What Is the Adoption of the Believer?
A Sermon and Study on Biblical Adoption.
What Is the Adoption of the Believer?
Text
Introduction
Adoption as a Historical Concept
To the Hebrew People
For example, “Mordecai took [Esther] to be his daughter” because she had no mother or father (Esth 2:7). Despite the absence of a term, it is clear that the concept of adoption existed.
There are several other instances in the Hebrew Bible where adoption is represented:
• Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s household (Exod 2:1–10). The story of Moses also says that Pharaoh’s daughter agreed to pay wet nurse fees (Exod 2:9). In ancient Near Eastern legal codes, a person who pays the wet nurse fees to keep a child alive—particularly a foundling, or child who has been abandoned shortly after birth—assumes the child in his or her household (Malul, “Adoption of Foundlings,” 107–108).
Ruth’s formulaic declaration to stay with her mother-in-law (Ruth 1:16–17) might represent a rite of adoption. This is comparable to Jesus’ declaration from the cross, when he places his mother into the family of the disciple he loved (John 19:26–27).
• Abraham “adopts” his slave Eliezer of Damascus to be his heir before the birth of Ishmael and Isaac (Selman, “The Social Environment,” 125–127).
• Josephus describes Abraham as adopting Lot (Antiquities, I.7.1), although he was writing in a Graeco-Roman context where legal adoption was practiced.
Another explanation concerns the institution of so-called levirate marriage, whereby the brother of a deceased man was expected to marry and provide children for his brother’s widow (e.g., Deut 25:5–10). The firstborn child of this new union was legally regarded as the dead man’s child, even with respect to his right of inheritance (Raccah, Widows at the Gate, 326–36). However, the laws regarding levirate marriage acknowledged the possibility that a man might refuse to fulfill his duty. The paucity of references to levirate marriage practices in ancient Near Eastern literature portray it as a practice that is in addition to—not instead of—adoption. Thus, the custom of the levirate marriage cannot fully explain the absence of references to adoption in the Old Testament (Boecker, Law and the Administration of Justice, 121–22).
Sumerian Laws Exercise Tablet
Sumerian Laws Exercise Tablet
The Sumerian Laws Exercise Tablet, a scribal training tool written by a student named Bēlshunu around 1800 BC, contains three laws relating to adoption (Roth, Law Collections, 42):
Law 4
“If he [the adopted son] declares to his father and mother, ‘You are not my father,’ or ‘You are not my mother,’ he shall forfeit house, field, orchard, slaves and possessions and they shall sell him for silver [into slavery] for his full value.”
Law 5
“[If] his [adoptive] father and mother declare to him, ‘You are not our son,’ they shall forfeit … the estate.”
Law 6
“If his [adoptive] father and mother declare [to him], ‘You are not our son,’ they shall forfeit [the estate].”
Laws of Hammurabi - circa 1750 BC
Adoption was very common during the Babylonian classical periods. The goals of adoption included:
• carrying on a dynasty occupation or family name
• providing care for a parent in their old age
• protecting property right.
Adoption in the New Testament
Paul uses adoption in Romans to describe the relationship between God and the followers of Jesus (Rom 8:15, 23; 9:4; compare Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5). He uses one Greek term for adoption: υἱοθεσία (huiothesia). The term υἱοθεσία (huiothesia) is rarely found in literary sources, but is prevalent in inscriptions and documentary papyri. Still, Paul had other options of words meaning adoption that were more explicitly tied to religious concepts (Scott, Adoption as Sons, 27, 45, 55). So, why did Paul use υἱοθεσία (huiothesia)? It may be significant that he chose a word that contains the word (υἱὸς, huios), which means “son.”