Children
CHILDREN
A numerous offspring was regarded as a signal blessing, Psa 127:3-5, and childless wives sought various means to escape the reproach of barrenness, which was deprecated in the blessing given to a newly married couple, Rth 4:11 . The pangs of childbirth, in their suddenness and sharpness, are often alluded to in Scripture. The apostle Paul speaks of them as fruits and evidences of the fall; but assures those who abide in faith, that, amid all the suffering that reminds them that woman was first in the transgression, Gen 3:16, they may yet look trustfully to God for acceptance and salvation, 1Ti 2:15 .A newborn child was washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in swaddling clothes, Eze 16:4 Luk 2:7-11 . On the eighth day he was circumcised and named. At his weaning a feast was often made, Gen 21:34 . The nurse of a female child often attended her through life, Gen 24:59 35:8. Children were to be instructed with great diligence and care, Deu 6:20-23 . They were required to honor and obey their parents, and were subject to the father’s control in all things, Gen 22:21 Num 30:5 ; they were even liable to be sold into temporary bondage for his debts, Lev 25:39-41 2Ki 4:1 Mat 18:25 .The first-born son received, besides other privileges, (see BIRTHRIGHT,) two portions of his father’s estate; the other sons, one portion each. The sons of concubines received presents, and sometimes an equal portion with the others, Gen 21:8-21 25:1-6 49:1-27 Jud 11:1-7. The daughters received no portion, except in cases provided for in Num 27:1-11 .The term child or children, by a Hebrew idiom, is used to express a great variety of relations: the good are called children of God, of light, of the kingdom, etc.; the bad are named children of the devil, of wrath, of disobedience, etc. A strong man is called a son of strength; an impious man, a son of Belial; an arrow, the son of a bow, and a branch the son of a tree. The posterity of a man is his “sons,” for many generations.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
CHILDREN
Duties of, to parents. Dr. Doddridge observes, “
1.That as children have received important favours from their parents, gratitude, and therefore virtue, requires that they should love them.
2.Considering the superiority of age, and the probable superiority of wisdom, which there is on the side of parents, and also how much the satisfaction and comfort of a parent depend on the respect shown him by his children, it is fit that children should reverence their parents.
3.It is fit that, while the parents are living, and the use of their understanding continued, their children should not ordinarily undertake any matter of great importance, without advising with them, or without very cogent reasons pursue it contrary to their consent.
4.As young people need some guidance and government in their minority, and as there is some peculiar reason to trust the prudence, care, and affection of a parent, preferable to any other person, it is reasonable that children, especially while in their minority, should obey their parents; without which neither the order of families, nor the happiness of the rising generation could be secured: nevertheless, still supposing that the commands of the parent are not inconsistent with the will of God.
5.Virtue requires that, if parents come to want, children should take care to furnish them with the necessaries of life, and, so far as their ability will permit, with the conveniences of it” Doddridge’s Lectures, p. 241. vol. 1: Paley’s Mor. Phil. p. 372. vol. 1:
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Children
Ben, “son;” bath, “daughter;” both from baanah, to build. Regarded as consecrated to God, in the same covenant relation as the parents; therefore sons on the eighth day were circumcised (Gen 17:12). Hence, flowed parents’ responsibility to rear children in the way of the Lord (Gen 18:19; Deu 6:7; Deu 11:19); also children’s responsibility to obey parents, as a preparatory discipline for the higher relationship to God. At five years of age, the boy passed under the father’s training. At 12 he became “son of (i.e. subject to) the law,” and was advanced to a fuller instruction in it. Smiting, or even cursing, a parent was punishable with death (Exo 21:15; Exo 21:17); also contumacy (Deu 21:18-21; compare Deu 27:16). The child might be sold to bondage until the Jubilee year for a parent’s debt (2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:5).
Children were often nursed until they were three years old. They were carried on the mother’s hip or shoulder (Isa 49:22; Isa 66:12). Governors or tutors watched them in nonage (Num 11:12; 2Ki 10:1; 2Ki 10:5; Isa 49:23; Gal 3:24, paidagoogos, the guardian slave who led the child to school). The mother’s example and authority were weighty over sons and daughters alike (Pro 10:1; Pro 15:20), even with a royal son (1Ki 2:19). Daughters had no right of inheritance; but if a man had no son the daughters received the inheritance, but they must marry inside their own tribe. Metaphorically: CHILDREN OF LIGHT (Luk 16:8; Luk_1Th 6:5), of obedience (1Pe 1:14, “as children of obedience” Greek), of this world, of Belial, of wisdom (Mat 11:19), of faith. (See BELIAL.)
As children resemble their parent, so those in whom these several qualities, good or bad, predominate, are children of them severally (2Sa 23:6). So Barnabas is termed “son of consolation,” expressing his predominant grace (Act 4:36); John and James “sons of thunder,” characterized by fiery zeal (Mar 3:17). So “sons of might,” “daughters of sons” (compare Isa 5:1, “a very fruitful hill,” Hebrew: “the horn (i.e. peak) of the son of oil,”) “children of the bridechamber” (Mat 9:15), the heavenly Bridgegroom’s best men (friends) who go and fetch the bride, the apostles and evangelists who seek to bring sinners to Jesus and to heaven (Matthew 25).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Children
CHILDREN.In the regeneration of society which has been wrought by the forces brought into the world by Christianity, the family, of course, has had its part. Or rather, since to Jesus also the family was the social unit, this regeneration began with the family and spread outwards from it. The emphasis laid by our Lord on the institution of the family deserves even to be called extraordinary. Not only did He habitually exhibit sympathy with domestic life in all its phases, and particularly reverence for women and tenderness for children: and not only did He adopt the vocabulary of the family to express the relations subsisting between Himself and His followers, and even as His choicest vehicle for conveying to them a vitalizing conception of their relations to God, from whom, as that one of His servants who best represents His teaching in this aspect of it declares, every family in heaven and on earth is named (Eph 3:15); but, deserting His customary reserve in dealing with social institutions, in the case of this one alone did He advance beyond general principles to specific legislation. (Cf. F. G. Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Social Question, p. 145 ff.).
This specific legislation does not directly concern children. It is true that childhood owes as much to the gospel as womanhood itself (cf. e.g. Uhlhorn, Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, p. 182). And the causes of the great revolution which was wrought by the gospel in the condition of children and the estimate placed on childhood, are undoubtedly rooted in the life and teaching of our Lord, and are spread on the pages of the Gospels. But we shall search in vain in the recorded teaching of Jesus for either direct legislation, or even enunciation of general principles regulating the relations of parents and children, or establishing the position of children in the social organism. He has left us no commandments, no declarations, not even exhortations on the subject. He simply moves onward in His course, touching in life, act, word on the domestic relations that were prevalent about Him, and elevating and glorifying everything that He touched. Thus He has handed down to us a new ideal of the family, and lifted to a new plane our whole conception of childhood. (Cf. Shailer Mathews, The Social Teaching of Jesus, p. 101 ff.).
The domestic economy which forms the background of Jesus life, and is assumed in all His dealings with children and in all His allusions to them and their ways, is, of course, the wholesome home-life which had grown up in Israel under the moulding influence of the revelation of the Old Covenant. Its basis was the passionately affectionate Semitic nature, and no doubt certain modifications had come to it from contact with other civilizations; but its form was determined by the tutelage which Jehovah had granted His people. (Cf. Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ, chs. vi.ix., and The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, bk. ii. chs. ix. and x.; also Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , articles Child, Family. For later Jewish child-life see Schechter, Studies in Judaism, xii.; and, above all, L. Lw, Die Lebensalter. Cf. also Ploss, Das Kind in Brauch und Sitte der Vlker).
The tender love which the Hebrew parent bore to his child, and the absorbing interest with which he watched and guided its development, doubtless find partial expression in the multiplicity of designations by which the several stages of childhood are marked in that pictorial language. Besides the general terms for son (ben) and daughter (bath), eight of these have been noted tracing the child from its birth to its maturity: yeled (fem. yaldh), the birthling; ynk, the suckling; ll, the suckling of a larger growth, perhaps the worrier; gml, the weanling; taph, the toddler; elem, the fat one; naar, the free one; bhr, the ripe one. (So Hamburger, RE i. 642, after whom Edersheim, Opp. citt. p. 103 f. and i. p. 221, note 3).
This series of designations may, of course, he more than matched out of the richness of Greek speech. Here the general term of relation, child (* [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] , dimin. * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] ), parts into the more specific son (* [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] , dimin. , ) and daughter (* [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] , dimin. * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] ); while the multitude of terms describing stages of growth quite baffles discrimination. The grammarians have handed down to us each his several list, among which that of Alexion (Eust. 1788, 22), for instance, enumerates ten stages between the newborn infant and the mature young man: * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] ; * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] ; * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] ; ; * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] ; , or , or , or ; ; or ; * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] ; * [Note: Those terms which occur in NT are marked by an asterisk.] . Needless to say, the sequences of such lists cannot be taken too strictly. And equally needless to say, they by no means exhaust the synonymy. Alexions list, for example, does not contain even all the terms of this class that occur in the Gospel narratives. The series afforded by them would run something like this: , , , , , , , to which would need to be added the distinctively feminine , [], .
It is not difficult to recognize the general distinctions between these terms. (For the detailed synonymy see especially Schmidt, D. Synonymik d. griech. Sprache, circa (about) 69, for the terms belonging distinctively to childhood; circa (about) 152 for those describing the stages between childhood and maturity; and circa (about) 47 for some terms denoting youthfulness; cf. Thayer, Lex. NT, s.v. ). (with its diminutive , Joh 13:33 only) is, like and , used in the Gospels only of relationship, literal or figurative, never of age (for the synonymy of , and , and , see an interesting discussion by Hbne in Luthardts ZKWL [Note: KWL Zeitschrift fr kirchliche Wissenschaft und kirchl Leben.] , 1882, p. 57 ff.; and cf. Cremer and Thayer, s.vv.). For the rest, is here, as in post-Homeric Greek in general, distinctively the newborn baby (1Pe 2:2), the child in the arms (in Homer it is the unborn child, the embryo, as also often in later Greek, e.g. Luk 1:41; Luk 1:44): and and (the NT substitute for , ) range with it as descriptive of early infancy. , is equally distinctively the little child, although its application is somewhat broad: now it is entirely synonymous with (Luk 1:59; Luk 1:66 etc., Mat 2:8 etc., Luk 18:15-16), and again it designates a little maiden of twelve years of age (Mar 5:41-42). Its companion diminutive is ordinarily employed of a somewhat older lad, and may very well be so used in the only passage where it occurs in the Gospels (Joh 6:9). The simple has a range sufficiently wide to cover to these stages, from infancy itself (e.g. Mat 2:16) up to youthful maturity (Hippocrates says up to the age of 21). It designates, says Schmidt (p. 429), the child of all ages up to complete young manhood; , the child up to his first school years; , exclusively the little child. is the appropriate designation of every stage of youthful maturity from so early an age that or might be interchanged with it up to so late a periodabout 40that it is on the point of giving way to old age. Of the distinctively feminine terms that occur in the Gospels, is a term of condition rather than of age, and occurs only in connexion with Mary (Mat 1:23, Luk 1:27) and in the parable of the Ten Virgins (Mat 25:1; Mat 25:7; Mat 25:11), and is employed only in the secondary sense of maid-servant (Mat 26:69 and parallels, Luk 12:45). The diminutives and , though capable of employment with quite a wide range, yet naturally imply tenderness of years where tenderness of affection is not obviously conveyed by them (e.g. Mar 7:25, Mat 9:25 ||). Thus it appears that in the narratives of the Gospels there is brought into contact with our Lord every stage of childhood and youth from the cradle to maturitythe baby on its mothers bosom (Luk 18:15), the little child, boy (Mar 9:24) and girl (Mar 7:25) alike, children of a larger growth (Joh 4:27, Luk 8:51), and the maturing youth (Luk 7:14, Mat 19:20).
What Jesus did for children, we may perhaps sum up as follows. He illustrated the ideal of childhood in His own life as a child. He manifested the tenderness of His affection for children by conferring blessings upon them in every stage of their development as He was occasionally brought into contact with them. He asserted for children a recognized place in His kingdom, and dealt faithfully and lovingly with each age as it presented itself to Him in the course of His work. He chose the condition of childhood as a type of the fundamental character of the recipients of the kingdom of God. He adopted the relation of childhood as the most vivid earthly image of the relation of Gods people to Him who was not ashamed to be called their Father which is in heaven, and thus reflected back upon this relation a glory by which it has been transfigured ever since.
The history of the ideal childhood which Jesus Himself lived on the earth is set down for us in the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke, especially of Luke, whose distinction among the Evangelists is that he has given us a narrative founded on an investigation which traced the course of all things accurately from the first (Luk 1:3). Accordingly, not only does he with careful exactitude record the performance by our Lords parents in His behalf, during His infancy, of all things that were according to the law of the Lord (Luk 2:39); but he marks for us the stages of our Lords growth in His progress to mans estate, and thus brings Him before us successively as baby (Luk 2:16 ), child (Luk 2:40 ), and boy (Luk 2:43 ), until in His glorious young-manhood, when He was about 30 years of age, He at last manifested Himself to Israel (Luk 3:23). The second chapter of Luke is thus in effect an express history of the development of Jesus; and sums up in two comprehensive verses His entire growth from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to manhood (Luk 2:40; Luk 2:52). The language of these succinct descriptions is charged with suggestions that this was an extraordinary child, whose development was an extraordinary development. Attention is called alike to His physical, intellectual, and spiritual progress; and of each it is suggested that it was constant, rapid, and remarkable. Those who looked upon Him in the cradle would perceive that even beyond the infant Moses (Heb 11:23) this was a goodly child; and day by day as He grew and waxed strong, He became more and more filled not only with knowledge but with wisdom, and not only with wisdom but with grace, and so steadily advanced not alone in power and knowledge, but by year and hour in reverence and in charity. Man and God alike looked upon His growing powers and developing character with ever increasing favour. The promise of the goodly child passed without jar or break into the fruitage of the perfect man: and those who gazed on the babe with admiration (Luk 2:20; Luk 2:30; Luk 2:38), could not but gaze on the boy with astonishment (Luk 2:47) and on the man with reverence.
It is therefore no ordinary human development which is here described for us. But it is none the less, or rather it is all the more, a normal human development, the only strictly normal human development the world has ever seen. This is the only child who has ever been born into the world without the fatal entail of sin, and the only child who has ever grown to manhood free from the deterioration of sin. This is how men ought to grow up: how, were they not sinners, men would grow up. It is a great thing for the world to have seen one such instance. As an example it is indeed set beyond our reach. As the ideal childhood realized in life, it has ever since stood before the world as an incitement and inspiration of quite incalculable power. In this perfect development of Jesus there has been given to the world a model for every age, whose allurement has revolutionized life. He did not, as Irenaeus (adv. Haer. ii. xxii. 4, cf. iii. xviii. 4) reminds us, despise or evade the humanity He had assumed; or set aside in His own person the law that governs it: on the contrary, He sanctified every age in turn by Himself living His perfect life in its conditions. He came to save all by means of Himself, continues Irenaeus, all, I say, who through Him are born again unto God,infants and children, and boys, and youths. He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, being at the same time made to them an example of piety, righteousness, and submission; a youth for youths, becoming an example to youths, and thus sanctifying them for the Lord. On the few details given us of the childhood of our Lord see artt. Boyhood of Jesus and Childhood.
During the course of His life begun with this ideal childhood, Jesus came into contact with every stage of youthful development, and manifested the tenderness of His feeling for each and His power and willingness to confer blessings upon all. A lurid light is thrown upon the nature of the world and the character of the times into which He was born by the slaughter of the Innocents, which marked His advent (Mat 2:16-20). But one function which the record of this incident performs is to serve as a black background upon which His own beneficence to childhood may be thrown up. Mothers instinctively brought their babies to Him for benediction; and when they did so, He was not content until He had taken them in His arms (Mar 10:16; cf. Mar 9:36). His allusions to children in His teaching reflect the closeness of His observation of them. He celebrates the delight of the mother in her baby, obliterating even the pangs of birth (Joh 16:21); the fostering love of the father who cuddles his children up with him in bed (Luk 11:7); the parental affection which listens eagerly to the childs every request, and knows how to grant it only things that are good (Mat 7:9, Luk 11:11; Luk 11:13). He notes the wayward impulses of children at play (Mat 11:18, Luk 7:32). He feels the weight of woe that is added to calamities in which the children also are involved (Mat 18:25); and places among the supremest tests of loyalty to Him, the preference of Him even to ones children (Mat 19:29, Luk 14:26; Luk 18:29; cf. Mar 10:29).
A number of His miracles, worked for the benefit of the young, illustrate His compassion for their sufferings and ills. The noblemans son at Capernaum, whose healing Jesus wrought as a second sign when He came out of Judaea into Galilee (Joh 4:46-54), was at least a child (, Joh 4:51), for so the servants call him in cold sobriety; and probably was a little child (Joh 4:49), although it is, of course, possible that on the lips of the father the diminutive expresses tenderness of affection rather than of age. The possessed boy (, Mat 17:18, Luk 9:42)the only son of his father (Luk 9:38)whom Jesus healed as He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration (Mat 17:14-21, Mar 9:14-29, Luk 9:37-43), and whose affliction had dated from his earliest infancy ( , Mar 9:21), was more certainly distinctively a little child (Mar 9:24). Jairus little daughter (, Mar 5:23)also an only onewhom Jesus raised from the dead in such dramatic circumstances (Mat 9:18-28, Mar 5:22-43, Luk 8:41-56) and who is spoken of in the narratives indifferently as child (, Luk 8:51; Luk 8:54), little child (, Mar 5:39-41) and maiden or girl (, Mat 9:24-25, Mar 5:41; , Mar 5:41), we know to have been about twelve years old (Luk 8:42). We are not told the exact age of the little daughter (, Mar 7:25here probably the word is the diminutive of age, not of affection, as it occurs in the narrative, not the conversation) of the Syrophnician woman; but we note that St. Mark calls her also distinctively a little child (, Mar 7:30). The only son of the widow of Nain (Luk 7:11-18), the desolate state of whose bereft mother roused so deeply the pity of our Lord | (Luk 7:13), is addressed indeed as a young man (, Luk 7:14), a term so broad that it need imply no more than that he was in his prime; but the suggestion of the narrative certainly seems to be that he was in his youthful prime (Luk 7:15). Thus is rounded out a series of miracles in which our Lord shows His pity to the growing youth of every stage of development.
When on that great day on the shores of Gennesaret Jesus appeared to His disciples and gave to His repentant Apostle His last exhortation, He commanded him not merely Feed my sheep, but also Feed my lambs. Though the language, doubtless, rather expresses His love for His flock than distributes it into constituent classes, we may be permitted to see in it also the richness of our Lords sympathy for the literal Iambs of His fold. Certainly He provided in His kingdom a place for every age. and met the spiritual needs of each. Touching illustrations of this are offered us at the two end stages of youthful development (Luk 18:15 ; Mat 19:20 ), in the blessing of little children and the probing of the rich young rulers heart, which are brought into immediate contiguity in all three of the Synoptics as if they were intended to be taken together as a picture of our Lords dealing with youth as a whole, perhaps even as together illustrating the great truth that in the kingdom of God the question is not of the hour of entrance,first or eleventh,but of the will of the Master, who doeth what He will with His own (Mat 20:15).
What is particularly to be borne in mind with respect to the blessing of the little children (Mat 19:13-15, Mar 10:13-16, Luk 18:15-17), is that these little children (, Mat 19:13-14, Mar 10:13-14, Luk 18:16) were distinctively babies (, Luk 18:15). Therefore they needed to be received by Jesus in his arms (Mar 10:16); and only from this circumstance, indeed, can all the details of the narrative be understood. It is from this, for example, that the interference of the disciples, which called out the Masters rebuke, Let the little children come to me; forbid them not, receives its explanation. The disciples, to speak briefly, had misapprehended the nature of the Lords mission: they were regarding Him fundamentally as a teacher sent from God, who also healed the afflicted; and they conceived it to be their duty in the overstrain to which He was subjected to protect Him from needless drafts on His time and strength by the intrusion of those needing no healing and incapable of instruction. It seemed to them out of the question that even the babies (Luk 18:15) should be thrust upon His jaded attention. They should have known better; and Jesus was indignant that they did not know better (Mar 10:14), and took this occasion to manifest Himself as the Saviour of infants also. Taking them in His arms and fervently invoking a blessing upon them (Mar 10:16 ), He not only asserted for them a part in His mission, but even constituted them the type of the children of the kingdom. Let the little children come unto me, He says; forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. And then proceeding with the solemn VerilyVerily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein (Mar 10:14-15, Luk 18:16-17; cf. Mat 19:14).
Wherein this childlikeness, in which alone the kingdom of God can be received, consists, lies on the face of the narrative. Certainly not in the innocence of childhood, as if the purpose were to announce that only the specially innocent can enter the kingdom of God. Our Lord was accustomed to declare, on the contrary, that He came to call not the righteous but sinners, to seek and save that which was lost; and the contradiction with the lesson of the publican and the Pharisee praying in the temple, which immediately precedes this narrative in Luke, would be too glaring. But neither can it consist in the humility of childhood, if, indeed, we can venture to speak of the most egoistic age of human life as characteristically humble; nor yet in its simplicity, its artlessness, ingenuousness, directness, as beautiful as these qualities are, and as highly esteemed as they certainly must be in the kingdom of God. We cannot even suppose it to consist in the trustfulness of childhood, although we assuredly come much nearer to it in this, and no image of the children of the kingdom could be truer than that afforded by the infant lying trustingly upon its mothers breast. But, in truth, it is in no disposition of mind, but rather in a condition of nature, that we must seek the characterizing peculiarity of these infants whom Jesus sets forth as types of the children of the kingdom. Infants of days (, Luk 18:15) have no characteristic disposition of mind; and we must accordingly leave the subjective sphere and find the childlikeness which Jesus presents as the condition of the reception (not acquisition) of the kingdom in an objective state; in a word, in the helplessness, or, if you will, the absolute dependence of infancy. What our Lord would seem to say, therefore, when He declares, Of such is the kingdom of God, is, briefly, that those of whom the kingdom of God is made up are, relatively to it, as helplessly dependent as babies are in their mothers arms. The children of the kingdom enter it as children enter the world, stripped and naked,infants, for whom all must be done, not who are capable of doing.
There was another occasion on which even more formally Jesus proclaimed to His disciples childlikeness as the essential characteristic of the children of the kingdom (Mat 18:1-4, Mar 9:33-37, Luk 9:46-48). The disciples had been disputing among themselves who of them should be greatest. Jesus, calling to Him a little child, placed it in their midst and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. There could not have been uttered a more pointed intimation that the kingdom of heaven is given, not acquired; that men receive it, not deserve it. As children enter the world, so men enter the kingdom, with no contributions in their hands. We are not, indeed, told in this narrative, in express words, that the child thus made the type of the children of God was a newborn baby (): it is called only a little child (). But its extreme infancy is implied: Jesus took it in His arms (Mar 9:36) when He presented it to the observation of His disciples; and we must accordingly think of it as a baby in a babys helplessness and dependence.
We do, to be sure, find in our Lords further words a requisition of humility (Mat 18:4): Whosoever then shall humble himself like this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. To become like a little child may certainly involve humility in one who is not a child; and it is very comprehensible that our Lord should therefore tell those whom He was exhorting to approach the kingdom of heaven like little children, that they could do so only by humbling themselves. But this is not the same as declaring humility to be the characteristic virtue of childhood, or as intimating that humility may ground a claim upon the kingdom of heaven. What our Lord seems to tell His followers is that they cannot enter the kingdom He came to found except they turn and become like little children; and that they can become like little children only by humbling themselves; and that therefore when they were quarrelling about their relative greatness, they were far from the disposition which belongs to children of the kingdom. Humility seems to be represented, in a word, not as the characterizing quality of childhood or of childlikeness, but rather as the attitude of heart in which alone we can realize in our consciousness that quality which characterizes childhood. That quality is conceived here also as helplessness, while childlikeness consists in the reproduction in the consciousness of the objective state of utter dependence on God which is the real condition of every sinner.
From the point of view thus revealed in object-lesson and discourse, it was natural for our Lord to speak of His disciples as babes. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, He cries on one momentous occasion (Mat 11:25, Luk 10:21), that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes (, the implication of which is precisely weakness and neediness). And then He proceeds with a great declaration the very point of which is to contrast His sovereign power with the neediness of those whom He calls to His service. Similarly as the end approached and the children () in the temple were greeting Him with hosannas, He met the indignant challenge of the Jews with the words of the Psalmist: Yea, did ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained praise? (Mat 21:16). The meaning is that these childish hosannas were typical of the praises rising from the hearts of those childlike ones from whose helplessness (because they owed much to Him) His true praise should spring.
From the more general view-point of affection our Lord derived the terms by which He expressed His personal relations to His followers, and a large part of the vocabulary of His proclamation of the kingdom of God is drawn from the relationships of the family. His disciples are His children (, Mar 10:24), or with increasing tenderness of expression, His little children (, Joh 13:33), His babies (, Joh 21:5), and perhaps with even more tenderness still, simply His little ones ( , Mat 10:42 etc., but see art. Little Ones). Similarly the great King, whose kingdom He came to establish, is the Father of His people; and they may therefore be free from all fear, because, naturally, it is the good pleasure of their Father to give the kingdom to them (Luk 12:32). Every turn of expression is freely employed to carry home to the hearts of His followers the sense of the Fatherly love for them by Him who is their King indeed, but also their Father which is in heaven (Mat 5:16; Mat 5:45; Mat 5:48; Mat 6:1; Mat 6:4; Mat 6:6; Mat 6:8-9; Mat 6:14-15; Mat 6:18; Mat 6:32; Mat 7:11; Mat 10:20; Mat 10:29; Mat 13:43; Mat 23:9, Mar 11:25, Luk 6:36; Luk 11:13; Luk 12:30; Luk 12:32, Joh 20:17); and they accordingly His sons (Mat 5:9; Mat 5:45, Luk 20:36), His children (Joh 1:12; Joh 11:52), and therefore heirs of His kingdom. In this representation, which finds its most striking expression in such parables as that of the Prodigal Son (Luk 15:11 f.), it is, to be sure, rather the relationship of father and child that is emphasized than the tenderness of the age of childhood. Neither is it a novelty introduced by our Lord; it finds its root in Old Testament usage. But it is so characteristic of our Lords teaching that it may fairly be said that the family was to His mind the nearest of human analogues to the order that obtains in the kingdom of God, and the picture which He draws of the relations that exist between God and His people is largely only a transfiguration of the family.
Such an employment of the relationships in the family to figure forth those that exist between God and His people could not fail to react on the conceptions which men formed of the family relationships themselves. By His constant emphasis on the Fatherhood of God, and by His employment of the helplessness of infancy and the dependence of childhood as the most vivid emblems provided by human society to image the dependence of Gods people on His loving protection and fostering care, our Lord has thrown a halo over the condition of childhood which has communicated to it an emotional value and a preciousness, in the strictest sense, new in the world. In the ancient world, children, though by their innocence eliciting the affection, and by their weakness appealing to the sympathy, of their elders, were thought of chiefly as types of immaturity and unripeness. The Christian world, taught by its Lord, reverences their very helplessness as the emblem of its own condition in the presence of God, and recognizes in their dependence an appeal to its unselfish devotion, that it may be an imitator of God. This salutary respect and consideration for childhood has no doubt been exaggerated at times to something very much like worship of the childlike; and this tendency has been powerfully fostered by the prevalence in sections of Christendom, since the 14th cent., of an actual cult of the infant Saviour (cf. E. Martinengo-Carresco in The Contemporary Review, lxxvii. 117, etc.), and the early rise and immense development in the same quarters of a cult of the Madonna, to the tender sentiments underlying which all the resources of the most passionate devotion, the most elevated literature, and the most perfect art have been invoked to give widespread influence (see especially Zckler, art. Maria die Mutter des Herrn in PRE [Note: RE Real-Encyklopdie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , xii. 309, etc., who gives an extensive classified bibliography. Cf. in general H. E. Scudder, Childhood in Art, also in The Atlantic Monthly, lv. and lvi.). Such exaggerations cannot, however, obscure the main fact that it is only from Jesus that the world has learned properly to appreciate and wholesomely to deal with childhood and all that childhood stands for. Cf. art. Childhood.
Benjamin B. Warfield.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Children
See Child
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Children
The more childrenespecially male childrena person had among the Hebrews, the more was he honored, it being considered as a mark of divine favor, while sterile people were, on the contrary, held in contempt (comp. Gen 11:30; Gen 30:1; 1Sa 2:5; 2Sa 6:23; Psa 127:3, sq.; 128:3; Luk 1:7; Luk 2:5). That children were often taken as bondsmen by a creditor for debts contracted by the father, is evident from 2Ki 4:1; Isa 50:1; Neh 5:5. Among the Hebrews, a father had almost unlimited power over his children, nor do we find any law in the Pentateuch restricting that power to a certain age; it was indeed the parents who even selected wives for their sons (Gen 21:21; Exo 21:9-11; Jdg 14:2; Jdg 14:5). It would appear, however, that a father’s power over his daughters was still greater than that over his sons, since he might even annul a sacred vow made by a daughter, but not one made by a son (Num 30:4; Num 30:16). Children cursing or assaulting their parents were punished by the Mosaic Law with death (Exo 21:15; Exo 21:17; Lev 20:9). Before the time of Moses a father had the right to choose among his male children, and declare one of them (usually the child of his favorite wife) as his first-born, though he was perhaps only the youngest. Properly speaking, the ‘firstborn’ was he who was first begotten by the father, since polygamy excluded all regard in that respect to the mother. Thus Jacob had sons by all his four wives, while only one of them was called the first-born (Gen 49:3); we find, however, instances where that name is applied also to the first-born on the mother’s side (1Ch 2:50; comp. 2:42; Gen 22:21). The privileges of the first-born were considerable, as shown in Birthright.
Fig. 131Modes of carrying children
The first-born son, if not expressly deprived by the father of his peculiar rights, as was the case with Reuben (Genesis 49), was at liberty to sell them to a younger brother, as happened in the case of Esau and Jacob (Gen 25:31, sq.). Considering the many privileges attached to first-birth, we do not wonder that the Apostle called Esau a thoughtless person (Heb 12:16). There are some allusions in Scripture to the modes in which children were carried. These appear to be adequately represented by the existing usages, as represented in the following figure, in which #1 represents a Nestorian woman bearing her child bundled at her back, and #2, an Egyptian female bearing her child on her shoulder. The former mode appears to be alluded to in several places, and the latter in Isa 49:22. For other matters regarding children, see Adoption, Birth, Birthright.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Children
David proclaimed, “Lo, children are an heritage of Jehovah: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Psa 127:3. Women in the East had a great desire for children, as may be seen by Sarah, Rachel, and Leah giving their handmaids to their husbands that they might have children by them, and this ever characterised the women of Israel afterwards.
The law commanded children to honour their parents, and if a son smote or cursed his parents he was put to death. Exo 21:15; Exo 21:17. Parents were to teach the law to their children, and to chastise them when needed, and if a son was disobedient and contumacious the men of the city were to stone such a one. Deu 21:18-21. The first born was claimed by God, and had to be redeemed, Exo 13:13; and the eldest son inherited a double portion of his father’s possessions. Deu 21:17.
Metaphorically we meet with ‘children of Zion,’ ‘children of Belial,’ ‘children of the devil,’ etc., often referring to their moral character.
In the N.T. various Greek words are translated children in the A.V. Thus in 1 John, ‘little children’ occurs in 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 2:12-13; 1Jn 2:18; 1Jn 2:28; and though correct, yet there is a difference in the words. 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 2:12; 1Jn 2:28 refer to all Christians as God’s children; but 1Jn 2:13; 1Jn 2:18 refer to young children or babes as a class, in contrast to young men and fathers. Again, in many places where the word is , and should be translated ‘sons,’ the A.V. has ‘child’ or ‘children,’ as in Rom 9:26-27; 2Co 3:7; 2Co 3:13; Gal 3:7; Gal 3:26; Eph 2:2; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6; 1Th 5:5; Heb 11:22; Heb 12:5; Rev 2:14; Rev 7:4; Rev 12:5; Rev 21:12; besides often in the Gospels and Acts. See SON. Again, in Act 4:27; Act 4:30 the word is , which is as often translated ‘servant’ as ‘child,’ the word signifying both. In these verses it would be much better to translate ‘thy holy servant Jesus;’ David is also called ‘servant’ in Act 4:25.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Children
In answer to prayer:
– To Abraham
Gen 15:2-5; Gen 21:1-2
– To Isaac
Gen 25:21
– To Leah
Gen 30:17-22
– To Rachel
Gen 30:22-24
– To Hannah
1Sa 1:9-20
– To Zacharias
Luk 1:13
Treatment of, at birth
Eze 16:4-6; Luk 2:7; Luk 2:12
Circumcision of
Circumcision
Dedicated to God in infancy:
– Samson
Jdg 13:5; Jdg 13:7
– Samuel
1Sa 1:24-28
Promised to the righteous
Deu 7:12; Deu 7:14; Job 5:25; Psa 128:2-4; Psa 128:6
Weaning of
Gen 21:8; 1Sa 1:22; 1Ki 11:20; Psa 131:2; Isa 28:9
Nurses for
Exo 2:7-9; Act 7:20; Rth 4:16; 2Sa 4:4; 2Ki 11:2
Taught to walk
Hos 11:3
Tutors and governors for
2Ki 10:1; Act 22:3; Gal 3:24; Gal 4:1-2
Bastard, excluded from the privileges of the congregation
Deu 23:2; Heb 12:8
Early piety of:
– Samuel
1Sa 2:18; 1Sa 3
– Jeremiah
Jer 1:5-7
– John the Baptist
Luk 1:15; Luk 1:80
– Jesus
Luk 2:40; Luk 2:46-47; Luk 2:52
Difference made between male and female in Mosiac law
Lev 12:1-8
Partiality of parents among:
– Rebekah for Jacob
Gen 27:6-17
– Jacob for Joseph
Gen 37:3-4
Partiality among, forbidden
Deu 21:15-17
Love of, for parents:
– Of Ruth
Rth 1:16-18
– Of Jesus
Joh 19:26-27
Sacrificed
2Ki 17:31; Eze 16:20-21
Caused to pass through fire
2Ki 16:3; Jer 32:35; Eze 16:21
Sold for debt
2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:5; Job 24:9; Mat 18:25
Sold in marriage
– Law concerning
Exo 21:7-11
– Instance of, Leah and Rachel
Gen 29:15-30
Edict to murder:
– Of Pharaoh
Exo 1:22
– Of Jehu
2Ki 10:1-8
– Of Herod
Mat 2:16-18
Eaten
Cannibalism
Share benefits of covenant privileges guaranteed to parents
Gen 6:18; Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15; Gen 17:7-8; Gen 19:12; Gen 21:13; Gen 26:3-5; Gen 26:24; Lev 26:44-45; Isa 65:23; 1Co 7:14
Bound by covenants of parents
Gen 17:9-14
Involved in guilt of parents
Exo 20:5; Exo 34:7; Lev 20:5; Lev 26:39-42; Num 14:18; Num 14:33; 1Ki 21:29; Job 21:19; Psa 37:28; Isa 14:20-21; Isa 65:6-7; Jer 32:18; Dan 6:24
Not punished for parents’ sake
Jer 31:29-30; Eze 18:1-30
Death of, as a judgment upon parents:
– Firstborn of Egypt
Exo 12:29
– Sons of Eli
1Sa 3:13-14
– Sons of Saul
1Sa 28:18-19
– David’s child by Uriah’s wife
2Sa 12:14-19
Miracles in behalf of, raised from the dead:
– Miracles in behalf of, raised from the dead:
1Ki 17:17-23
– By Elisha
2Ki 4:17-36
– By Jesus
Mat 9:18; Mat 9:24-26; Mar 5:35-42; Luk 7:13-15; Luk 8:49-56
Healing of
Mat 15:28; Mat 17:18; Mar 7:29-30; Mar 9:23-27; Luk 8:42-56; Luk 9:38-42; Joh 4:46-54
Character of, known by conduct
Pro 20:11
Blessed by Jesus
Mat 19:13-15; Mar 10:13-16; Luk 18:15-16
Future state of
Mat 18:10; Mat 19:14
Minors
Gal 4:1-2
Of ministers
1Ti 3:4; Tit 1:6
Alienated, Ishmael, to gratify Sarah
Gen 21:9-15
Amusements of
Job 21:11; Zec 8:5; Mat 11:16-17; Luk 7:31-32 Adoption
The gift of God
Gen 4:1; Gen 4:25; Gen 17:16; Gen 17:20; Gen 28:3; Gen 29:32-35; Gen 30:2; Gen 30:6; Gen 30:17-20; Gen 30:22-24; Gen 33:5; Rth 4:13; Job 1:21; Psa 107:38; Psa 107:41; Psa 113:9; Psa 127:3
God’s care of
Exo 22:22-24; Deu 10:18; Deu 14:29; Job 29:12; Psa 10:14; Psa 10:17-18; Psa 27:10; Psa 68:5; Psa 146:9; Jer 49:11; Hos 14:3; Mal 3:5
A blessing
Gen 5:29; Gen 30:1; Psa 127:3-5; Pro 17:6; Isa 54:1; Jer 20:15
Commandments to
– General references
Exo 20:12; Deu 5:16; Mat 15:4; Mat 19:19; Mar 10:19; Luk 18:20; Eph 6:2-3; Lev 19:3; Lev 19:32; Psa 119:9; Psa 148:12-13; Pro 1:8-9; Pro 3:1-3; Pro 4:1-4; Pro 4:10-11; Pro 4:20-22; Pro 5:1-2; Pro 6:20-25; Pro 8:32-33; Pro 23:22; Pro 23:26; Pro 27:11; Ecc 12:1; Lam 3:27; Eph 6:1; Col 3:20; 1Ti 4:12; 2Ti 2:22; Tit 2:6 Young Men
Counsel of parents to
– Counsel of parents to
1Ki 2:1-4; 1Ch 22:6-13; 1Ch 28:9-10; 1Ch 28:20 Parents
Instruction of
– General references
Exo 13:8-10; Exo 13:14-16; Deu 4:9-10; Deu 6:6-9; Deu 11:19-20; Deu 31:12-13; Jos 8:35; Psa 34:11; Psa 78:1-8; Pro 1:1; Pro 1:4; Pro 22:6; Isa 28:9-10; Joe 1:3; Joh 21:15; Act 22:3 Young Men; Tutor
False instruction of
Mar 7:9-13
Prayer in behalf of
Gen 17:18; 2Sa 12:16; 1Ch 22:12; 1Ch 29:19; Job 1:5
Promises and assurances to
– General references
Pro 3:1-10; Pro 8:17; Pro 8:32; Pro 23:15-16; Pro 23:24-25; Pro 29:3; Isa 40:11; Isa 54:13; Mat 18:4-5; Mat 18:10; Mar 9:37; Luk 9:48; Mat 19:14-15; Luk 18:15-16; Mar 10:13-16; Act 2:39; 1Jn 2:12-13 Young Men
Of the righteous, Blessed of God
Gen 6:18; Gen 7:1; Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15; Gen 17:7-8; Gen 19:12; Gen 19:15-16; Gen 21:13; Gen 26:3-4; Gen 26:24; Lev 26:44-45; Deu 4:37; Deu 10:15; Deu 12:28; 1Ki 11:13; 1Ki 15:4; 2Ki 8:19; Psa 37:26; Psa 102:28; Psa 103:17-18; Psa 112:2-3; Pro 3:33; Pro 11:21; Pro 12:7; Pro 13:22; Pro 20:7; Isa 44:3-5; Isa 65:23; Jer 32:39; Act 2:39; 1Co 7:14
Correction of
Pro 13:24; Pro 19:18; Pro 22:15; Pro 23:13-14; Pro 29:15; Pro 29:17; Eph 6:4; Col 3:21
Punishment of
Exo 21:15; Exo 21:17; Lev 20:9; Deu 21:18-21; Deu 27:16; Mat 15:4; Mar 7:10
Good
– The Lord is with
1Sa 3:19
– Know the scriptures
2Ti 3:15
– Their obedience to parents is well pleasing to God
Col 3:20
– Partake of the promises of God
Act 2:39
– Shall be blessed
Pro 3:1-4; Eph 6:2-3
– Show love to parents
Gen 46:29
Obey parents
Gen 28:7; Gen 47:30
– Attend to parental teaching
Pro 13:1
– Take care of parents
Gen 45:9-11; Gen 47:12; Mat 15:5
– Make their parents’ hearts glad
Pro 10:1; Pro 23:24; Pro 29:17
– Honor the aged
Job 32:6-7
– Character of, illustrates conversion
Mat 18:3
– Illustrative of a teachable spirit
Mat 18:4
– Unclassified Scriptures relating to
Neh 12:43; Pro 10:1; Pro 13:1; Pro 15:5; Pro 15:20; Pro 28:7; Ecc 4:13; Mal 1:6; Mat 21:15-16; Psa 8:2
– Instances of:
b Shem and Japheth
Gen 9:23
b Isaac
Gen 22:6-12
b Esau
Gen 28:6-9
b Judah
Gen 44:18-34
b Joseph
Gen 45:9-13; Gen 46:29; Gen 47:11-12; Gen 48:12; Gen 50:1-13
b Moses
Exo 15:2; Exo 18:7
b Jephthah’s daughter
Jdg 11:36
b Samson
Jdg 13:24
b Ruth
Rth 1:15-17
b Samuel
1Sa 2:26; 1Sa 3:10
b Saul
1Sa 9:5
b David
1Sa 22:3-4; Psa 71:5; Psa 71:17
b Solomon
1Ki 2:19-20; 1Ki 3:3-13
b Abijah
1Ki 14:13
b Obadiah
1Ki 18:12
b Jehoshaphat
1Ki 22:43; 2Ch 17:3
b The Israelitish maid, captive in Syria
2Ki 5:2-4
b Jewish children
2Ch 20:13; Neh 8:3
b Josiah
2Ch 34:1-3
b Job
Job 29:4
b Elihu
Job 32:4-7
b Jeremiah
Jer 1:5-7
b Children in the temple
Mat 21:15
b John
Luk 1:80
b Jesus
Luk 2:52
b Timothy
2Ti 1:5; 2Ti 3:15
Wicked
– General references
Gen 8:21; Exo 21:15; Exo 21:17; Mar 7:10; Num 32:14; Deu 21:18-21; Deu 27:16; Job 13:26; Job 19:18; Job 20:11; Job 30:1; Job 30:12; Psa 144:7-8; Psa 144:11; Pro 7:7; Pro 10:1; Pro 13:1; Pro 15:5; Pro 15:20; Pro 17:2; Pro 17:21; Pro 17:25; Pro 19:13; Pro 19:26; Pro 20:20; Pro 22:15; Pro 23:22; Pro 28:7; Pro 28:24; Pro 30:11; Pro 30:17; Ecc 11:9-10; Isa 3:5; Jer 3:25; Jer 7:17-18; Jer 32:30; Eze 22:7; Mic 7:6; Mar 13:12; Rom 1:30; 2Ti 3:2
– Wicked, instances of:
b Canaan
Gen 9:25
b Lot’s daughters
Gen 19:14; Gen 19:30-38
b Ishmael
Gen 21:9
b Eli’s sons
1Sa 2:12; 1Sa 2:22-25
b Samuel’s sons
1Sa 8:3
b Absalom
2Sa 15
b Adonijah
1Ki 1:5
b Abijam
1Ki 15:3
b Ahaziah
1Ki 22:52
b Children at Beth-El
2Ki 2:23-24
b Samaritans’ descendants
2Ki 17:41
b Adrammelech and Sharezer
2Ki 19:37; 2Ch 32:21
b Amon
2Ki 21:21
b Sennacherib’s sons
2Ki 19:37
Worship, attend divine
Jos 8:35; 2Ch 20:13; 2Ch 31:16; Ezr 8:21; Neh 8:2-3; Neh 12:43; Mat 21:15; Luk 2:46
Symbolic of the regenerated
Mat 18:2-6; Mar 9:36-37; Mar 10:15; Luk 9:46-48
Figurative
– General references
1Co 13:11; 1Co 14:20; 1Pe 2:2 Babes; Young Men
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Children
Children. The blessing of offspring, but especially of the male sex, is highly valued among all eastern nations, while the absence of offspring is regarded as one of the severest punishments. Gen 16:2; Deu 7:14; 1Sa 1:6; 2Sa 6:23; 2Ki 4:14; Isa 47:9; Jer 20:15; Psa 127:3; Psa 127:5. As soon as the child was born, it was washed in a bath, rubbed with salt and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Eze 16:4; Job 38:9; Luk 2:7.
On the 8th day, the rite of circumcision, in the case of a boy, was performed and a name given. At the end of a certain time, (forty days if a son and twice as long if a daughter), the mother offered sacrifice for her cleansing. Lev 12:1-8; Luk 2:22. The period of nursing appears to have been sometimes prolonged to three years. Isa 49:15. 2Ma 7:27. The time of weaning was an occasion of rejoicing. Gen 21:8.
Both boys and girls, in their early years, were under the care of the women. Pro 31:1. Afterwards, the boys were taken by the father, under his charge. Daughters usually remained in the women’s apartments till marriage. Lev 21:9; Num 12:14; 1Sa 9:11. The authority of parents, especially of the father, over children was very great, as was also the reverence enjoined by the law to be paid to parents.
The inheritance was divided equally between all the sons, except the eldest, who received a double portion. Gen 25:31; Gen 49:3; Deu 21:17; Jdg 11:2; Jdg 11:7; 1Ch 5:1-2. Daughters had, by right, no portion in the inheritance; but if a man had no son, his inheritance passed to his daughters, who were forbidden to marry out of the father’s tribe. Num 27:1; Num 27:8; Num 36:2; Num 36:8.