Child abuse definitions: Why the Bible calls for tougher laws protecting children from abuse

Many parents think that the Bible has no concept of child abuse apart from obeying the law of the land. Most American parents support the present-day definitions of child abuse under state and federal law. However, God's Law is above the law of the land. The Bible has its own definition of child abuse - whatever the child victim perceives as abuse.

The Greek root word denoting parental entitlement is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and is defined as, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. Unofficially speaking, parental entitlement consists of a parent that is sorely disappointed when they don't get the well-behaved child that they feel that they deserve. Even any parent anger directed towards a child is parental entitlement, and was seen as entitlement then. Whenever this sense of entitlement in parents then was perceived by the child as offensive or damaging, it was deemed child abuse. See also 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 here to child abuse as understood in the Bible. This includes any entitlement in parents, leading to offense in children. Offense in children consists of hurt feelings that parents refuse to apologize for, at minimum. With that said, if you ever lose your cool with your child as a parent  including while setting limits, you definitely need to give a formal apology to your child for hurting their feelings with your anger, such as "I apologize for hurting your feelings with my temper", and then commit never to lose your cool with your child ever again, as any parent anger directed towards children alone is entitlement, and was seen as entitlement in the Early Church. This commandment cross-references the Eighth and the Tenth Commandments, with the Apostle Paul here convicting a group of Greek Christian parents who brought into the church their pagan custom of patrias potestas, which is a Latin term roughly translating to "power to the parent", namely the power to impose punitive sanctions on children, such as spanking or other forms of punishment of children. However, this commandment was ultimately received by the parish at Colossae as prohibiting causing offenses in children as perceived by the child. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punitive parenting in his secular writings. Attachment parenting was banned under Roman law, but the Early Christians did it anyway, obeying God over men.

The Greek root word translated "they be discouraged" is αθυμέω (Latin: athumeo) and refers here to long-term damages, namely childhood trauma. The ancients in the Bible had a basic understanding of childhood trauma. Whenever a child grew up to be atheist, shame fell onto the parents - meaning not the child - due to the parents allegedly being too hard on their child. An atheist was seen in the Early Church as an abused child, not a "lost soul" to be "won over". 

The Bible even has its own concept of child sexual abuse. The Greek root word translated "fornication" in the Bible is πορνεία (Latin: porneia) and refers here to anything outside of the Christian sexual norm, as understood then. This norm can be summed up as prohibiting any sexual relations or advances outside of the context of a Christian marriage between one adult man and one adult woman, with this marriage needing to be equal in terms of chronological age. A groom was only allowed a bride his age or up to 4 years older. Intergenerational marriage and intergenerational sexual relationships were banned in the Early Church. Most child sexual abuse in the biblical context came in the form of father-child incest, with daughters being the usual victims. Most men masturbated to sexual thoughts of his daughter, at least on occasion. Child sexual abuse was rare in biblical times, meaning it almost never happened. Attraction to children, as a topic, existed on the surface, with decent men being a man of few words when daughters asked about their sexual fantasies. If an adult tried to hide their sexual attractions to children at all, they were suspected of having even more to hide. Most sexually abused children then knew exactly what was happening to them, and self-reported the abuse that they were suffering.

It is a myth that the Early Christians were well-integrated into Rome. Instead, the Early Christians lived in urban enclaves in major Greco-Roman cities, shunning the broader Greco-Roman world, and the world at large. The Early Christians even had their own court system that was binding into the end of the 1st Century.

Child abuse was prosecuted in the Early Church by way of internal church investigation. This investigation usually started with a child confiding into a clergyperson about their home life. From there, the parents were summoned to appear before a council of 3 elders who would preside over the investigation. If the parents at all were defensive before the court, as opposed to answering to the court directly, they were swiftly excommunicated from the Early Christian Churches of God, alongside all witnesses that testified on the parents' behalf.

The Bible is an anti-spanking document. All 88 books of the Bible - from Genesis to Revelation - were  written by anti-spanking Jews, with spanking a child being banned under Jewish law then and now. All of the biblical writers also wrote parenting manuals that advocated attachment parenting. Even King Solomon wrote an attachment parenting manual, with the rod in Proverbs instead referring to the 40 minus 1 lashes, namely as a sentence for a crime. It just so happens that these attachment parenting manuals were not translated into English until the 1960s. Before then, this level of parenting knowledge only existed in the Jewish world. 

The Bible is America's book. America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian values. We as a society glean from the Bible and its context as to how to live and treat each other with respect. Even our legal codes, under the English common law, are based off of biblical teaching. However, the criminal defense of "reasonable chastisement" is based off of dated biblical teaching. It is about time that we repeal the "reasonable chastisement" defense, and redefine child abuse as prohibiting anything that the child victim perceives as abuse.

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 abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torrents, suffering God's Wrath day and night forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!