Why Did Paul Call Himself a “Slave of Christ”?

Paul repeatedly described himself using the language of slavery but those words were not merely abstract religious metaphors. In the commercial agora of Ephesus, people came to buy bronze, ceramics, olive oil, and other goods. Enslaved human beings were also bought and sold within this commercial world. Paul lived in a society where the realities of slavery were visible, familiar, and impossible to ignore. So when Paul called himself a “slave of Christ,” what would his audience have heard? Archaeology helps us recover the physical and social world behind Paul’s language and reminds us that his original listeners understood these words through experiences very different from our own. #SaintPaul #Ephesus #EarlyChristianity #BiblicalArchaeology #RomanEmpire #ChristianHistory #BibleHistory #AugustMedia