Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Romans 8:12-17, Not slaves but adopted heirs
Those led by God's Spirit are God's children. They have received the Spirit of adoption, not of slavery, and cry Abba, Father, as heirs of God with Christ.
Romans 8:12-17, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul tells believers they no longer owe the flesh anything, because the Spirit now leads them and makes them God's children. The Spirit they received brings adoption, not a slave's fear, and through him they address God as Abba, Father. Adopted children inherit, so they will share Christ's inheritance as they share his suffering.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/adoption-and-heirs\/","n":"Adoption, heirs and wills","s":"A family's property passed to its heirs; in Jewish practice the land went to the sons, the eldest with a double share. Roman law also let a man adopt a son, often a grown one, who left his old debts and ties behind and became his heir. A will, sealed before witnesses, settled who inherited and who looked after an heir too young to inherit.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/slavery\/","n":"Slavery and slave managers","s":"Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/wilderness\/","n":"The wilderness","s":"The dry, empty country beyond the Jordan where John preached, Jesus was tested and a crowd was fed. It was hard ground, and it was where Israel's story with God began.","r":""}
Flesh in the Old Testament meant mortal, breathing creatures, and the Dead Sea Scrolls add moral weakness without treating the body as evil, while Platonists pictured a pure soul tied to a mortal body (the cultural backgrounds article Flesh and Spirit). The article reads Paul's flesh and Spirit as two kinds of people, not two parts of a person: those depending on God's Spirit and humanity left to itself. Roman adoption could take place at any age; it cancelled previous debts and relationships and made the son his new father's heir, and as a legal act it needed witnesses, the role Paul gives the Spirit (Keener and his notes). Ancient sources often contrast a householder's children, his heirs, with his slaves (the cultural backgrounds notes). Abba was a respectful but intimate way to address a father; it does not appear in Jewish prayers and was apparently learned from Jesus (Mark 14:36), according to the cultural backgrounds notes, and the ESV Study Bible also traces Paul's use to Jesus. Keener hears the exodus as well: God led Israel through the wilderness and called Israel his son (Exodus 4:22).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 8:14, 8:15 and 8:16
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Romans 8:14-17, 8:15 and 8:16, and article Flesh and Spirit
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Romans 8:15
