What was it like for children in the Bible, specifically in the New Testament days?
That seems like a random question, but we can learn something from it.
One crucial part of understanding the Bible is understanding the world of the Bible.
That means we should ask, “What was the world like for these people?”
In this article, we’ll explore a few aspects of a child’s life in the New Testament, such as:
Who raised them?
When did they start working?
What was life like for a normal child?
As you’ll find out, life was definitely so much more challenging and weirder for children in the New Testament.
Let’s jump in!
Understanding Children in the Bible - Way Different From Our Children!
One of the things we try to maintain at our church is the children’s ministry.
We’re not a large group, so some outstanding church members volunteer to teach our kids about once a month.
But one thing we’ve always maintained is this:
It’s not the church’s job to teach your child about God. It’s yours!
We still try to accommodate our members with small kids who wouldn’t benefit from the regular service.
Most churches do this. Some type of program is set up for the children who come to church so they can learn on their level.
This is a good thing and much-needed in every church.
But that got me thinking: Did the early church in the New Testament have a “children’s program?”
The answer is most definitely a resounding “NO!”
When Christians came to services, they probably didn’t even know where their kids were at the time…
They might have been running around the city with the other kids!
How we raise and understand our children today is very different from how it was done in the New Testament.
Honestly, people really didn’t care about childhood or had “sympathy” for kids in those days.
When kids seemed mature enough, they started to work.
They were only considered as valuable as the contributions they put into the whole society.
So, the first thing we need to understand about children in the Bible is that their experience was very different from that of modern-day kids.
Who Raised the Children?
In the New Testament, parents were often not the first caregivers of their kids.
This might seem cruel, but that’s only because we don’t understand how they view love and care for children.
Parents showed love to their children by assigning them good nurses, child-rearing staff, and other caregivers. That’s just how it was done.
Children were considered part of the community and not just the family.
Check out this scripture:
Luke 2:41-45 ESV
41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.
As Mary and Joseph were leaving the Jerusalem festival, Jesus stayed there, but the parents didn’t know it.
We might think, “That’s bad parenting!”
But really, it says that they thought Jesus was “in the group.”
People did things as a large community back then, even when they headed to Jerusalem. They weren’t traveling alone, walking through a desert.
So, it was perfectly acceptable for the parents to be traveling in a large group, with their child being somewhere in that group.
The whole community looked after each other, in a sense.
They didn’t even wonder where he was until after one full day!
When they got worried, they started looking among “relatives and acquaintances.” This shows us that it was normal for these people to be looking after other children.
Later, they find him in Jerusalem and tell him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
This tells us that parents were not cold-hearted caregivers who didn’t care at all about their kids.
But the thing is, our culture is very different from theirs.
We would get worried if our child disappeared in a store for more than 2-3 minutes. That is normal for us.
Really, our eyes are never off our kids.
But to those in the New Testament, it was not probably not uncommon to go a day or more without seeing their kids.
They would even send their children away when they got to an “old-enough-age” to learn trades.
This was often a way to distance themselves from their kids, which was considered good so parents would not get too “overly attached” to the kid.
Why? Because children would often die very young. And this was a way of sparing the parents of heartache.
50% of children would die by the age of ten.
Hard Times for Children
Children witnessed a lot of violence in New Testament times.
They were allowed to see public executions. They were also regularly beaten by their schoolmasters and family.
Beatings were seen as a way to “weed out” the immaturity of a child.
When a baby was born, it was not declared a son or daughter with rights and acceptance until the father said so.
The midwife would present the baby to the father, and if the father rejected it for any reason, the baby would be put out.
Growing Up and Working
Accepted babies were usually fed breast milk or wine for five months. They really didn’t get any nutrition or vitamins.
They were considered the age to work when they lost their baby teeth.
Usually, their “training” for a trade consisted of many beatings.
Boys usually learned their father's craft, which could be jewelry making, weaving, etc.
Skeletal remains of children found in the area show signs of upper-body injuries.
This means they probably did hard manual labor, such as farming or rowing.
They would also be waiters and waitresses, messengers, or musicians.
Abortions (Infant Exposure) and Child Abuse
Abortion is very controversial in America right now.
Everyone often thinks, “When is it acceptable to abort a baby? At a month or two after conception? A day before birth?”
But in New Testament times, it was even acceptable to get rid of a baby after they were already born.
This is often called “infant exposure” in the scholarly world.
Again, babies had to be accepted into the family by the father. If they were not, infant exposure usually awaited.
This occurs when a baby is left for dead in a random place, such as a trash heap.
And this was really not looked upon as “bad” by the civilization, because in a sense, the babies were not really “people” with rights until they were accepted into the family.
A father would do this for many reasons—financial, medical, etc.
The usual reason was because the baby was not the desired sex. Usually, if it was not a boy and they really wanted a boy, they would discard children until a male was born.
Sometimes, the babies did not die, but were picked up by the slave or prostitution trade, where they were brought up to be in these exact fields.
To address a more sensitive topic, it was not uncommon (and even celebrated by some) to sexually abuse children in New Testament times.
Owners would have sex with their slaves, even if they were children.
The cool thing is that Christians were the ones (along with the Jews) who took a hard stance against infant exposure and child sexual abuse.
Actually, these were two aspects of Christianity that really differentiated it from the Roman-era pagan world—that they were against these practices.
Early church fathers like Justin, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria spoke up against it.
A Positive Outlook
Now, I didn't want this article to be all bad.
Of course, many children did make it and grew up to have normal, peaceful lives.
David was just a young lad when he slew Goliath.
God told Jeremiah not to think of himself as "too young."
Jesus seemed to have had a happy and eventful life as a child.
Paul told Timothy not to let anyone despise his youth.
So, plenty of children made it and triumphed in these challenging times.
Conclusion
Children in the Bible had a difficult life.
One thing we can learn is to be grateful for our upbringing if you’ve had a decent childhood.
The other thing we learn is how culture affects the context of certain scriptures.
Not only is it interesting to learn, it can help you study the Bible better!
Much of the information in this article came from two books:
The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts, by Joel B. Green and Lee Martin McDonald
Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, by Larry W. Hurtado
Getting cultural context is a BIG key to growing in your Biblical knowledge.
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