Many parents think spanking started in biblical times, with King Solomon. King Solomon surely was not in favor of striking a child, and I don't doubt that fact one bit. Most Christians do not know the history of spanking children, or else they would not be doing it.
The rod of correction was not applied to minor children, but only adult children, in the form of 40 minus 1 lashes within the confines of a courtroom. Solomon, in the book of Proverbs, was reiterating the law of the time. Under Jewish law, striking another Jew was unlawful outside of a courtroom, and unlawful, period, for children.
Where did spanking come from. In 1st Century Christian church communities, the Greeks were slowly becoming Christianized, but held onto some of their pagan customs, with one of them being spanking children. Children in Greco-Roman culture were spanked in order to purify them of uncleanliness as a ritual. The Early Church did its best to ward off the pagan ritual and ban it, but quite a few Greek Christians and Roman Christians as well held onto the ritual, and swore by it as the way to keep a child in line.
In the year 312, Roman Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity, and some years later, he converted Rome to Christianity, forming the Roman Catholic Church. The Bible was assembled by the Council of Nicaea, and was translated to Latin, but in a misleading way that reworded certain words in the parenting passages in a more authoritarian way. An example is Colossians 3:20 KJV:
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
The word "obey" is incorrect as a translation. The proper Greek root word is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure rest in the love of parents, with love being submission from above in terms of providing for the child's needs.
Why the change in language? Dictators want hierarchy in any given authoritarian society, and the Holy Roman Empire was a dictatorship. Bans on spanking erase hierarchy, and equalize populations - something Constantine didn't want, and neither did his companions.
I am anti-Catholic for this reason. The Roman Catholic Church lied to us all about what the Bible says about spanking, and hid the context. This, again, was to control the masses, whereas the reformation and radical reformation were both about being able to read the Bible for yourself, and then question church hierarchy. It is about time that the Truth be known about spanking and the Bible.
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