hUIOQESIA and a Roman custom

Mark Wilson emory2002 at hotmail.com
Sun Jul 2 01:00:21 EDT 2000





After these two brief quotes (taken from an Internet search), I would like 
to ask one final question:


On Galatians 4:

"Adoption: If the apostle were thinking of a Roman metaphor, he may have had 
in mind the Roman custom by which a youth, on attaining manhood, removed the 
crimson-bordered toga praetexta, the garment of childhood, and put on the 
toga virilis, the garment of manhood. At that time the young man would take 
his place in the family councils, taking on the responsibilities of maturity 
and enjoying the freedom that went with his new position. Since the apostle 
has just said that the Galatians have attained the position of adult sonship 
and will add heirship in a moment (v. 29), that "pagan" custom (Bruce's 
word) should not be dismissed lightly."

And this one:

"It was customary for his father to take him into the city Forum. There, 
from a public platform, he would announce to the citizens of that city: 
"This is my son. He has come of age. Today he inherits my name, my property, 
and my social position among you." Then he would take off the customary toga 
praetexta of a Roman boy and put on him the toga virilis, the coat of 
manhood. This act of public announcement and claiming of one’s son was 
called "adoption.""
--------

I assume by this that a Hellenistic Greek individual would describe this 
Roman custom by hUIOQESIA. In other words, I am not so much asking whether 
or not hUIOQESIA ever conveyed this idea within the Greek culture itself.

This is a lexical question, I guess. Can anyone confirm that “adoption” was 
used as these quotes imply?

This does to me seem like a legitimate question in B-Greek because it is 
trying to understand the range of implications of the Greek word hUIOQESIA. 
In fact, the final quote below is from the NET Bible on Eph. 1:5:

“Adoption AS HIS SONS is different from spiritual birth as children. All 
true believers have been born as children of God and will be adopted as sons 
of God. The adoption is both a future reality, and in some sense, already 
true.”

Sorry for my persistence, I guess this topic has just got my attention.

Thank you,

Mark Wilson


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