Gentle Mothering

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October 22, 2005

Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child?

by flowermama

It always makes me when I hear people talk about how the Bible says "Spare the rod, and spoil the child." It seems to be a common belief that the Bible says that, both amongst those who believe in spanking, and those who don't. Sometimes those who believe in spanking warn about the dangers of "sparing the rod and spoiling the child." And I once read in an article about the dangers of spanking something about King Solomon having it all wrong because he taught that (spare the rod, spoil the child).

First off, I doubt you'll not get many evangelical Christians to question the need to spank or rightness of spanking by getting down on Solomon, because the whole Bible, including Proverbs, is the inspired Word of God. And second of all, in truth, that phrase is not even in the Bible. *shrug*

That phrase is actually from a satirical poem called Hudibras written in the 1600's by Samuel Butler.

BTW, here is a picture of a rod, or "shebet."

Can you imagine hitting your child with it? I don't think any of us could. The rod is a symbol of authority. We use our authority to guide and protect our children, just as a shepherd uses his rod to care for his sheep. As it says in Psalm 23, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." To "spare the rod" truly would be to lay aside our authority, and to not take care of our children -- to not guide and protect. And that is very dangerous and wrong, indeed.

For more information please also see:

The Rod or Shebet: An Indepth Examination by Joan Renae

GCM Gentle Discipline page

Posted by flowermama at October 22, 2005 12:34 PM

Comments

Posted by: TulipGirl at October 24, 2005 08:39 PM

Posted by: flowermama at October 25, 2005 01:40 AM

Posted by: Jenn at November 8, 2005 07:14 PM

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