What would the Greek or Roman tutor say when the child was ready?
The Greek or Roman tutor would tell the master that the young man was now ready to come in and work right with him in his business. He would say the boy had everything he needed to know, had been well tutored, and was well prepared.
Les explains that the schoolmaster Paul refers to is not in the Jewish economy but in the Greek and Roman world. The Greeks and Romans would hire a slave as a servant and tutor, under the father’s demands, to raise and teach the child until a designated point in the future—whether sixteen or eighteen, or what today might be twenty-one or whatever. At that point the tutor would be able to say to the master that the young man was now ready to come in and work with him in his business, having everything he needed to know, well tutored and well prepared.