Now those who take a superficial and unreflecting view of things observe the outward appearance of anything they meet, e.g. of a man, and then troubl… - Gregory of Nyssa

'I got me slaves and slave-girls.' For what price, tell me? What did you find in existence worth as much as this human nature? What price did you put on rationality? How many obols did you reckon the equivalent of the likeness of God? How many staters did you get for selling that being shaped by God? God said, Let us make man in our own image and likeness. If he is in the likeness of God, and rules the whole earth, and has been granted authority over everything on earth from God, who is his buyer, tell me? Who is his seller? To God alone belongs this power; or, rather, not even to God himself. For his gracious gifts, it says, are irrevocable. God would not therefore reduce the human race to slavery, since he himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God's?

ἐπειδὴ δέ τισι τῶν ἐκκλησιαστικῶν παρίστασθαι τῇ λέξει τῆς ἁγίας γραφῆς διὰ πάντων δοκεῖ καὶ τὸ δι' αἰνιγμάτων τε καὶ ὑπονοιῶν εἰρῆσθαί τι παρ' αὐτῆς εἰς ὠφέλειαν ἡμῶν οὐ συντίθενται, ἀναγκαῖον ἡγοῦμαι πρῶτον περὶ τούτων τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα ἡμῖν ἐγκαλοῦσιν ἀπολογήσασθαι, ὅτι οὐδὲν ἀπὸ τρόπου γίνεται παρ' ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ σπουδάζειν ἡμᾶς παντοίως θηρεύειν ἐκ τῆς θεοπνεύστου γραφῆς τὸ ὠφέλιμον·

ὧν τὴν διὰ τῆς ἀναγωγῆς θεωρίαν εἴτε τροπολογίαν εἴτε ἀλληγορίαν εἴτε τι ἄλλο τις ὀνομάζειν ἐθέλοι, οὐδὲν περὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος διοισόμεθα, μόνον εἰ τῶν ἐπωφελῶν ἔχοιτο νοημάτων·