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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: adoption
  • Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 19:12:01 -0500


>I am working on Rom 8:1-17 where Paul uses the language of "adoption as sons"
>(huiothesein). Can anyone point me to studies of this term which specify
>who might be
>the object of the adoption? Ultimately I am trying to determine whether
>this should
>be read as a gender inclusive or exclusive term in this context; Castelli
>argued it
>should be read exclusively because there are no attestations of the term
>being used
>for adoption of women as heirs. Is there a comparable term for women?
>Any help will
>be appreciated. SEM

BAGD has a note that the word, while literally a legal technical term, is
"in our lit., i. e. Paul," used "only in a transferred sense." Thus Paul
could use it of the status of Israelites (Rom 9:4) as God's sons (cf. Exod
4:22; Isa 1:2). When God refers to Israel as His son in Exod 4:22, He
speaks of the whole nation, men and women. BAGD notes that the word does
not appear in the LXX. Since Paul uses it in a metaphorical way, it does
not seem necessary to carry over every aspect of the use of the term in
Roman Law.

I have never thought of "adoption" in the NT as a male-oriented term, and
Castelli seems incorrect if he indicates that the biblical terms should
have an exclusively male reference. Paul's choice of the word for contexts
that speak of all believers more or less undermines such an exclusive sense
for the word in the NT (Rom 8:15, 23; Ga; 4:5; Eph 1:5).

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






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