We are used to the idea of adoption. A couple, or sometimes an individual, will adopt a child whose parents have died or who cannot look after the child for some reason. An example of someone like that recently in the news is the Conservative politician Michael Gove. In an interview he said
I was adopted, spent first four months of my life in care.
And, I think that my parents in choosing to adopt me, were taking a risk.
They didn't know what they were getting into in a way.
They gave me everything. In my life I want to prove to them that the risk they took, the chance they took on me, was the right one.
In Paul's time things didn't work like that. Because of the risk involved Romans tended to adopt sons when they were fully grown. Only then would they confer on them all the privileges of belonging to that particular household.
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