Gregory of Nyssa : What is such a gross example of arrogance in the matters enumerated above—an opulent house, and an abundance of vines, and ripeness in vegetable plots, and collecting waters in pools and channeling them in gardens—as for a human being to think himself the master of his own kind? "I got me slaves and slave girls," he says, and "homebred slaves were born for me." Do you notice the enormity of the boast? This kind of language is raised up as a challenge to God. For we hear from prophecy that "all things are the slaves" of the power that transcends all. So, when someone turns the property of God into his own property and arrogates dominion to his own kind, so as to think himself the owner of men and women, what is he doing but overstepping his own nature through pride, regarding himself as something different from his subordinates?… You have forgotten the limits of your authority and that your rule is confined to control over things without reason. For it says "let them rule over" winged creatures and fishes and fourfooted things and creeping things. Why do you go beyond what is subject to you and raise yourself up against the very species that is free, counting your own kind on a level with fourfooted things and even footless things? … But by dividing the human species in two with "slavery" and "ownership" you have caused it to be enslaved to itself and to be the owner of itself.… He who knew the nature of humankind rightly said that the whole world was not worth giving in exchange for a human soul. Whenever a human being is for sale, therefore, nothing less than the owner of the earth is led into the sale room. Presumably, then, the property belonging to him is up for auction too. That means the earth, the islands, the sea, and all that is in them. What will the buyer pay, and what will the vendor accept, considering how much property is entailed in the deal?… In what respect have you something extra, tell me, that you who are human think yourself the master of a humble being, and say, "I got me slaves and slave girls," like herds of goats or pigs. For when he said, "I got me slaves and slave girls," he added that abundance in flocks of sheep and cattle came to him. For he says, "and much property in cattle and sheep became mine," as though both cattle and slaves were subject to his authority to an equal degree. Gregory of Nyssa : Among those things he includes is an expensive home, many vineyards, beautiful gardens, pools and orchards, do we find a person who regards himself as lord over his fellow man? "I obtained servants, maidens, servants born to me in my house." Do you see here a pride which makes false pretensions? Such words as these rise up against God. As prophecy has told us, all things serve [God] whose power is over them. As for the person who appropriates to himself what belongs to God and attributes to himself power over the human race as if he were its lord, what other arrogant statement transgressing human nature makes this person regard himself as different from those over whom he rules?… You have forgotten the limit of your authority which consists in jurisdiction over brutish animals. Scripture says that man shall rule birds, beasts, fish, four-footed animals and reptiles. How can you transgress the servitude bestowed upon you and raise yourself against man's freedom by stripping yourself of the servitude proper to beasts?… Man, who was created as lord over the earth, you have put under the yoke of servitude as a transgressor and rebel against the divine precept. You have forgotten the limit of your authority which consists in jurisdiction over brutish animals.… He who knows human nature says that the world is not an adequate exchange for man's soul. When the Lord of the earth bought man, he acquired nothing more precious. He will then proclaim this surpassing possession along with the earth, island, sea and everything in them. What is the deposit God puts down? What will he receive from the contract by which he has received possession?… How can you who are equal in all things have superiority so that as man, you consider yourself as man's ruler and say "I have servants and maidens" as if they were goats or cattle? When Ecclesiastes said that "I have servants and maidens" he also speaks of his prosperity in flocks and herds: "I also had abundant possessions of flocks and herds," both of which were subject to his authority. — HOMILIES ON Ecclesiastes 4 Jerome : "I bought slaves, male and female, and natives too; I also owned more possessions, both cattle and sheep, than all of my predecessors in Jerusalem." If we want Ecclesiastes, as we have said before, to refer to the person of Christ here too, then we are able to say "his slaves" who have the spirit of fear in servitude and desire more spiritual things in life than they already have. But we can also call the slave-girls "hearts [Hier.. "animas"]" that till now have been bestowed upon the body and upon the earth. They surpass also those natives, who are certain of the Church, both slaves and slave-girls, about whom I have spoken. And the Lord has not yet bestowed upon them freedom or noble-birth. But there are others in the estate of Ecclesiastes like oxen and sheep, who are kept on account of work and their innocence, and who work even in the church without reason and knowledge of the Scriptures. But they have not yet attained such an understanding, that they deserve to be men and return to the appearance of their creator. If you look more diligently too, you will notice that the number is not added in the case of slaves, slave-girls and natives, but in the case of cows and sheep it is said: "I owned more possessions of cattle and sheep". There is more silver in fact in the Church than men: more sheep than slaves, slave-girls and natives. But that which is said at the end- "more than all those who were before me in Jerusalem" does not pertain to the glory of Solomon, or that he was richer than his father the King, since Saul did not rule in Jerusalem, and the city was held by the Jebusites who had themselves occupied the city at that time. Ecclesiastes however was richer at a younger age than were all men, who had preceded him as kings in Jerusalem. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes