The Indentured Labor of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:15)

Author(s): J. Albert Harrill

Source: Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 115, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 714-717
Published by: The Society of Biblical Literature
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 THE INDENTURED LABOR
OF THE PRODIGAL SON (LUKE 15:15)

Luke's parable of the Prodigal Son describes a youth in need who "hires himself
out [iKokX0rli] to one of the citizens of that country" (Luke 15:15 NRSV). Previous
commentary assumes that the "hiringout" itself needs no detailed discussion, its mean-
ing being self-evident. Yet in antiquityas today dependent labor took a variety of forms,
such as chattel slavery, debt bondage, hired agriculturalemployment, clientship, and
indentured service.' Among these possibilities, the Hellenistic institution of paramone
(or "indentured labor") may provide insight into the kind of "joining"that 6lcoxx06rl
indicates. This suggestion not only offers a more specific translationfor eKcoxi9rl but
also lends support to the view that the authorof Luke articulatedhis theology in the lan-
guage of ancient economics.2
In the Greek East and other Hellenized areas of the Roman Empire, the noun
Traparovin (a new word coined around the third century BCE)had a technical usage best
translatedas "indenturedlabor."3A paramone-contractor, more precisely, a paramone-
clause within a legal instrument, bound an agent "to remain with" (ncapagcvetv) a
patron and to work in general service for a specified length of time. The clauses were
intentionally vague; during the tenure of the clause, the free person indentured under
paramone had to do whatever services were ordered, making the agent a general
laborer.4The indeterminate nature of the agent's duties and obligations, from custodial
services and animal husbandryto business sales, makes paramone wholly unlike other
Hellenistic labor contracts,which usuallyneither were demandinglyvague nor required
the laborer "to remain with" the hirer in the literal sense of that term.5The paramone-

1 M. I. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (New York:Viking Press, 1980) 68;
Peter Garnsey,ed., Non-Slave Labour in the Greco-RomanWorld (CambridgePhilological Society
SupplementaryVolume 6; Cambridge:Cambridge PhilologicalSociety, 1980).
2 Halvor Moxnes, The
Economy of the Kingdom:Social Conflict and Economic Relations in
Luke's Gospel (OBT; Philadelphia:Fortress, 1988) 22-98, 155.
3 G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, The Class
Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic
Age to the Arab Conquests (1981; corr. reprint,Ithaca:Cornell UniversityPress, 1989) 169; Alan E.
Samuel, "The Role of ParamoneClauses in Ancient Documents,"JournalofJuristic Papyrology 15
(1965) 255.
4 William Linn Westermann, "The Paramone as General Service Contract,"Journal
ofJuris-
tic Papyrology 2 (1948) 24.
5 Westermann, "Paramone,"25-26, 37;
although he pushes this thesis too far in his attempt
to narrowthe definition of paramone to clauses containing unspecified tasks only; so de Ste. Croix,
Class Struggle, 572 n.73.

714

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 Critical Notes 715

clausein a laborcontractfromAlexandria, dated9 BCE,illustratesthisgeneralservice.

According to the clause,a free woman indenturedher laborto anotherwoman,a beer
seller.Theagentagreedto workin the breweryin anycapacityrequired,"carrying outin
additionthe ordersthatwill be imposedupon her."6A similarparamonedocument,
comingfromthe firstcenturyCE,specifiesthat a weaverwill remainwith a certain
Heron for two years"spendinghis time and doing everythingorderedand weaving
whateverthe abovementionedHeronmaywish."7 Additionalexamplescanbe foundin
Greek apprentice contracts (6tiaoxcaKlca 6gLokoyiat),which bound by indenture free-
bornyouthsfora prescribedperiodwitha viewto learninganartor trade.8
Suchparamonw-clauses contractednotonlyfreelaborbutalsoservile.Originating
in Athens,Delphi,andotherGreekcitiesat the timeof Alexanderthe Greatandcontin-
uinginto the Romanperiod,the institutionof paramonewas a commonlegal mecha-
nism used by Greeksto defer the manumissionof their chattelslaves.Such clauses
obligatedan ex-slaveto remainwith the formermasterfor a specifiedlengthof time,
often "asa slave,"beforethe manumissionbecameeffective.Paramone-clauses were
thereforemorebindingthanthe Romanliberti(freedmen'sandfreedwomen's) stipula-
tionsof operae(workdays)andobsequium(deference)to the formermaster,now the
patron.9
The prodigal's relation to the citizen is best understood as paramone, not hired
agricultural employment or chattel slavery. Agricultural employment means hired
hands on piecework as in the parable of laborers in the vineyard, in which no provision
"to remain"with the landowner is stipulated (Matt 20:1-16). In contrast, the prodigal
must remain. If the passage were to state that the son sought employment as a profes-
sional pig tender, then hired piecework might be its meaning, Rather, the son is driven
to seek any employment and finds illusive relief by contractinghimself out as a general
laborerto the citizen. Subsequently, he receives his initial task of feeding pigs. A change
in subject makes clear a separation between two different moments in the parable
episode: a first event, Kcai icop?ev0eig; KcoXXT16rl'viTCoV
rTOtTCV'r; Xpa;g EKcivr;, "So
he [the son] went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country";and a sec-
ond event, lcai' en?E,Iev atrbovEig Troi d'ypoi; 36oxCKEtv Xoipoix),"and he [the citizen]
sent him to his fields to feed the pigs."Willing to do whateverwas necessaryor required,
the son indentured himself to the citizen in a nonspecific way: the degradation of the
task eventually received demonstrates the youth's obligation to do anything. Such was
the phenomenon known as paramone.

6
Agyptische Urkunden aus den kiniglichen (staatlichen) Museen zu Berlin, Griechische
Urkunden(BGU) IV 1126.9-10; Westermann, "Paramone,"27.
7
Papiri Greci e Latini, Pubblicazioni della Societa italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e
latini in Egitto (PSI) VIII 902.3-4 (= Michigan Papyri V 355); Westermann, "Paramone,"27.
8 Bertrand Adams, Paramone und venrandte Texte: Studien zum
Dienstvertrag im Rechte
der Papyri (Neue kolner rechtswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen 35; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter,
1964) 114-45. Indentured by their mastersto a third party,slaves also served in apprenticeships.
9J. Albert Harrill, The Manumission of Slaves in
Early Christianity (HUT 32; Tiibingen:
Mohr-Siebeck, 1995) 54, 90-91, 164, 169-72, 175-77; Wolfgang Waldstein, "Paramone und
operae libertorum,"in Festschriftfur Arnold Krtnzlein: Beitrdgezur antiken Rechtsgeschichte(ed.
Gunter Wesener et al.; Grazer rechts- und staatswissenschaftliche Studien 43; Graz, Austria:
Leykam, 1986) 143-47.

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716 Journal of Biblical Literature

A paramone contract of service dating from the reign of Trajan (98-117 CE), and
so roughly contemporaneous with the composition of the Gospel of Luke, provides a
remarkable parallel.10The document, from the village of Theadelphia in Egypt, tells
how Ares and Thermouthas, a married couple, borrow twenty silver drachmae from
Lucius Bellienus Gemellus, an Egyptian landowner, legionaryveteran, and Roman citi-
zen. In lieu of interest, Ares agrees to leave his familytemporarilyand to indenture him-
self under paramone to the local citizen: He is to "remain[xapaleveiv] during one year
from the aforesaid day tending the pigs that Lucius has [P6oaCwva eXEt 6 AO:KOt;
oltpiita]" and to "bringthem to the proper roads and pastures and doing everything
[rntotv RadvTa], which is incumbent on the tender" at a wage of twenty drachmae per
month (P.Oxford 10.15-19). Ares further agrees that "it will not be possible for him to
leave within the time [g/1 oirl;s E,oiSouia;aoxU'vxr S rTo(oXp)p6vood7ac,Xayvvat]"
(10.22-23). At the year's end, Ares must repay the initial loan of twenty drachmae." If
Ares leaves before the tenure of service, he violates his agreement "to remain"and so is
obligated to pay a penalty: "But if he leaves before the time [eav 65enpo6xoi Xp(6vo)u
dacaXkkayi], he shall repay the money double" (10.27-28). Such is an example of inden-
tured nonslave labor.
There are many parallels between Ares and the prodigal son. Both Ares and the
prodigalson find themselves in need, seek financialassistance,join themselves to a pros-
perous landowning citizen, separate from their family, agree to "be bound"in the tech-
nical sense of paramone, and are sent to the landowner's fields to tend pigs. A further
parallellies in the document's penalty clause for prematuredeparture,which anticipates
that Ares might not wait a full year before returninghome to his family.This attempt to
prevent workers from leaving may illumine the way that the prodigal leaves to return to
his father's household (Luke 15:18-19). Apparently, landowners such as Lucius Bel-
lienus Gemellus experienced workers absconding, even while bound under paramone.
An Ephesian Tale by Xenophon of Ephesus provides another parallel, the value of
which is its context within a full narrative.The hero Habrocomes, long separated from
home and his wife, sails to Italy but finds himself without any means of support, similar
to the prodigal. He wants to look for his wife yet as a last resort must "hirehimself out to
some quarrymen"[a'r6v aneiio0oxo Tooitto; Xi0ouog Epyaogaivot;] in order to live
(5.8.1-2).12 He finds the work arduous, even miserablyservile, lamenting his condition
(5.8.3-4) as much as the prodigal. Unable to bear his labors any longer, he goes down to
the sea "by night" [vlUKTrop] and catches the first availableship in order to continue the
search for his wife (5.10.1-2). This nocturnal departure suggests stealth and so the
reneging of some kind of labor contract to remain with the quarrymen;Habrocomes is
probably bound under paramone. Since the prodigal leaves the pigs without conse-

10E. P.
Wegener, "Contractof Service (IpapaLovi),"in Some Oxford Papyri (P. Oxford) 10
(ed. E. P. Wegener; PapyrologiaLugduno-Batava3A; Leiden: Brill, 1942) 38-44, trans. Wegener;
Westermann, "Paramone,"14, 44-46; Samuel, "Role,"301-2; Adams, Paramone, 15-16, 29, 59,
82-84.
11Samuel, "Role,"301-2; pace Westermann, "Paramone,"44-46, who argues that the loan is
antichretic,a legal fiction.
12Antonius D.
Papanikolaou, ed., Xenophontis Ephesii Ephesiacorum libri V de amoribus
Anthiae et Abrocomae (Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et RomanorumTeubneriana; Leipzig:
Teubner, 1973); trans. in B. P. Reardon, Collected Ancient Greek Novels (Berkeley/Los Angeles:
Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1989) 158-69 (book 5).

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 Critical Notes 717

quence,the situationis perhapsmorecomparableto Habrocomes'abandonment,by

night,of his fellowquarrymen.
Becausethe parableof the prodigalson illustratesan agreementof indentured
laborsimilarto that in a paramone-clause, knowledgeof paramoneis criticalfor the
parable'sinterpretation. findingsuggestsa morespecifictranslation
This for :KoXoi0rl
in Luke15:15:"hewas indenturedto one of the citizensof thatcountry,whosenthimto
his fieldto feed the pigs."Theparablethusportraysthe economicpositionof the son as
extremelylow in orderto heightenthe dramaof the acceptanceby the father.Readin
thisway,the parablebecomesintelligibleasone importantpartof Luke'slargertheolog-
icalthemeof hospitalityto the poor,outcast,andmarginal,expressedin the languageof
ancienteconomics.13

J. AlbertHarrill
DePaulUniversity,Chicago,IL 60614

13Thanksgo to DavidBrakke,JeffreyTrumbower,
andthe anonymous
reviewersofJBL.

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