The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The article presents one of the possible approaches to explaining the meaning of the Apostle Paul’ metaphor υἱοθεσία (“adoption”) — considering it in the context of the typology of Exodus. It is assumed that the metaphor could group a number of eschatological themes developed by the Apostle Paul in the Epistles to Galatians and Romans referencing to the Old Testament narrative of exodus of Israel from Egyptian slavery. There presented comparison of some ideas of researches recognizing Jewish influence on the content of the metaphor, on defining the roots of the Apostle Paul’s metaphor in the Old Testament texts, related to the Messianic promise to David (2 Kings 7:14) and Israel’s Exodus events from Egypt (Exodus 4:22). The problem of an alternative translation of the term υἱοθεσία (either as an action, the process of obtaining Divine “sonship”, or as a final status) is highlighted in the presented discussions. Of the two main Old Testament themes proposed for typological interpretation (Messianic promise to David or Exodus), the Exodus theme is chosen as the predominant one. For an example, it is taken and analyzed the historic-typological model of the American researcher James Scott, his typological concept of Israel exodus from Egyptian slavery and the interpretation of the metaphor υἱοθεσία as “Second Exodus” in Galatians 4:1–7. The model is presented in the author’s own translation and description of the article. The are considered Scott’s model assumptions, the course of reasoning, and final onclusions on the role and meaning of the Paul’s metaphor. The assessments of various researchers of James Scott’s typological model are presented, noting the advantages, weaknesses and controversial nature of some of the model’s assumptions, including the article’s author’s opinion on the model exegetical usage limit.