Christianity came into being in the Roman empire and often the relationships between slaves and owners were much more subtle and complicated. A Christian who is also a slave has to consider that the effects of his leaving a house-hold in terms of how he was to be a servant to Jesus Christ; a wise spirit filled slave might just win the whole house hold to Christ.
A slave owner who became a Christian couldn’t just “free all his slaves” while leaving them no means to survive in a hostile Roman world.
There is no passage of scripture that states that Christianity supports slavery as an institution nor supports the founding of such an institution...it merely acknowledges the existence of slavery and sets down some simple rules and advice as to how how Christian slaves and their Christian masters were to behave towards one another.
The Mosaic code was very precise about how the Hebrews were to treat slaves, especially ones who volunteered to be slaves....say for payment of debts or for extreme poverty. Their indentures were to last a maximum of 7 years( the period could be less if the master agreed) and if at the end of 7 years if the slave wanted to remain a slave and if the master agreed, then the slave had his ear pierced with an awl and he was a slave for life. The master in turn had to make sure his slaves were well treated and his life slaves had to be cared for in their old age.
The passage from Galatians 3: 26 thru the end of the chapter tells one what God really thinks of one’s spiritual unity...there are no differences, no slave class, no free class, no special jewish class, no special gentile class, ect. The only slavery the Bible may advocate is slavery to the love that is in Christ Jesus!
I think we need to straighten out a few inaccuracies in your post.
Slavery wasn’t a subtle or complicated practice in ancient Rome. It was brutal and simple. A slave was for life, could be treated as inheritable property and the level of brutality applied was entirely dependent on the individual conscience of the slaveholder. Additionally, freeing slaves was not an uncommon practice in the Roman Empire. It was perfectly acceptable to free slaves and the Roman world wasn’t hostile to them.
In the Bible’s view, slavery is a perfectly acceptable and moral practice. All it does is try to regulate the excesses not condemn it per se. Even then, the regulations permit a harsher regime on non-Hebrews slaves than Hebrew ones.
The idea that there has been a consistent condemnation or moral consideration of slavery in Judeo-Christian teachings throughout the ages is patently false. The position has evolved dramatically and that makes kimtom’s concept of an ‘Absolute Moral Law’, unchanging through the ages a distortion of the truth.