Difference between revisions of "Adoption"

<p> [[Act]] of leaving one's natural family and entering into the privileges and responsibilities of another. [[In]] the Bible, adoption is one of several family-related terms used to describe the process of salvation and its subsequent benefits. [[God]] is a father who graciously adopts believers in [[Christ]] into his spiritual family and grants them all the privileges of heirship. [[Salvation]] is much more than forgiveness of sins and deliverance from condemnation; it is also a position of great blessing. [[Believers]] are children of God. </p> <p> <i> [[Old]] [[Testament]] </i> [[Legal]] adoption was not prescribed in [[Jewish]] law or practiced by the Israelites. In fact, the term "adoption" does not occur in the Old Testament. While there are several possible allusions to adoption, such as [[Moses]] ( <span> [[Exodus]] 2:10 </span> ), [[Genubath]] ( <span> 1 Kings 11:20 </span> ), and [[Esther]] ( <span> Esther 2:7 </span> ), the incidents recorded take place in foreign societies (Egyptian and Persian) and there is no evidence that legal adoptions were enacted. </p> <p> The adoption metaphor was not lost to Israel, however. God declares that he is the [[Father]] of the nation Israel, whom he loves as his child ( <span> [[Isaiah]] 1:2 </span> ; <span> [[Hosea]] 11:1 </span> ). [[He]] tells Pharaoh, "Israel is my firstborn son" ( <span> Exodus 4:22 </span> ). More specifically, he says to [[David]] (and the Messiah), "You are my son; today I have become your Father" ( <span> [[Psalm]] 2:7 </span> ); and of David's descendant, "I will be his father, and he will be my son" ( <span> 2 [[Samuel]] 7:14 </span> ). [[Although]] not precisely adoption passages, the instances of declared sonship in the Old Testament provide a theological foundation for Israel's designation as the children of God. </p> <p> <i> New Testament </i> The New Testament cultural environment was much different from that of the Old since elaborate laws and ceremonies for adoption were part of both [[Greek]] and [[Roman]] society. To people with this background, the adoption metaphor in the New Testament was particularly meaningful. </p> <p> The Greek word for adoption ( <i> huiothesia </i> [ <span> [[Romans]] 9:4 </span> ). The remaining four references describe how New Testament believers become children of God through his gracious choice. The full scope of God's work of salvationpast, present, and futureis seen in adoption. </p> <p> The believer's adoption as a child of God was determined by God from eternity: God "predestined us to be adopted as his sons through [[Jesus]] Christ" ( <span> Ephesians 1:5 </span> ). This adoption is not the result of any merit on the part of the believer, but solely the outworking of God's love and grace ( <span> Ephesians 1:5,7 </span> ). </p> <p> The present reality of the believer's adoption into the family of God is release from the slavery of sin and the law and a new position as a free heir of God. [[Entering]] into salvation brings the rights and privileges of free sonship: "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the [[Spirit]] of sonship. And by him we cry, <i> 'Abba, </i> Father'" ( <span> Romans 8:15 </span> ). [[Paul]] tells the [[Galatians]] that [[Christians]] were redeemed from the law so that they might receive adoption as sons. [[As]] a result the [[Holy]] Spirit comes into the believer's heart crying, <i> "Abba, </i> Father" ( <span> Galatians 4:5 </span> ). The intimacy of a relationship with God the Father in contrast to the ownership of slavery is a remarkable feature of salvation. </p> <p> Like many aspects of salvation, there is an eschatological component of adoption. Believers "wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" ( <span> Romans 8:23 </span> ). The full revelation of the believer's adoption is freedom from the corruption present in the world. Being a member of God's family includes the ultimate privilege of being like him ( <span> 1 [[John]] 3:2 </span> ) and being conformed to the glorious body of Christ ( <span> Philippians 3:21 </span> ). This is part of the promised inheritance for all God's children ( <span> Romans 8:16-17 </span> ). </p> <p> [[William]] E. [[Brown]] </p> <p> <i> [[See]] also </i> <a> Christians, [[Names]] of </a> </p> <p> <i> Bibliography </i> . G. Braumann, <i> NIDNTT, </i> 1:287-90; A. H. Leitch, <i> ZPEB, </i> 1:63-65; F. Lyall, <i> Slaves, Citizens, Sons: Legal [[Metaphors]] in the [[Epistles]] </i> . </p>

<div> <span> 1: <a> υἱοθεσία </a> </span> <div> <button> ► </button> </div> <span> ( <a> Strong's #5206 </a> — [[Noun]] [[Feminine]] — huiothesia — hwee-oth-es-ee'-ah </span> ) </div> <p> from huios, "a son," and thesis, "a placing," akin to tithemi, "to place," signifies the place and condition of a son given to one to whom it does not naturally belong. The word is used by the [[Apostle]] [[Paul]] only. </p> <span> [[Romans]] 8:15 </span> <span> [[Galatians]] 4:5 </span> <span> Ephesians 1:5 </span> <span> Romans 8:23 </span> <span> Romans 9:4 </span> <span> [[Exodus]] 4:12 </span> <span> [[Hosea]] 11:1 </span> <span> [[Deuteronomy]] 14:1 </span> <span> [[Jeremiah]] 31:9 </span>

<p> <translit> a </translit> - <translit> dop´shun </translit> ( <span> υἱοθεσία </span> , <i> <translit> huiothesı́a </translit> </i> , "placing as a son"): </p> <p> I. The [[General]] [[Legal]] [[Idea]] </p> <p> 1. [[In]] the [[Old]] [[Testament]] </p> <p> 2. [[Greek]] </p> <p> 3. [[Roman]] </p> <p> II. Paul's [[Doctrine]] </p> <p> 1. In [[Galatians]] as [[Liberty]] </p> <p> 2. In [[Romans]] as [[Deliverance]] from [[Debt]] </p> <p> III. The [[Christian]] [[Experience]] </p> <p> 1. In [[Relation]] to [[Justification]] </p> <p> 2. In Relation to [[Sanctification]] </p> <p> 3. In Relation to [[Regeneration]] </p> <p> IV. [[As]] God's [[Act]] </p> <p> 1. [[Divine]] [[Fatherhood]] </p> <p> 2. Its [[Cosmic]] [[Range]] </p> <p> This term appears first in New Testament, and only in the epistles of [[Paul]] ( <span> Galatians 4:5 </span> ; <span> Romans 8:15 </span> , <span> Romans 8:23 </span> ; <span> Romans 9:4 </span> ; <span> Ephesians 1:5 </span> ) who may have coined it out of a familiar Greek phrase of identical meaning. It indicated generally the legal process by which a man might bring into his family, and endow with the status and privileges of a son, one who was not by nature his son or of his kindred. </p> <h4> I. The General Legal Idea </h4> <p> The custom prevailed among Greeks, Romans and other ancient peoples, but it does not appear in [[Jewish]] law. </p> <p> <span> 1. In the Old Testament </span> </p> <p> [[Three]] cases of adoption are mentioned: of [[Moses]] ( <span> [[Exodus]] 2:10 </span> ), [[Genubath]] ( <span> 1 Kings 11:20 </span> ) and [[Esther]] ( <span> Esther 2:7 </span> , <span> Esther 2:15 </span> ), but it is remarkable that they all occur outside of [[Palestine]] - in [[Egypt]] and Persia, where the practice of adoption prevailed. [[Likewise]] the idea appears in the New Testament only in the epistles of Paul, which were addressed to churches outside Palestine. The motive and initiative of adoption always lay with the adoptive father, who thus supplied his lack of natural offspring and satisfied the claims of affection and religion, and the desire to exercise paternal authority or to perpetuate his family. The process and conditions of adoption varied with different peoples. [[Among]] oriental nations it was extended to slaves (as Moses) who thereby gained their freedom, but in [[Greece]] and [[Rome]] it was, with rare exceptions, limited to citizens. </p> <p> <span> 2. Greek </span> </p> <p> In Greece a man might during his lifetime, or by will, to take effect after his death, adopt any male citizen into the privileges of his son, but with the invariable condition that the adopted son accepted the legal obligations and religious duties of a real son. </p> <p> <span> 3. Roman </span> </p> <p> In Rome the unique nature of paternal authority ( <i> patria potestas </i> ), by which a son was held in his father's power, almost as a slave was owned by his master, gave a peculiar character to the process of adoption. [[For]] the adoption of a person free from paternal authority ( <i> sui juris </i> ), the process and effect were practically the same in Rome as in Greece ( <i> adrogatio </i> ). In a more specific sense, adoption proper ( <i> adoptio </i> ) was the process by which a person was transferred from his natural father's power into that of his adoptive father, and it consisted in a fictitious sale of the son, and his surrender by the natural to the adoptive father. </p> <h4> II. Paul's Doctrine </h4> <p> As a Roman citizen the apostle would naturally know of the Roman custom, but in the cosmopolitan city of Tarsus, and again on his travels, he would become equally familiar with the corresponding customs of other nations. [[He]] employed the idea metaphorically much in the manner of Christ's parables, and, as in their case, there is danger of pressing the analogy too far in its details. It is not clear that he had any specific form of adoption in mind when illustrating his teaching by the general idea. Under this figure he teaches that God, by the manifestation of [[His]] grace in Christ, brings men into the relation of sons to Himself, and communicates to them the experience of sonship. </p> <p> <span> 1. In Galatians as Liberty </span> </p> <p> In Galatians, Paul emphasizes especially the liberty enjoyed by those who live by faith, in contrast to the bondage under which men are held, who guide their lives by legal ceremonies and ordinances, as the Galatians were prone to do ( <span> Galatians 5:1 </span> ). The contrast between law and faith is first set forth on the field of history, as a contrast between both the pre-Christian and the Christian economies ( <span> Galatians 3:23 </span> , <span> Galatians 3:24 </span> ), although in another passage he carries the idea of adoption back into the covenant relation of [[God]] with [[Israel]] ( <span> Romans 9:4 </span> ). But here the historical antithesis is reproduced in the contrast between men who now choose to live under law and those who live by faith. Three figures seem to commingle in the description of man's condition under legal bondage - that of a slave, that of a minor under guardians appointed by his father's will, and that of a Roman son under the <i> patria potestas </i> ( <span> Galatians 4:1-3 </span> ). The process of liberation is first of all one of redemption or buying out (Greek <i> <translit> exagorásēi </translit> </i> ) ( <span> Galatians 4:5 </span> ). This term in itself applies equally well to the slave who is redeemed from bondage, and the Roman son whose adoptive father buys him out of the authority of his natural father. But in the latter case the condition of the son is not materially altered by the process: he only exchanges one paternal authority for another. [[If]] Paul for a moment thought of the process in terms of ordinary Roman adoption, the resulting condition of the son he conceives in terms of the more free and gracious Greek or Jewish family life. [[Or]] he may have thought of the rarer case of adoption from conditions of slavery into the status of sonship. The redemption is only a precondition of adoption, which follows upon faith, and is accompanied by the sending of "the [[Spirit]] of his [[Son]] into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father," and then all bondage is done away ( <span> Galatians 4:5-7 </span> ). </p> <p> <span> 2. In Romans as Deliverance from Debt </span> </p> <p> In <span> Romans 8:12-17 </span> the idea of obligation or debt is coupled with that of liberty. [[Man]] is thought of as at one time under the authority and power of the flesh ( <span> Romans 8:5 </span> ), but when the Spirit of [[Christ]] comes to dwell in him, he is no longer a debtor to the flesh but to the Spirit ( <span> Romans 8:12 </span> , <span> Romans 8:13 </span> ), and debt or obligation to the Spirit is itself liberty. As in Galatians, man thus passes from a state of bondage into a state of sonship which is also a state of liberty. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these (and these only) are sons of God" ( <span> Romans 8:14 </span> ). The spirit of adoption or sonship stands in diametrical opposition to the spirit of bondage ( <span> Romans 8:15 </span> ). And the Spirit to which we are debtors and by which we are led, at once awakens and confirms the experience of sonship within us ( <span> Romans 8:16 </span> ). In both places, Paul conveys under this figure, the idea of man as passing from a state of alienation from God and of bondage under law and sin, into that relation with God of mutual confidence and love, of unity of thought and will, which should characterize the ideal family, and in which all restraint, compulsion and fear have passed away. </p> <h4> III. The Christian Experience </h4> <p> As a fact of Christian experience, the adoption is the recognition and affirmation by man of his sonship toward God. It follows upon faith in Christ, by which man becomes so united with Christ that his filial spirit enters into him, and takes possession of his consciousness, so that he knows and greets God as Christ does (compare <span> [[Mark]] 14:36 </span> ). </p> <p> <span> 1. In Relation to Justification </span> </p> <p> It is an aspect of the same experience that Paul describes elsewhere, under another legal metaphor, as justification by faith. According to the latter, God declares the sinner righteous and treats him as such, admits into to the experience of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace ( <span> Romans 5:1 </span> ). In all this the relation of father and son is undoubtedly involved, but in adoption it is emphatically expressed. It is not only that the prodigal son is welcomed home, glad to confess that he is not worthy to be called a son, and willing to be made as one of the hired servants, but he is embraced and restored to be a son as before. The point of each metaphor is, that justification is the act of a merciful [[Judge]] setting the prisoner free, but adoption is the act of a generous father, taking a son to his bosom and endowing him with liberty, favor and a heritage. </p> <p> <span> 2. In Relation to Sanctification </span> </p> <p> Besides, justification is the beginning of a process which needs for its completion a progressive course of sanctification by the aid of the [[Holy]] Spirit, but adoption is coextensive with sanctification. The sons of God are those led by the Spirit of God ( <span> Romans 8:14 </span> ); and the same spirit of God gives the experience of sonship. Sanctification describes the process of general cleansing and growth as an abstract process, but adoption includes it as a concrete relation to God, as loyalty, obedience, and fellowship with an ever-loving Father. </p> <p> <span> 3. In Relation to Regeneration </span> </p> <p> Some have identified adoption with regeneration, and therefore many [[Fathers]] and Roman [[Catholic]] theologians have identified it with baptismal regeneration, thereby excluding the essential fact of conscious sonship. The new birth and adoption are certainly aspects of the same totality of experience, but they belong to different systems of thought, and to identify them is to invite confusion. The new birth defines especially the origin and moral quality of the Christian experience as an abstract fact, but adoption expresses a concrete relation of man to God. Nor does Paul here raise the question of man's natural and original condition. It is pressing the analogy too far to infer from this doctrine of adoption that man is by nature not God's son. It would contradict Paul's teaching elsewhere (e.g. <span> Acts 17:28 </span> ), and he should not be convicted of inconsistency on the application of a metaphor. He conceives man outside Christ as morally an alien and a stranger from God, and the change wrought by faith in Christ makes him morally a son and conscious of his sonship; but naturally he is always a potential son because God is always a real father. </p> <h4> IV. As God's Act </h4> <p> [[Adoption]] as God's act is an eternal process of His gracious love, for He "fore-ordained us unto adoption as sons through [[Jesus]] Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" ( <span> Ephesians 1:5 </span> ). </p> <p> <span> 1. Divine Fatherhood </span> </p> <p> The motive and impulse of Fatherhood which result in adoption were eternally real and active in God. In some sense He had bestowed the adoption upon Israel ( <span> Romans 9:4 </span> ). "Israel is my son, my first-born" ( <span> Exodus 4:22 </span> ; compare <span> [[Deuteronomy]] 14:1 </span> ; <span> Deuteronomy 32:6 </span> ; <span> [[Jeremiah]] 31:9 </span> ; <span> [[Hosea]] 11:1 </span> ). God could not reveal Himself at all without revealing something of His Fatherhood, but the whole revelation was as yet partial and prophetic. When "God sent forth his Son" to redeem them that were under the law," it became possible for men to receive the adoption; for to those who are willing to receive it, He sent the Spirit of the eternal Son to testify in their hearts that they are sons of God, and to give them confidence and utterance to enable them to call God their [[Father]] ( <span> Galatians 4:5 </span> , <span> Galatians 4:6 </span> ; <span> Romans 8:15 </span> ). </p> <p> <span> 2. Its Cosmic Range </span> </p> <p> But this experience also is incomplete, and looks forward to a fuller adoption in the response, not only of man's spirit, but of the whole creation, including man's body, to the Fatherhood of God ( <span> Romans 8:23 </span> ). [[Every]] filial spirit now groans, because it finds itself imprisoned in a body subjected to vanity, but it awaits a redemption of the body, perhaps in the resurrection, or in some final consummation, when the whole material creation shall be transformed into a fitting environment for the sons of God, the creation itself delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God ( <span> Romans 8:21 </span> ). Then will adoption be complete, when man's whole personality shall be in harmony with the spirit of sonship, and the whole universe favorable to its perseverance in a state of blessedness. [[See]] <a> CHILDREN OF GOD </a> . </p> <h4> [[Literature]] </h4> <p> Lightfoot, <i> Galatians </i> ; Sanday, <i> Romans </i> ; Lidgett, <i> Fatherhood of God </i> ; Ritschl, <i> Justification and [[Reconciliation]] </i> . </p>

<p> ( <span> υἱοθεσία </span> <span> , </span> <span> [[Romans]] 8:15 </span> ; <span> Romans 8:23 </span> ; <span> Romans 9:4 </span> : <span> [[Galatians]] 4:5 </span> ; <span> Ephesians 1:5 </span> ), the <span> placing as a son </span> of one who is not so by birth or naturally. </p> <p> <span> I. </span> <span> Literal. <span> — </span> </span> The practice of adoption had its origin in the natural desire for male offspring, the operation of which is less marked in those countries where the equalizing influences of high civilization lessen the peculiar privileges of the paternal character, and where the security and the well- observed laws by which estates descend and property is transmitted withdraw one of the principal inducements to the practice, but was peculiarly prevalent in the patriarchal period. The law of Moses, by settling the relations of families and the rules of descent, and by formally establishing the [[Levirate]] law, appears to have put some check upon this custom. The allusions in the New [[Testament]] are mostly to practices of adoption which then existed, but not confined to the Romans. [[In]] the [[East]] the practice has always been common, especially among the [[Semitic]] races, although the additional and peculiar stimulus which the Hebrews derived from the hope of giving birth to the [[Messiah]] was inapplicable to cases of adoption. But, as the arrangements of society became more complicated, some restrictions were imposed upon the power of adoption, and certain public forms were made necessary to legalize the act: precisely what these were, in different ages, among the Hebrews, we are mostly left to gather from the analogous practices of other [[Eastern]] nations. [[For]] the practice had ceased to be common among the [[Jews]] <span> — </span> by the time the sources of information became more open; and the culpable facility of divorce, in later times rendered unnecessary those adoptions which might have arisen, and in earlier times did arise, from the sterility of a wife. [[Adoption]] was confined to sons; the case of [[Esther]] affords the only example of the adoption of a female; for the Jews certainly were not behind any [[Oriental]] nation in the feeling expressed in the [[Chinese]] proverb, "He is happiest in daughters who has only sons" (Mem. sur les Chinois, 10, 149). </p> <p> <span> 1. </span> The first instances of adoption which occur in [[Scripture]] are less the acts of men than of women, who, being themselves barren, give their female slaves to their husbands, with the view of adopting the children they may bear. [[Thus]] [[Sarah]] gave her handmaid [[Hagar]] to Abraham; and the son who was born, Ishmael, appears to have been considered as her son as well as [[Abraham]] <span> ’ </span> s until [[Isaac]] was born. In like manner Rachel, having no children, gave her handmaid [[Bilhah]] to her husband, who had by her [[Dan]] and [[Naphtali]] ( <span> [[Genesis]] 30:5-9 </span> ); on which his other wife, Leah, although she had sons of her own, yet fearing that she had left off bearing, claimed the right of giving her handmaid [[Zilpah]] to Jacob, that she might thus increase their number; and by this means she had [[Gad]] and [[Asher]] ( <span> Genesis 30:9 </span> - </p> <p> 1). In this way the child was the son of the husband, and, the mother being the property of the wife, the progeny must be her property also; and the act of more particular appropriation seems to have been that, at the time of birth, the handmaid brought forth her child "upon the knees of the adoptive mother" ( <span> Genesis 30:3 </span> ). In this case the vicarious bearing of the handmaid for the mistress was as complete as possible; and the sons were regarded as fully equal in right of heritage with those by the legitimate wife. This privilege could not, however, be conferred by the adoption of the wife, but by the natural relation of such sons to the husband. Sarah <span> ’ </span> s case proves that a mistress retained her power, as such, over a female slave whom she had thus vicariously employed, and over the progeny of that slave, even though by her own husband ( <span> Genesis 21:10 </span> ). </p> <p> [[Still]] earlier Abraham appears to have adopted a house-born slave, his faithful and devoted steward Eliezer, as a son ( <span> Genesis 15:2 </span> ) <span> — </span> a practice still very common in the East. A boy is often purchased young, adopted by his master, brought up in his faith, and educated as his son; or if the owner has a daughter, he adopts him through a marriage with that daughter, and the family which springs from this union is counted as descended from him. But house-born slaves are usually preferred, as these have never had any home but their master <span> ’ </span> s house, are considered members of his family, and are generally the most faithful of his adherents. This practice was very common among the Romans, and is more than once referred, to by [[Paul]] ( <span> Romans 8:15 </span> ; <span> 1 Corinthians 2:12 </span> ); the transition from the condition of a slave to that of a son, and the privilege of applying the tender name of "father" to the former "master," affording a beautiful illustration of the change which takes place from the bondage of the law to the freedom and privileges of the [[Christian]] state. </p> <p> [[As]] in most cases the adopted son was considered dead to the family from which he sprung, the separation of natural ties and connections was avoided by this preference of slaves, who were mostly foreigners or of foreign descent. For the same reason the Chinese make their adoptions from children in the hospitals who have been abandoned by their parents (Mem. sur les Chinois, 6, 325). The [[Tartars]] prefer to adopt their near relatives-nephews or cousins, or, failing them, a [[Tartar]] of their own banner (ib. 4, 136). In like manner [[Jacob]] adopted his own grandsons [[Ephraim]] and [[Manasseh]] to be counted as his sons ( <span> Genesis 48:6 </span> ). The object of this remarkable adoption was, that, whereas [[Joseph]] himself could only have one share of his father <span> ’ </span> s heritage along with his brothers, the adoption of his two sons enabled Jacob, through them, to bestow two portions upon his favorite son. The adoption of [[Moses]] by [[Pharaoh]] <span> ’ </span> s daughter ( <span> [[Exodus]] 2:1-10 </span> ) is an incident rather than a practice; but it recalls what has just been stated respecting the adoption of outcast children by the Chinese. </p> <p> A man who had only a daughter often married her to a freed slave, and the children were counted as those of the woman <span> ’ </span> s father, or the husband himself is adopted as a son. Thus Sheshan, of the tribe of Judah, gave his daughter to Jarha, an [[Egyptian]] slave (whom, as the [[Targum]] premises, he no doubt liberated on that occasion): the posterity of the marriage are not, however, reckoned to Jarha, the husband of the woman, but to her father, Sheshan, and as his descendants they take their heritage and station in [[Israel]] ( <span> 1 [[Chronicles]] 2:34 </span> sq.). [[So]] [[Machir]] (grandson of Joseph) gave his daughter in marriage to Hezron, of the tribe of Judah. She gave birth to Segub, <span> — </span> who was the father of [[Jair]] (q.v.). This Jair possessed twenty- three cities in the land of Gilead, which came to him in right of his grandmother, the daughter of Machir; and he acquired other towns in the same quarter, which made up his possessions to threescore towns or villages ( <span> 1 Chronicles 2:21-24 </span> ; <span> [[Joshua]] 13:9 </span> ; 1 Kings 4-13). Now this Jair, though of the tribe of [[Judah]] by his grandfather, is, in <span> [[Numbers]] 32:41 </span> , counted as of Manasseh, because through his grandmother he inherited the property, and was the lineal representative of Machir, the son of Manasseh. This case illustrates the difference between the pedigree of [[Christ]] as given by [[Matthew]] and that in [[Luke]] <span> — </span> the former being the pedigree through Joseph, his supposed father, and the latter through his mother, Mary. This opinion, (See <a> GENEALOGY </a> ) supposes that [[Mary]] was the daughter of Heli, and that Joseph is called his son ( <span> Luke 3:23 </span> ) because he was adopted by [[Heli]] when he married his daughter, who was an heiress, as has been presumed from the fact of her going to [[Bethlehem]] to be registered when in the last stage of pregnancy. Her heirship, however, is not essential to this relation, and her journey may rather have been in order to continue under the protection of her husband during such a period of suspicion. </p> <p> [[By]] the time of Christ the Jews had, through various channels, become well acquainted with the more remarkable customs of the [[Greeks]] and Romans, as is apparent particularly from the epistles of Paul. In <span> [[John]] 8:36 </span> , "If the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed," is supposed by [[Grotius]] and other commentators to refer to a custom in some of the cities of [[Greece]] and elsewhere, called <span> ἀδελφοθεσία </span> <span> , </span> whereby the son and heir was permitted to adopt brothers and admit them to the same rights which he himself enjoyed. But it seems more likely that the reference was to the more familiar [[Roman]] custom, by which the son, after his father <span> ’ </span> s death, often made free such as were born slaves in. his house (Theophil. Antecensor, Institut. Imp. Justinian. 1, 6, 5). In <span> Romans 8:23 </span> , <span> νἱοθεσίαν </span> <span> ἀπεκδεχόμενοι </span> , "anxiously waiting for the adoption," the former word appears to be used in a sense different from that which it bears in <span> Romans 8:15 </span> , and to signify the <span> consummation </span> of the act there mentioned, in which point of view it is conceived to apply to the twofold ceremony among the Romans. The one was the private act between the parties; and if the person to be adopted was not already the slave of the adopter, this private transaction involved <span> the purchase of him from his </span> parents when practicable. In this manner [[Caius]] and [[Lucius]] were purchased from their father [[Agrippa]] before their adoption by Augustus. The other was the public acknowledgment of that act on the part of the adopter, when the adopted person was solemnly avowed and declared to be his son. The peculiar force and propriety of such an allusion in an epistle to the Romans must be very evident. In <span> Galatians 4:5-6 </span> , there is a very clear allusion to the privilege of adopted slaves to address their former master by the endearing title of <span> Abba, </span> or father. [[Selden]] has shown that slaves were not allowed to use this word in addressing the master of the family to which they belonged, nor the corresponding title of Mama, mother, when speaking to the mistress of it (De Succ, in [[Bona]] Defunct. secund. Hebr. c. 4). </p> <p> <span> 2. </span> The Roman custom of adoption, by which a person, not having children of his own, might adopt as his son one born of other, parents, was a formal act, effected either by the process named <span> adrogatio, </span> when the person to be adopted was independent of his parent, or by <span> adoptio, </span> specifically so called, when in the power of his parent. The effect of it was that the adopted child was entitled to the name and sacra privata of his new father, and ranked as his heir at law; while the father, on his part, was entitled to the property of the son, and exercised toward him all the rights and privileges of a father. In short, the relationship was to all intents and purposes the same as existed between a natural father and son. (See [[Smith]] <span> ’ </span> s Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Adoption.) </p> <p> <span> 3. </span> The custom of adoption is still frequent in the East. [[Lady]] Montague says <span> (Letter </span> 42), "There is one custom peculiar to their country, I mean adoption, very common among the Turks, and yet more among the Greeks and Armenians. Not having it in their power to give their estate to a friend or distant relation, to avoid its falling into the grand seignior <span> ’ </span> s treasury, when they are not likely to have any children of their own, they choose some pretty child of either sex among the meanest people, and carry the child and its parents before the cadi, and there declare they receive it for their heir. The parents at the same time renounce all future claim to it; a writing is drawn and witnessed, and a child thus adopted cannot be disinherited. [[Yet]] I have seen some common beggars that have refused to part with their children in this manner to some of the richest among the Greeks (so powerful is the instinctive affection that is natural to parents); though the adopting fathers are generally very tender to those children of their souls, as they call them. [[Methinks]] it is much more reasonable to make happy and rich an infant whom I educate after my own manner, brought up (in the [[Turkish]] phrase) upon my knees, and who has learned to look upon me with a filial respect, than to give an estate to a creature without merit or relation to me." </p> <p> [[Among]] the Mohammedans the ceremony of adoption is sometimes performed by causing the adopted to pass through the shirt of the person who adopts him. Hence, to adopt is among the Turks expressed by saying "to draw any one through one <span> ’ </span> s shirt;" and they call an adopted son Akhret Ogli, the son of another life, because he was not begotten in this (D <span> ’ </span> Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. 43). [[Something]] like this is observable among the Hebrews: [[Elijah]] adopts [[Elisha]] by throwing his mantle over him ( <span> 1 Kings 19:19 </span> ); and when Elijah was carried off in a fiery chariot, his mantle, which he let fall, was taken up by Elisha, his disciple, his spiritual son, and adopted successor in the office of prophet ( <span> 2 Kings 2:15 </span> ). It should be remarked, also, that Elisha asks not merely to be adopted (for that he had been already), but to be treated as the elder son, to have a <span> double portion </span> (the elder son <span> ’ </span> s prerogative) of the spirit conferred upon him. (See <a> INVESTITURE </a> ). </p> <p> There is another method of ratifying the act of adoption, however, which is worthy of notice, as it tends to illustrate some passages in the sacred writings. The following is from Pitts: "I was bought by an old bachelor; I wanted nothing with him; meat, drink, and clothes, and money, I had enough. After I had lived with him about a year, he made his pilgrimage to Mecca, and carried me with him; but before we came to Alexandria, he was taken sick, and thinking verily he should die, having a woven girdle about his middle, under his sash (which they usually wear), in which was much gold, and also my letter of freedom (which he intended to give me when at Mecca), he took it off, and bid me put it on about me, and took my girdle, and put it on himself. My patron would speak, on occasion, in my behalf, saying, My SON will never run away. [[He]] seldom called me any thing but son, and bought a [[Dutch]] boy to do the work of the house, who attended upon me, and obeyed my orders as much as his. I often saw several bags of his money, a great part of which he said he would leave me." This circumstance seems to illustrate the conduct of Moses, who clothed [[Eleazar]] in [[Aaron]] <span> ’ </span> s sacred vestments when that high-priest was about to be gathered to his fathers; indicating thereby that Eleazar succeeded in the functions of the priesthood, and was, as it were, adopted to exercise that dignity. The [[Lord]] told Shebna, captain of the temple, that he would deprive him of his honorable station, and substitute Eliakim, son of [[Hilkiah]] ( <span> [[Isaiah]] 22:21 </span> ): <span> "I will clothe him with thy robe, </span> saith the Lord, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand." And Paul in several places says, that [[Christians]] <span> "put on the Lord Jesus; </span> that they <span> put on the new man," </span> to denote their adoption as sons of [[God]] ( <span> Romans 13:14 </span> ; <span> Galatians 3:27 </span> ; <span> Ephesians 4:24 </span> ; <span> Colossians 3:10 </span> ; comp. <span> John 1:12 </span> ; <span> 1 John 3:2 </span> ). (See <a> SON </a> ). When [[Jonathan]] made a covenant with David, he stripped himself of his girdle and his robe and put them upon his friend ( <span> 1 [[Samuel]] 18:3 </span> ). </p> <p> <span> II. </span> <span> [[Figurative]] </span> . <span> — </span> Adoption in a theological sense is that act of God <span> ’ </span> s free grace by which, upon our being justified by faith in Christ, we are received into the family of God, and entitled to the inheritance of heaven. </p> <p> <span> 1. </span> In the New Testament, adoption appears not so much a distinct act of God, as involved in, and necessarily flowing from, our justification; so that at least the one always implies the other. Nor is there any good ground to suppose that in the New Testament the term adoption is used with special reference to the civil practice of adoption by the Greeks, Romans, or other heathens, and, therefore, these formalities are illustrative only so far as they confirm the usages among the Jews likewise. The apostles, in using the term, appear rather to have had before them the simple view, that our sins had deprived us of our sonship, the favor of God, and the right to the inheritance of eternal life; but that, upon our return to God, and reconciliation with him, our forfeited privileges were not only restored, but greatly heightened through the paternal kindness of God. They could scarcely be forgetful of the affecting parable of the prodigal son; and it is under the same view that Paul quotes from the [[Old]] Testament, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a [[Father]] unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" ( <span> 2 Corinthians 6:18 </span> ). </p> <p> <span> (1.) </span> Adoption, then, is that act by which we who were alienated, and enemies, and disinherited, are made the sons of God and heirs of his eternal glory. "If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" ( <span> Romans 8:17 </span> ); where it is to be remarked that it is not in our own right, nor in the right of any work done in us, or which we ourselves do, though it should be an evangelical work, that we become heirs; but jointly with Christ, and in his right. </p> <p> <span> (2.) </span> To this state belong, freedom from a servile spirit, for we are not servants, but sons; the special love and care of God, our [[Heavenly]] Father; a filial confidence in him; free access to him at all times and in all circumstances; a title to the heavenly inheritance; and the spirit of adoption, or the witness of the [[Holy]] [[Spirit]] to our adoption, which is the foundation of all the comfort we can derive from those privileges, as it is the only means by which we can know that they are ours. </p> <p> <span> (3.) </span> The last-mentioned great privilege of adoption merits special attention. It consists in the inward witness or testimony of the Holy Spirit to the sonship of believers, from which flows a comfortable persuasion or conviction of our present acceptance with God, and the hope of our future and eternal glory. This is taught in several passages of Scripture: </p> <p> [1.] <span> Romans 8:15-16 </span> , "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." In this passage it is to be remarked, </p> <p> <span> (a.) </span> That the Holy Spirit takes away "fear," a servile dread of God as offended. </p> <p> <span> (b.) </span> That the "Spirit of God" here mentioned is not the personified spirit or genius of the Gospel, as some would have it, but "the Spirit itself," or himself; and hence he is called ( <span> Galatians 4:6 </span> ) "the Spirit of his Son," which cannot mean the genius of the Gospel. </p> <p> <span> (c.) </span> That he inspires a filial confidence in God, as our Father, which is opposed to "the fear" produced by the "spirit of bondage." <span> (d.) </span> That he excites this filial confidence, and enables us to call God our Father, by witnessing, bearing testimony with our spirit, <span> ‘ </span> "that we are the children of God." </p> <p> [2.] <span> Galatians 4:4-6 </span> , "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons; and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his [[Son]] into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Here, also, are to be noted, </p> <p> <span> (a.) </span> The means of our redemption from under (the curse of) the law, the incarnation and sufferings of Christ. </p> <p> <span> (b.) </span> That the adoption of sons follows upon our actual redemption from that curse, or, in other words, upon our pardon. </p> <p> <span> (c.) </span> That upon our being pardoned, the "Spirit of the Son" is "sent forth into our hearts," producing the same effect as that mentioned in the [[Epistle]] to the Romans, viz., filial confidence in God, "crying, Abba, Father." </p> <p> [3.] To these texts are to be added all those passages, so numerous in the New Testament, which express the confidence and the joy of Christians, their friendship with God, their confident access to him as their God, their entire union and delightful intercourse with him in spirit. (See Watson, Institutes, 2, 269; Dwight, Theology, vol. 3.) </p> <p> <span> 2. </span> In the early fathers, adoption seems to have been regarded as the effect of baptism. The [[Romanist]] theologians generally do not treat of adoption as a separate theological topic, nor, indeed, does their system admit it. According to the old [[Lutheran]] theology (Apol. 4, 140; Form. Conc. 4, 631; Gessner, 118; Hutter, loc. 12), adoption takes place at the same time with regeneration and justification, justification giving to the sinner the right of adoption, and regeneration putting him in the possession and enjoyment of this right. The certainty of one <span> ’ </span> s adoption, and of the inheritance warranted by it, are counted among the attributes of the new birth. [[Pietism]] (q.v.) caused an approximation of the Lutheran theology to that of the [[Reformed]] Church, which, from the beginning, had distinguished more strictly between regeneration and adoption. The expressions of the Reformed theologians differed, however, greatly. Usually they represented adoption as the effect or as the fruit of justification. Sometimes, however, as co-ordinate, but always as subsequent to regeneration. [[Rationalism]] (q.v.) threw aside the biblical conception of adoption as well as that of regeneration. Bretschneider explains it as the firm hope of a moral man for everlasting bliss after this life. Schleiermacher speaks of adoption as a constitutive element of justification, but explains it, on the whole, as identical with the putting on of a new man, and regards it as a phase in the phenomenology of the Christian consciousness. [[Lange]] (Christliche Dogmatik, <span> § </span> 97) regards the new birth as the transformation of the individual life into a divine human life, and finds it in the union of justification and faith. Adoption, as the result of the new birth, appears to him as a substantial relation with God and an individualized image of God according to his image in Christ. Gider, in [[Herzog]] <span> ’ </span> s Real-Encyklopadie, thinks that the words of the [[Bible]] conceal treasures which theological science has not yet fully succeeded in bringing to light, and that adoption must be brought into an organic connection not only with justification, but with the new birth <span> — </span> the latter not to be taken merely in a psychological, but in a deeper mystical sense. (See <a> ASSURANCE </a> ); (See <a> CHILDREN OF GOD </a> ). </p>