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God to the cross. It is not within our province at the moment to speak of the Cross of
Christ in its doctrinal sense, and we must therefore leave this solemn yet wonderful
theme at this point.
#15.
The Law of Adoption.
pp. 62 - 65
The apostle Paul makes several references to "adoption" in his epistles, and it is
impossible to understand these fully without some knowledge of the special meaning that
attached to this term. To appreciate the full significance of the Apostle's figures in
Gal. 3: and 4: they must be viewed in the light of the law of adoption--and more
particularly, the Greek law of adoption. At the same time it must be remembered that
Paul also uses the term in Romans, so that we must also bear in mind the Roman law on
the subject.
There is no "law of adoption" in England. Anyone is free to adopt whom he will, but
the act is a purely private matter. In Roman law, however, adoption was a very real
undertaking.
"The adopted son became a member of the family, just as if he had been born of the
blood of the adopter; and he was invested with all the privileges of a filius familias. As a
matter of fact it was by this means that the succession amongst the Cęsars was continued.
It never descended from father to son. What with poison, divorce, luxury and profligacy,
the surviving members of a family were few, the descent suffered constant interruption,
and whole families disappeared . . . . . In no case amongst the Cęsars did the throne pass
from father to son . . . . . Augustus was the great nephew of Julius Cęsar, and was
adopted from the Octavian into the Julian gens. Tiberius was no relation at all to his
predecessor: he was merely the son of Augustus' wife, Livia, by Tiberius Claudius Nero.
Here we have the introduction of another family--the Claudii . . . . . Nero was the great
nephew of his predecessor Claudius, who had adopted him in the year A.D. 50"
(Septimus Buss).
Adoption was of two kinds: adoption proper, and adrogation.
Adoption proper.--It must be remembered that the father in Roman law had absolute
control over his family, possessing the same rights over his children as over his slaves.
By this patria potestas the son was deprived of the right to own property, and the father
could inflict any punishment he thought fit, even to the extent of the death penalty. He
could also sell his son into bondage. According to the law of the 12: Tables, however, a
father forfeited his potestas if he sold his son three times. For this reason, in the case of
adoption, a legal ceremony took place in which the father went through the process of
selling his son three times, and the son passed over completely to the potestas of the
adopter. In later times the cumbersome ceremony was substituted by a simple declaration
before the Prętor or Governor.