Children

Children appear in scripture as gift, charge, and sign. They are the visible token of the creation blessing, the next link in the covenant chain, the chief object of household instruction, and the test case for the people's care of those who cannot defend themselves. They are also the figure scripture reaches for when it wants to talk about how Yahweh stands toward Israel and how the gospel stands toward those who believe — first as the children of Yahweh, then as the children of God begotten through faith.

A Heritage from Yahweh

The earliest blessing on humanity is one of fertility. To the man and the woman together, "[the Speech of] God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it" (Gen 1:28). The patriarchs read their families through that lens. When Esau asks Jacob who his company is, Jacob answers without hedging: "The children whom God has graciously given your slave" (Gen 33:5). The psalmist generalizes: "Look, sons are a heritage of Yahweh; [And] the fruit of the womb is [his] reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, So are the sons of youth. Happy is the [noble] man who has his quiver full of them" (Ps 127:3-5). The same instinct turns up in old age: "Sons of sons are the crown of old men; And the glory of sons are their fathers" (Pr 17:6).

Childbearing is not painted as costless. The same Genesis that opens with "be fruitful" warns the woman, "I will greatly multiply your pain and your conception; in pain you will bring forth sons" (Gen 3:16). Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah know children as a thing prayed for. Mothers bear them and bury them. Hagar, sent into the wilderness, sets her dying son under a shrub and walks off "a bowshot" because, as she says, "Don't let me see the death of the child" (Gen 21:16). The Shunammite's boy, struck down in the harvest, is carried home crying, "My head, my head" (2 Ki 4:19); his mother lays him on the prophet's bed and rides for Carmel. Rizpah, when David hands over Saul's seven descendants to be killed, takes sackcloth and watches over the bodies "from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them out of heaven" (2 Sam 21:10). Rachel's grief becomes proverbial: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her sons; she refuses to be comforted, because they are no more" (Jer 31:15). Yahweh answers that grief with the strongest negation he can name: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isa 49:15).

Care of newborns appears across the corpus. Moses' mother, when she can no longer hide him, builds an ark of bulrushes and sets him among the reeds (Ex 2:3); his sister fetches "a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child" (Ex 2:7). Rebekah is sent off with her own nurse (Gen 24:59), who is buried under an oak called Allon-bacuth (Gen 35:8). Naomi takes the infant Obed and "laid it in her bosom, and was its nurse" (Ru 4:16). Jonathan's son Mephibosheth is dropped by his nurse as she flees the news of Saul (2 Sam 4:4). Jehosheba steals the infant Joash from the slaughter of Athaliah and hides him with a nurse in the temple six years (2 Ki 11:2). Paul reaches for the same picture for his own conduct in Thessalonica: "we became juveniles among you⁺, as when a nurse cherishes her own children" (1 Thes 2:7).

A Charge to Teach

The Pentateuch makes the household the first place of instruction. The Shema is given to parents as a daily curriculum: "And these words, which I command you this day, will be on your heart; and you will teach them diligently to your sons, and will talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up" (Deut 6:6-7). The next chapter recasts it for the second person plural: "You⁺ will lay up these words of mine in your⁺ heart and in your⁺ soul... And you⁺ will teach them to your⁺ sons, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up... that your⁺ days may be multiplied, and the days of your⁺ sons" (Deut 11:18-21). Joshua repeats the law before the whole assembly, "and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners" included (Josh 8:35). Asaph turns the obligation into a song: "the generation to come might know [them], even the sons who should be born; Who should arise and tell [them] to their sons" (Ps 78:6).

The wisdom books take that mandate down to the level of the individual address. "My son, hear the instruction of your father, And don't forsake the law of your mother" (Pr 1:8). "My son, do not forget my law; But let your heart keep my commandments" (Pr 3:1). The psalm of David teaches the same: "Come, you⁺ sons, listen to me: I will teach you⁺ the fear of Yahweh" (Ps 34:11). The mature speaker in Psalm 71 looks back: "O God, you have taught me from my youth; And until now I have declared your wondrous works" (Ps 71:17). Sirach gives the responsibility to the father directly: "Do you have sons? Instruct them. And marry wives to them in their youth" (Sir 7:23). The negative case is just as bracing: "Shame [there is] to the father who begets an uninstructed [son], And a daughter is born to his loss" (Sir 22:3).

Israel furnishes good and bad illustrations. The young king Joash, kept hidden in his nurse's care, "did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him" (2 Ki 12:2). Jehu inherits seventy of Ahab's sons in Samaria, with their tutors, and writes letters to "the rulers of Samaria, to the elders of Jezreel, and to those who were bringing up Ahab's sons" (2 Ki 10:1) — the household structure of tutors and guardians is taken for granted in the narrative. Paul appeals to the same Greco-Roman institution to describe the believer's coming-of-age: an heir under the law is "under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father" (Gal 4:2). Timothy is the New Testament's exemplar of household instruction: "from a baby you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 3:15).

Correction

Wisdom is unblinking about the necessity of correction. "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; [But] the rod of correction will drive it far from him" (Pr 22:15). The proverb is restated more sharply: "He who spares his rod hates his son; But he who loves him chastens him diligently" (Pr 13:24). And again: "Do not withhold correction from the child; [For] if you beat him with the rod, he will not die. You will beat him with the rod, And will deliver his soul from Sheol" (Pr 23:13-14). And again: "The rod and reproof give wisdom; But a child left to himself causes shame to his mother... Correct your son, and he will give you rest; Yes, he will give delight to your soul" (Pr 29:15, 17). Sirach matches the proverbs almost line for line: "He who loves his son will continue to spank him, That he may have joy of him at the last" (Sir 30:1); "He who chastises his son will have profit of him" (Sir 30:2); "An unbroken horse becomes stubborn, And a son left at large becomes headstrong" (Sir 30:8); "Control your son, and make his yoke heavy, Lest in his folly he lift himself up against you" (Sir 30:13).

The point of the rod is not the rod. "Even a child makes himself known by his doings, Whether his work is pure, and whether it is right" (Pr 20:11) — character forms early and shows. The discipline is for the sake of that emerging character; the rod stops where the child does not need it.

Paul folds the same teaching into the household codes of the Pauline letters, but with an explicit limit on the parent's side. "Children, obey your⁺ parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth. And, you⁺ fathers, do not provoke your⁺ children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord" (Eph 6:1-4). Colossians repeats the symmetrical pair: "Children, obey your⁺ parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your⁺ children, that they not be discouraged" (Col 3:20-21). The duty runs both ways.

Honor

The fifth commandment ties length of days in the land to the child's posture toward the parent: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you" (Ex 20:12). Leviticus restates it with reverence as well as honor: "You⁺ will fear every man his mother, and his father; and you⁺ will keep my Sabbaths" (Lev 19:3). Jesus draws on the Mosaic background: "Moses said, Honor your father and your mother; and, He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death" (Mk 7:10). Paul makes the duty extend up: "if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family, and to repay their parents: for this is acceptable in the sight of God" (1 Tim 5:4).

Sirach develops the theme with a tenderness the proverbs never quite reach. "My son, in word and in deed honor your father, So that all blessings may overtake you. A father's blessing lays the foundation for the root, But a mother's curse plucks up the plant" (Sir 3:8-9). And, with the parent grown old: "My son, strengthen yourself in the honor of your father, And do not forsake him all the days of your life; And even though his mind fails, leave him alone, And do not shame him all the days of his life" (Sir 3:12-13). To despise the aged father, in Sirach, is to provoke the Creator (Sir 3:16).

The promise that closes the Hebrew prophets puts the same obligation in covenant terms: "And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the earth with a curse" (Mal 4:6). The reconciliation of generations is the last thing the canon asks for before the silence breaks.

The Vulnerable Child

Israel's law extends a special protection to the child without a father. "You⁺ will not afflict any widow, or fatherless child" (Ex 22:22). Yahweh himself "executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the sojourner, in giving him food and raiment" (Deut 10:18). The triennial tithe is owed to "the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow" (Deut 14:29; cf. Deut 26:12). Justice may not be twisted: "You will not wrest the justice [due] to the fatherless sojourner, nor take the widow's raiment for a pledge" (Deut 24:17). And no one may push the boundary stone over a fatherless field: "Don't remove the ancient landmark; And don't enter into the fields of the fatherless" (Pr 23:10).

The prophets press the law back on a careless people. "Learn to do well; seek justice, correct oppression, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isa 1:17). "Execute⁺ justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor" (Jer 22:3). When Jeremiah pictures Yahweh's mercy to the surviving cities, it is by way of orphans: "Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in [my Speech]" (Jer 49:11). Hosea makes the orphan's safety the test of true conversion: "in you the fatherless finds compassion" (Hos 14:3, in the sense of the verse). The psalmist drives the picture home — Yahweh "behold[s] mischief and spite" and acts: "the helpless commits [himself] to you; you have been the helper of the fatherless" (Ps 10:14); "Yahweh preserves the sojourners; He upholds the fatherless and widow" (Ps 146:9). James lets the same standard define Christian piety: "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" (Jas 1:27). And Sirach lays the obligation on the man himself: "Be as a father to the fatherless, And in the place of a husband to widows. And God will call you son" (Sir 4:10); "He does not ignore the cry of the orphan, Nor the widow when she pours out her complaint" (Sir 35:17).

Children Killed

The opposite of fatherly care is the killing of children, and scripture repeatedly names it as the worst thing. The book of Exodus opens under Pharaoh's edict: "Every son who is born you⁺ will cast into the river, and every daughter you⁺ will save alive" (Ex 1:22). Moses survives that edict; the rescue is the story.

Inside Israel's own law, child sacrifice is named and forbidden in the strongest terms. "And you will not give any of your seed to make them pass through [the fire] to Molech; neither will you profane the name of your God: I am Yahweh" (Lev 18:21). Leviticus 20 sets the death penalty: "Any man of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, that gives of his seed to Molech; he will surely be put to death... I also will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name" (Lev 20:2-3). Deuteronomy generalizes: "There will not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire" (Deut 18:10).

Israel and her neighbors broke that boundary anyway, and the historical and prophetic books record it. Ahaz "made his son to pass through the fire, according to the disgusting behaviors of the nations" (2 Ki 16:3). The transplanted Sepharvites "burned their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech" (2 Ki 17:31). Jeremiah names the place: "they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, neither did it come into my mind" (Jer 7:31; cf. Jer 32:35). Ezekiel makes the indictment maternal: "you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and these you have sacrificed to them to be devoured... you have slain my sons, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through [the fire] to them" (Ezek 16:20-21). The children belong to Yahweh first; the parents who hand them over are taking what is not theirs to give.

The pattern of the only and beloved son runs back through the same material. Yahweh's word to Abraham at the binding is the canonical articulation: "Don't lay your hand on the lad, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" (Gen 22:12). Solomon, looking back, speaks of his own boyhood: "I was a son to my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother" (Pr 4:3). Jeremiah turns "an only son" into the pitch of grief: "make mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation" (Jer 6:26).

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Scripture is alive to the surprise that the smallest people speak something of God. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have established strength, Because of your adversaries, That you might still the enemy and the avenger" (Ps 8:2). Peter brings the same image into Christian formation: "as newborn babies, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that you⁺ may grow by it to salvation" (1 Pet 2:2). And Paul recognizes that the figure of the child is a stage in spiritual development, not a final state: "When I was a juvenile, I spoke as a juvenile, I felt as a juvenile, I thought as a juvenile: now that I have become a man, I have put away juvenile things" (1 Cor 13:11).

Ecclesiastes lets the young have their day and adds the warning that gives the day its weight: "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know, that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity" (Eccl 11:9-10). And then the well-known summons: "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come" (Eccl 12:1).

Jesus and Children

Jesus sets a child in the middle of his disciples' status quarrel. "He took a little child, and set the child among them: and taking the child in his arms, he said to them, Whoever will receive one of such little children in my name, receives me: and whoever receives me, does not receive me, but him who sent me" (Mk 9:36-37). The corollary is the millstone: "Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it were better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck, and he were cast into the sea" (Mk 9:42).

The pericope of the children brought to be touched is the most explicit blessing of children in the gospels. "They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them: and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said to them, Allow the little children to come to me; don't forbid them: for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you⁺, Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he will in no way enter in it. And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands on them" (Mk 10:13-16). Luke records the same scene with babies named outright: "they were bringing to him also their babies, that he should touch them: but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, Allow the little children to come to me, and don't forbid them: for to such belongs the kingdom of God" (Lk 18:15-16).

The narrative miracles for children carry that posture into action. The widow of Nain meets Jesus carrying her son to the grave — "the only begotten son of his mother, and she was a widow" (Lk 7:12) — and Jesus, "moved with compassion," gives the boy back to her (Lk 7:13-15). Jairus, "ruler of the synagogue," begs for "an only begotten daughter, about twelve years of age," who is dying (Lk 8:42); Jesus enters the house, takes her by the hand, and says, "Talitha koum; which is, being interpreted, Girl, I say to you, Arise" (Mk 5:41-42).

Children of Yahweh, Children of God

Scripture's last move with this vocabulary is to take it up into theology. Israel is constituted a son not by birth but by Yahweh's word. "Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you" (Deut 32:6). The prophets keep the address alive: "you, O Yahweh, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name" (Isa 63:16); "But now, O Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and all of us are the work of your hand" (Isa 64:8). Malachi names the corollary obligation between the human members of the household: "Don't we all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we betray every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?" (Mal 2:10). The widow and the orphan have already been told whose: "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation" (Ps 68:5). David blesses Yahweh as "the God of Israel our father, forever and ever" (1 Chr 29:10). Sirach's prayer keeps the form of address: "O Lord, Father, and Master of my life" (Sir 23:4); "Yahweh, you are my Father, My God, and the strength of my salvation" (Sir 51:10).

The New Testament keeps the address and extends the family. There is "one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we to him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things" (1 Cor 8:6); "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all" (Eph 4:6). Believers "call on him as Father, who without favoritism judges according to each man's work" (1 Pet 1:17). The Greeks who have come to faith are told the same: "Once you also desire this faith, then the knowledge of the Father will be received by you" (Gr 10:1). And John's prologue locates the new sonship in the moment of believing: "as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become sons of God, to those who believe on his name" (Jn 1:12).

Paul names the act outright. "You⁺ didn't receive the spirit of slavery again to fear; but you⁺ received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:15-17). Hebrews argues from the lesser to the greater: "we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: and shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" (Heb 12:9). And John's first letter holds the wonder of it open: "Look at what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God; and [such] we are. For this cause the world doesn't know us, because it did not know him" (1 Jn 3:1).

The full discussion of how that adoption is secured belongs under Adoption. What this page witnesses is that the language scripture finally uses for the redeemed people is the same language it has been using all along for the fragile, taught, blessed, defended, and only-begotten children of an actual household. The transfer is not a metaphor running away from its source. The household of faith inherits the household forms.