Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Re: adoption

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jim Hester" <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: adoption
  • Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 10:35:50 -0700


David Noy wrote:

> Actually, in the time of Paul, the sort of marriage which was normal for
> Roman citizens (usually referred to as "sine manu") didn't bring the wife
> into her husband's legal family. A sort of testamentary adoption of women
> was possible (Livia under Augustus's will is the classic example) but it
> was really more a change of name as a condition of the inheritance (Livia
> became Julia Augusta) than a full-scale Roman adoption, which was intended
> to keep the family name and cult going for future generations and therefore
> required a male adoptee.

My thanks to David for commenting on women, marriage and adoption, etc. It
has been a while since I looked hard at that stuff and although I was wrong
on change of status in marriage, it was good to know that my aging brain
hadn't completely dropped the ball on testamentary adoption. It does seem
clear to me that adoption under Roman law was "exclusive".

However, I wonder if we can write off the niceties of Roman law for Paul's
audience. It seems trite to say it, but Roman law was the cornerstone for
defining what it meant to be Roman or to live in Roman culture. It would
have been hard to avoid the implications of Roman law no matter what status
a person held in the society. Slaves were adopted, if memory serves(!), and
funeral speeches for important persons were public events. Laws governing
inheritance influenced large numbers of people. I am not arguing that the
hearers of the Roman letter would be well schooled in Roman law, only that
that they shared the universe of values embodied in that law and knew the
larger outlines of its functionality.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Hester "Never be afraid to try something new.
736 Buckingham Drive Remember, amateurs built the ark.
Redlands, CA 92374 Professionals built the Titanic."
(909) 792-0533
hester AT uor.edu http://rhetjournal.uor.edu
http://www.ars-rhetorica.net



>
> But the niceties of Roman law would probably not be too relevant to most of
> Paul's audience!
>
> David Noy
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> David Noy
> Department of Classics, University of Wales, Lampeter SA48 7ED
> Tel: 01570 422351 ext 428 Fax: 01570 423877
> http://www.lampeter.ac.uk/~davidnoy
>
>
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to corpus-paul as: hester AT uor.edu
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
$subst('Email.Unsub')
>
>




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page