924
Lectures Watched
Since January 1, 2014
Hundreds of free, self-paced university courses available:
my recommendations here
Peruse my collection of 275
influential people of the past.
View My Class Notes via:
Receive My Class Notes via E-Mail:

VIEW ARCHIVE


Contact Me via E-Mail:
edward [at] tanguay.info
Notes on video lecture:
Slavery in First Corinthians
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
slave, gain, inner, Philemon, all, useful, metaphors, Delphi, sold, Corinth, prominent, children, freed, unclear, slaves, metaphorical, interpreted, Christ
Rome refounded                as a colony of free persons
some scholars read references to slavery in Paul's letters as                          or abstract
e.g.            freedom or slavery as sin
in Romans, "You are set free from sin and have become              of God"
Paul talks about himself as a           
when he was not a literal slave
"For though I am free from all, I have made myself slave to       ."
Letter to Philemon
prison letter, co-authored by Paul the Apostle with Timothy, to                 , a leader in the Colossian church
Onesimus, was a common slave name which means "            ", a nickname for a useful slave
1 Corinthians 7:21
Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. But even if you can          your freedom, rather use it.
"it" could refer to freedom or slavery
John Chrysostom wrote about this
349 – 407, Archbishop of Constantinople
perhaps the community who received this letter was                on it as well
perhaps they asked the deliverer to clarify, as they were expected to interpret the message's contents
we can wonder how early communities                        statements about slaves
you are the masters's apeleutheros [ἀπελεύθερος], or            person
that they should become             's slave
the larger context
in              from second century BCE to first century CE
we find inscriptions that mention more than 12,000 slaves
it showed that slaves would be          and could gain their freedom in various ways
free persons and their                  could advance socially
Roman Corinth was run in part by freed persons and they continued to be                    in the public square
there were even monuments that honored them
freedom and slavery and the various methods and procedures to pass between them were on the Corinthians minds
we can use this knowledge to understand more what Paul meant with the                    he used regarding slavery.

Ideas and Concepts:

Expository vocabulary via tonight's Letters of Apostle Paul class: "manumission, n. the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In Hellenistic Greece, slaves were generally not permitted to become citizens on being manumitted, being merely allowed to remain as resident aliens. Even in freedom, the ex-slave could be bound to some continuing duty to the master and were commonly required to live nearby the former master. Breaches of these conditions could lead to beatings, prosecution at law and re-enslavement. Sometimes extra payments were specified by which a freed slave could liberate himself from these residual duties. But ex-slaves were able to own property outright, and their children were free of all constraint. In general, it was more common for older slaves to be given freedom, once they had reached the age where they were beginning to be less useful. Legislation under the early Roman Empire put limits on the number of slaves that could be freed in wills, which suggests that manumission had been widely used. Freeing slaves could also serve the pragmatic interests of the owner. The prospect of manumission worked as an incentive for slaves to be industrious and compliant. Manumission contracts found in some abundance at Delphi specify in detail the prerequisites for liberation. In the Roman Empire, slaves were often paid a wage with which they could save up to, in effect, buy themselves, and a freed slave could become a citizen, but former slave's rights were limited or defined by particular statutes. Freed slaves could become civil servants but not hold the higher magistracies, priests of the emperor, or hold other highly respected public positions. If they were sharp businesspeople, there were often no social limits to the wealth they could amass. The children of a freedman held full legal rights, one of the most famous Romans to have been the son of a freedman was the poet Horace, who enjoyed the patronage of Augustus."
Paul's Letters: Authorship and Audience
Form and Physicality of Ancient Letter Writing
Paul's Letter Writing Within the Tradition of Ancient Rhetoric
Ancient Responses to the Letters of Paul
How Ancient People Wrote about Their Place in History: Polybius and Daniel
Four Stories of Empire in Judea: Babylonian, Macedonian, Seleucid, and Roman
The Roman Empire's Knowledge of Early Christian Communities
Josephus on the Definition of Jew and Christian in the Ancient World
Understanding the Historical Josephus
The Priene Inscription
Intertwining of Religion and Politics in the Roman Empire
Letters to the Corinthians
Slavery and Freedom in Roman Corinth
Slavery in First Corinthians