The noun andrapodistēs refers to a slave-dealer or kidnapper — one who reduces free people to slaves or traffics in human beings. It appears once in the New Testament (1 Timothy 1:10), listed among the gravest sinners whose behavior the law was designed to condemn.
Paul's inclusion of andrapodistai (slave-dealers/kidnappers) in his vice list in 1 Timothy 1:10 is theologically significant. The list includes murderers, those who kill fathers or mothers, the sexually immoral — and slave-dealers. This is Paul directly condemning the kidnapping and trafficking of human beings as among the worst sins the law addresses. The word likely refers specifically to the practice of kidnapping free people to sell as slaves — a common and lucrative crime in the Roman world. The biblical grounding for this condemnation is Exodus 21:16: "Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death." Human beings bear the image of God; their freedom cannot be commodified without supreme transgression.