Quote:
Originally Posted by wyoquilter
OOPs my bad. The actual quote from the Bible is:
"He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." Proverbs 13:24
None the less, God still thought/thinks that sometimes it is necassary to use spanking and to do so is done out of love.
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From a historical perspective, King Solomon, author of the book of Proverbs, was recorded as a brutal king who was thirsty for violence and who later opposed the law of God. His sons, who no doubt received corporal punishment, were rebellious, disrespectful and very aggressive. Given King Solomon's lack of family success, is he a good spiritual role model for parenting? In contrast, Jesus Christ was by far the Bible's most peaceful figure. There is no scripture in the New Testament in which Jesus advocates for, admonishes or recommends the use of corporal punishment on children. In stark contrast, he stated that people should treat others the way they wish to be treated. That is hardly a support for violence. Citing isolated Biblical scriptures is not an acceptable argument for using corporal punishment on
children. Using the same technique of taking ancient, isolated scriptures out of context, one could also justify polygamy, racism, slavery, banishing menstruating women from public and stoning to death of those who have sexual relations outside of marriage. Additionally, there is no evidence that the "rod" of the Bible was anything other than a symbolic metaphor for a shepherd's staff, which was used to lead or guide, not hit, sheep.
Here is an explanation of the *rod* that seems reasonable to me given
the compassion for children that Jesus taught.
A PACIFIST LOOKS AT PUNISHMENT
Christian parents are often confused about the issue of corporal punishment, believing that they must spank their child in order to be godly parents; They take literally the phrase, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Some religious teachers reinforce this notion by quoting scriptures out of context. Among the verses they cite:
"Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him" (Proverbs 22:15); "He who spares the rod, hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him" (Proverbs 13:24); and "Do not withhold discipline from a child; punish him with the rod, and save his soul from death" (Proverbs 29:15).
At first reading, these passages might seem to support: spanking. But this is not the only way to interpret them. The term rod is used throughout the Bible in connection with the shepherd's staff: "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me" (Psalms 23:4). The shepherd's staff is, in fact, used to guide wandering sheep along the right path, not to hit sheep who stray. So a compassionate reader could interpret the Bible as saying that parents must lead and guide their children but not harm them. This teaching is developed beautifully in the book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, by Philip Keller.
Finally, note that references to the "rod" are found primarily in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Christ preaches compassion, love, and understanding, as does Paul. We would hope that all parents, hearing teachers warn about sparing the rod will remember Paul's words in 1 Corinthians: "Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and the spirit of gentleness?"
-- William Sears
It is generally assumed that "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is taken straight from the Bible, somewhere, although one searches for it there in vain. If "close" counts, the idea is implied in Proverbs 13:24:
He who spares the rod, hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Ironically, the phrase, as frequently quoted, probably comes from a mock-epic satirical poem written by Samuel Butler between 1663 and 1678-not the Samuel Butler of The Way of All Flesh and Erewhon. Essentially an anti-Puritan tract, Butler's poem, entitled "Hudibras," was patterned after Cervantes's "Don Quixote." The hero, Sir Hudibras, was a hump-backed, pot-bellied, Presbyterian justice with a long, untidy carrot-colored beard. On his half-blind old horse, and with his faithful squire, Ralpho--the English equivalent of Sancho Panza-Sir Hudibras embarked on a crusade to reform England and enforce the laws suppressing sports and other idle amusements.
Butler's burlesque poem portrayed the Puritans as obnoxious nuisances whose hypocrisy and stupidity needed to be exposed. Inadvertently, however, Butter popularized for us, three hundred years later, an aphorism taken literally today by more orthodox descendents of his antipathy.
The tragic scenario and the literary source of this single line comes not from Proverbs but from a setting which finds Sir Hudibras imprisoned in stocks. A widow whom he had been wooing visits him and they discuss at length the possibility of matrimony. She offers to free him if he would consent to a whipping such as lovers endure for their ladies, and which serves virtue and corrects the mistakes of nature. She explains:
And I'll admit you to the place
You claim as due in my good grace.
If matrimony and hangings go
By dest'ny, why not whipping too?
What med'cine else can cure the fits
Of lovers when they lose their wits?
Love is a boy by poets styl'd
Then spare the rod, and spoil the child.
Though the meaning is obscure, it is clear that disciplining children was not being debated but possible escapades between Sir Hudibras and his heroine. Such a questionable and un-biblical context hardly legitimates the use of the phrase as a religious resource, proof-text, or moral guideline for rearing and disciplining children today.
Katherine
The interpretation of this passage is totally off in terms of spanking or beating children.
Nancy Hastings Sehested - Sparing The Rod (http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/sehested_3831.htm - broken link)
When you hear the word from this passage of "rod," what do you think of? Perhaps a stick for beating and brutalizing, right? But what happens - what happens when we understand the rod in this Proverb as the same kind of rod and staff that comfort in Psalm 23? "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." The rod and staff are the shepherd's tools for comforting the sheep. It is for caring and protecting, never for beating them to death. A good shepherd delights in his flock. The shepherd will go to whatever lengths necessary to provide the finest grazing, the rich pastures and clean water. The shepherd will do whatever is necessary to provide shelter from the storms and protection from enemies and diseases that sheep are susceptible to.
Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep." This Good Shepherd's rod and staff comfort the sheep. The rod is thrown out on a path to startle the sheep warning them that they are in danger of wandering into an unsafe place. The shepherd uses the rod to drive off coyotes and wolves. Being stubborn creatures, sheep often get themselves into ridiculous dilemmas, like our children. Children are in need of shepherding like sheep so that they don't stray off into paths that will hurt them or destroy them.
The Proverb says that whoever does not use a rod hates his child. In this context, the word "hates" means that the parent does not value their child and does not protect them. A shepherd who hates his sheep will allow them to wander off in any and every direction on their own with no thought for their safety or for their well being. The shepherd may have freedom, but the shepherd will have no love. What of the shepherd who even goes off to find the lost sheep? A parent who hates their child will not offer the basic cares of a good shepherd like guiding and guarding and nurturing or disciplining.
Childhood, as you know, is a dangerous time. Parents who love their child guide their sons and daughters, giving them a safe place to live and to grow in trust, and granting them well being because they know that they are cared for. To love a child is to set limits. Anything-goes parenting is as damaging to our children's spirit as the opposite extreme of anything doesn't-go parenting.
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Jesus said, "Do not respond to evil with evil. Respond to evil by overcoming it with good." We are known as a society by how we treat the children. The wholeness and wellness of our nation depends on the wholeness and wellness of our children, so how are we doing in guiding them and teaching them without breaking their spirits?
Dorothy