Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Adoption"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Adoption
the giving to any one the name and place and privileges of a son
who is not a son by birth.
(1.) Natural. Thus Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses (Ex.
2:10), and Mordecai Esther (Esther 2:7).
(2.) National. God adopted Israel (Ex. 4:22; Deut. 7:6; Hos.
11:1; Rom. 9:4).
(3.) Spiritual. An act of God's grace by which he brings men
into the number of his redeemed family, and makes them partakers
of all the blessings he has provided for them. Adoption
represents the new relations into which the believer is
introduced by justification, and the privileges connected
therewith, viz., an interest in God's peculiar love (John 17:23;
Rom. 5:5-8), a spiritual nature (2 Pet. 1:4; John 1:13), the
possession of a spirit becoming children of God (1 Pet. 1:14; 2
John 4; Rom. 8:15-21; Gal. 5:1; Heb. 2:15), present protection,
consolation, supplies (Luke 12:27-32; John 14:18; 1 Cor.
3:21-23; 2 Cor. 1:4), fatherly chastisements (Heb. 12:5-11), and
a future glorious inheritance (Rom. 8:17,23; James 2:5; Phil.
3:21).
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Adoption \A*dop"tion\, n. [L. adoptio, allied to adoptare to
adopt: cf. F. adoption.]
1. The act of adopting, or state of being adopted; voluntary
acceptance of a child of other parents to be the same as
one's own child.
2. Admission to a more intimate relation; reception; as, the
adoption of persons into hospitals or monasteries, or of
one society into another.
3. The choosing and making that to be one's own which
originally was not so; acceptance; as, the adoption of
opinions. --Jer. Taylor.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
adoption
n 1: the act of accepting with approval; favorable reception;
"its adoption by society"; "the proposal found wide
acceptance" [syn: {acceptance}, {espousal}]
2: a legal proceeding that creates a parent-child relation
between persons not related by blood; the adopted child is
entitled to all privileges belonging to a natural child of
the adoptive parents (including the right to inherit)
3: the appropriation (of ideas or words etc) from another
source; "the borrowing of ancient motifs was very
apparent" [syn: {borrowing}]
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