Journal of Biblical Literature - Society of Biblical Literature

Bauman-Martin: Women on the Edge 269
Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those
who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you
if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you
endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you
endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to
this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an
example, so that you could follow in his steps. 57
The slaves addressed in this passage were for the most part household slaves, as
is indicated by the urban nature of most of the areas to which the letter was sent
and the author’s use of oijkevtai rather than douvloi. 58 The slaves would have
been both male and female, but for the purposes of this article, I will concentrate
on female slaves. 59 It is common knowledge among ancient historians that
slaves in the Greco-Roman world were extremely vulnerable, especially physically.
A slave’s body was available to her master in four major ways: for labor,
corporal punishment, torture, and sexual service. 60 The first three might have
been difficult and degrading but would not necessarily have come into conflict
with her belief system. But the fourth responsibility, a slave’s obligation to have
sex with her master, her master’s friends, or other slaves was inherently problematic
for a Christian slave.
Jennifer Glancy’s recent work regarding slaves in the Corinthian church
highlights the conflict that would have arisen between Christian slaves’ desire
to maintain sexual purity and their sexual obligations to their masters. 61 Glancy
57 The NRSV translators use the traditional interpretation of the imperatival participles as
imperatives, rather than translating them more accurately as participles.
58 1 Peter is addressed to the Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
all well-populated with cities, with the possible exception of Galatia. It is uncertain whether by
“Galatia” 1 Peter refers to northern Galatia, southern Galatia, or all of the area made into a
province by Augustus. See Stephen Mitchell, Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor
(2 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993). The other provinces were dotted with cities that
had been visited by Paul.
59 Male slaves would also have been subject to abuse; but in the Haustafeln the free women
are also advised to remain submissive, and it is women today who are the individuals most likely to
be “ministered to” with this passage. For these reasons, and because of the feminist focus on the
women in the passage, I have chosen to limit the discussion to women. The term oijkevtai usually
included all household slaves, including women (Sophocles, Trach. 908) and was also used of
women specifically (Aristophanes, Vespae 766). These sources were suggested to me by Shari
Nakata of University of California, Irvine.
60 Moses Finley includes the last three in Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (London:
Chatto & Windus, 1980), 94–96. Household slaves were more vulnerable to sexual abuse because
of their proximity to their owners.
61 Glancy reemphasizes what Scott Bartchy had already noticed: that the sexual nature of
some master–slave relationships is not mentioned specifically in any NT text (“Slavery, Greco-
Roman,” ABD 6:65–73) and that modern scholars have failed to look at the sex lives of Christian
slaves (Glancy, “Obstacles to Slaves,” 482).