on, they are free and by their masters shall no longer be sought.

 The War Ministry shall act upon this command, since it belongs to this same Ministry.

In Korinth, on the 25^th of February 1822.”

In our day and age, the phenomenon of slavery has been substituted by the phenomenon of trafficking; which, in spite of the struggles by the prosecuting authorities, has been spreading ferociously on account of the hypocrisy – but also the insatiable behavior of a significant portion of perpetrators – because the profits from this disgraceful operation are massive.  “Trafficking” is the term used for the illegal moving and trading of people for the purpose of sexual-financial exploitation; the enlisting, the transporting, the transferring, installation or acquisition of persons through threats or the use of violence or other means of coercion.

See also

Voltaire and the ‘Blacks’ - The true, repugnant face of the “Enlightenment” (& here)

Ο Βολταίρος και οι μαύροι: Το αληθινό πρόσωπο του Διαφωτισμού

 

Ecumenical Patriarch Opposes American Slavery in 1862 (καταδίκη της δουλείας στις ΗΠΑ από τον Οικ. Πατριάρχη Ιωακείμ Β΄ το 1862!)

OLD PROBLEMS IN THE NEW WORLD: A Forum on Modern Slavery in the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Racism: An Orthodox Perspective

 

Eldress Konstantia from Africa, a Saintess in Greece

By John Sanidopoulos

 

The eldress Konstantia lived in the first half of the 19th century and came from the land of Africa. She served as a slave in the household of a Turk, who was a resident of the old city of Zaverda. For some unknown reason till this day, she was abandoned to her fate by the Turks who after the liberation of the Greek nation left the area. She possibly could have escaped by her own means, but found refuge in the Holy Monastery of Saint Demetrios of Zaverda (now Paleros Aitoloakarnania, Greece) in which she received Holy Baptism and later the Angelic Schema. She lived here for many decades, adorning her life ascetically with the virtues and helping her neighbor in every possible way.

She highlighted the Monastery as a spiritual oasis in which all the downtrodden found refuge. Her physical and spiritual asceticism reached the height of the great male ascetics. God graced her with many gifts, such as that of clairvoyance and wonderworking. And Saint Demetrios, the protector of the Holy Monastery, made her worthy to see him visually and appeared to her and directed her in her spiritual struggle and in the struggle for the correct functioning of the Monastery through which many people were spiritually benefited. Her life ended peacefully in the Monastery she so loved and was buried within it.

The translation of her holy relics took place in 2004 and were stored in a wooden coffin in the Katholikon of the Monastery. On 2 February 2009 the holy relics of Eldress Konstantia were stolen from the Monastery of Saint Demetrios, but were later returned.

See also
 
African-American Orthodoxy — Eight principal areas of convergence between African spirituality and Ancient Christianity
Fr. Moses Berry, a descendant of African slaves, Orthodox priest and teacher in USA

In Search of Orthodoxy (tag)

The holy anarchists... in the Egyptian Desert

Umonaki katika Kanisa la Orthodox
Orthodox Monasticism
Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life

 

Monasticism

Dream Team of the Desert
Habari Kutokanyumba la Watawa Mukanisa la Orthodoksi Mtakatifu Nektario Mudji wa Kolwezi Inchi la Kongo Baada Zaire
The historical background of the monastery in Kolwezi, Congo (DRC)

Mother Maria from Uganda

 

St. John the Russian, the Free & Wonderworker Slave, & St. Andrew the Fool for Christ (May 27 & 28)

Please, see:

 

St. John the Russian, the Free & Wonderworker Slave! (May 27)

 St. Andrew the Fool for Christ, who pretended insanity by day, but prayed to God all night long (May 28)