Once humanity is graded, hierarchy must be moralized.

Intellectual systems alone do not sustain inequality. They must be justified. They must be framed as not merely functional, but faithful.

By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as civilizational ranking hardened into graded humanity, biblical interpretation increasingly functioned as a stabilizing force. Scripture did not invent hierarchy in this period. Hierarchy preceded it. But Scripture became one of its most enduring legitimators.

Christian theology affirms that all humans share a common origin in creation.¹ This affirmation complicated any outright denial of African humanity. Yet interpretation does not occur in abstraction. Texts are read within historical and social contexts, often reinforcing prevailing assumptions.

As European expansion accelerated through colonization and Atlantic trade, certain biblical themes were emphasized in ways that aligned with emerging hierarchies:

Obedience.Order.Submission.Divinely sanctioned authority.

Romans 13, with its instruction to be subject to governing authorities, became a frequently cited passage in defense of established power.² New Testament household codes — addressed to believers living within Roman social structures — were often interpreted as timeless mandates rather than situational guidance.³

These interpretations did not create inequality. They assumed it.

Once Africans had been positioned as developmentally inferior, biblical language about order........

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