Many parents believe that the Bible has no concept of child abuse apart from obeying the law of the land. Most American parents support the present-day child abuse definitions 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 being 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 in the Early Church. Whenever this sense of entitlement in parents then was perceived by a 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 offense as perceived by the child, with this referring to child abuse. Offenses in children include any hurt feelings in children where parents refuse to apologize. Whenever you hurt your child's feelings, you should apologize to your child. This includes when setting limits. However, if you ever lose your cool with your child as a parent, including while setting limits, you definitely need to give a formal apology for hurting your child's 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 a child 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. But, this commandment was received by the parish at Colossae as prohibiting causing offenses in children, as perceived by the child, at minimum. 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, not the atheist child. An atheist then was seen then as an abused child, not a "lost soul" to be :won over".
The ancients in the Bible even had a concept of child sexual abuse. The Greek root word translated "fornication" in the New Testament is πορνεία (Latin: porneia) and refers here to anything outside the sexual norm, as understood then. This can be further summed up as any sexual relations or advances outside 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. Any intergenerational marriages or sexual relationships were banned in the Early Church. What was also banned in the Early Church was all pornography, including that which depicted a child. Most child sexual abuse then came in the form of father-child incest, with daughters being the usual victims. Most men then had parent attractions, and masturbated to thoughts of his child that he was attracted to. Child sexual abuse was rare in the Early Church, and when it happened, it was a huge moral outrage. Attraction to children then was on the surface, with men in particular disclosing their attraction to children out in the open, including even to their daughters when attracted to her. A father was a man of few words about his sexual fantasies of his daughter, and even disclosed to his daughter when she asked where he went in his fantasies. Whenever a father tried to hide his sexual desires for children, he was suspected of child sexual abuse. A sexually abused child knew then 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 also the world at large. The Early Christians even had their own court system, with these courts being binding into the end of the 1st Century.
Child abuse in the Early Church was prosecuted 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 got defensive, as opposed to answering directly to the court, they were excommunicated from the Early Christian Churches of God, alongside all witnesses who testified on behalf of the parents.
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 then and now being a violation of Jewish law. 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. It just so happens that these parenting manuals were only translated into English in the 1960s. Before then, this level of parenting knowledge was only known to 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 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 abolish the :reasonable chastisement" defense, and redefine child abuse as anything perceived by the child victim 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!
