Minors

The legal status of a minor — an heir who has not yet come of age — is treated only briefly in scripture, but the picture it gives is taken up to describe the condition of God's people before the coming of Christ.

Heir as a juvenile

Paul appeals to the household law of his day to draw the distinction between an underage heir and a son in full standing. "But I say that so long as the heir is a juvenile, he differs nothing from a slave though he is lord of all; but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father" (Ga 4:1-2). Although the juvenile owns everything in principle, in practice his life is regulated by guardians and stewards, and the timing of his coming-of-age is set by the father.

The figure applied

Paul presses the figure into a wider account of redemption. Those who were "juveniles" lived under the rudiments of the world like minor heirs under guardians; "but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Ga 4:4-5). The Father's appointed day arrives, the heirs receive adoption, and the Spirit's cry — "Abba, Father" — confirms a status no longer constrained by the metaphor's earlier half.