Hobbiton. Shire Year, 1389. - Bilbo Baggins was born in 2890 S.R., and remained a bachelor for the entirety of his life. This was all well and good for him but meant, too, that he had no heir, a fact that was not of terribly great import prior to his adventure with the dwarves and the accumulation of a substantial (but not inexhaustible) amount of wealth. Bilbo’s handsome (but comparatively modest) inheritance changed, however, with his successful trip There and Back Again, as recorded in the first section of the Red Book of Westmarch. Upon his return here in 1342, the Sackville-Bagginses came into a position to inherit not only Bag End but whatever remained of Bilbo’s captured treasures. And so they would have, had it not been for an event this year.

It was in this year that Bilbo, now 99 years of age (but looking no more than 50!), called his cousin Frodo Baggins to him and announced that he had chosen to make him the heir to Bag End and all else that Bilbo still possessed. Frodo, himself born not until 1368 S.R., was quite alone when Bilbo summoned him, only a short time having passed since the untimely death of his parents in a tragic, albeit mysterious, boating accident.

To accomplish this transfer of inheritance, Bilbo officially adopted Frodo:

When Bilbo was ninety-nine he adopted Frodo as his heir, and brought him to live at Bag End; and the hopes of the Sackville-Bagginses were finally dashed. Bilbo and Frodo happened to have the same birthday, September 22nd . . . At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.” - LOTR, p. 21

To be precise, Frodo was twenty-one years of age when Bilbo adopted him (being thirty-three at Bilbo’s going-away party and fifty when he set off from here to take the Ring to Rivendell).

The Adoptions of Sons

Obviously, Frodo’s adoption as an heir was quite significant and determinative in his life; similarly, the adoption of Christians by the Father is profoundly significant and eternally determinative for us.

Romans, Greeks, and Jews all had rites of passage for their boys that clearly declared them to be adults. For Roman boys, this usually happened during the boys’ late teens; for Greeks, it occurred at the age of eighteen. Jews, however, chose (and some still choose) to conduct a ceremony shortly after the boy’s twelfth birthday that officially made him a “child of the Law” instead of just a child of his parents.

The same ceremony (I think, though it might have been a different one) also marked the official adoption of the son by his father, meaning that he was now a legal heir to his father’s fortunes, whatever those rights and riches might be. This privilege is behind Frodo’s adoption, of course, but also behind Paul’s teaching to the Galatians:

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything . . .

“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” - Gal 4.1, 7 (NASB)

Paul explains that, before we were adopted by God as sons (for only sons normally inherited in that time), we were “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel” and “strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph 2.12). Because of God the Father’s adoption of us, however, this is no longer true: now “you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household” (Eph 2.19).

To the Romans he wrote,

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” - Rom 8.16-17a

Free from our slavery to sin, impurity, and elemental things, we are now heirs with Christ of all that God has prepared and provided for us. Our adoption as sons is a glorious and rich aspect of the Good News that was made possible by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Like Frodo, we may travel a difficult and perilous path as a result of our inheritance but - also like Frodo - we will one day pass from this path to the Undying Lands and our heavenly rewards.



Namárië.