He that spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that hateth him chasteneth him betimes.
This passage refers to a specific judicial punishment - the 40 minus 1 lashes. That legal punishment was meted out by fathers on their adult descendants. This punishment only occurred after many warnings to the criminal offender, as a last resort before putting them to death. Children under the age of majority could not be whipped for anything, as they were below the age of criminal responsibility. Domestic corporal punishment was prohibited under the Law. The whippings had to take place only in a courtroom. Fathers were reluctant to issue the blows to their adult descendants, and so they needed a proverb to remind them of their legal duties if their adult descendant was found guilty of a criminal offense. Child abuse by way of kidnapping was a common offense where the grandfather stepped in and whipped the adult offender.
Christ died in order to abolish the harsh punishments of the Law, including the 40 minus 1 lashes. The Early Christians did not practice the 40 minus 1 lashes, nor did they partake in Roman floggings or executions. We are no longer under the legal punishments of the Law of Moses. Thus, all 7 verses in Proverbs that mention the rod are repealed verses.
The Bible, in fact, prohibits all forms of punishment of a child, with this prohibition being stated twice, once to the parish at Ephesus, as well as to the parish at Colossae. See Colossians 3:21 KJV:
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and was understood in its original context, as any punishments, reprimands, or other controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with kidnapping being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things that they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law in order to convict a group of Greek Christians who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing their children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his secular writings. Paul may not have gotten along with the women of the church, but he sure loved children, and even took in a few orphaned children in his time. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers used the scourge of cords on their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were persecuted largely for being "too soft" on their children.
Prov. 13:24, alongside other verses like it, are repealed verses in the Bible. The prohibition against offending your child through punishment, reprimands, or other controlling demeanor, is repeated in Eph. 6:4, where proper discipline is commanded as as an alternative for punishing children. "The nurture and admonition of the Lord" is more aptly translated to "the example and instruction of the Lord", meaning fathers imparted a disciplined example to children, and encouraged children in their religious development - children learn religion on their own, and don't need to be instructed in religious matters. The Greek root word translated "provoke...to wrath" in Eph. 6:4 is παροργίζο (Latin: parorgizo) and also refers to damages or offenses, stemming from entitlement.
The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast forever into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abys which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath day and night forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
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