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  • Can a Slave Serve Two Masters? Jointly Owned Slaves in Documentary Papyri and the Synoptic Gospels

  • Afetame Alabi
  • Journal:
    New Testament Studies / Volume 70 / Issue 1 / January 2024
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    01 February 2024, pp. 38-50
    Print publication:
    January 2024
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  • This article examines the synoptic saying on serving two masters (Matt 6.24; Luke 16.13) in light of the evidence for jointly owned slaves in documentary papyri. The saying implies that the slave of two masters will inevitably be more loyal or exclusively loyal to one master. Scholars usually accept this as an accurate depiction of jointly owned slaves. However, the papyrological evidence shows that the relationship between jointly owned slaves and their owners varied in everyday life and that slaves had little control over their loyalty to each master. The saying is, therefore, not a fully realistic portrait of how jointly owned slaves served their masters in antiquity but is possibly a slave stereotype that contributes to the (un)faithful slave imageries in the Gospels.