"Let the Little Children Come to Me": Childhood and Children in Early Christianity Paperback – August 6, 2009

It far exceeded my expectations as it combines an academic format with a fascinating collection of material, thus providing each reader with a true "crossroads" for individual interest and varying backgrounds on this subject

Christianity revolutionized the treatment of children in the ancient world. Perhaps the most spectacular alteration was in the use of children as sexual playthings. Both ancient Greece and ancient Rome regarded using little boys, especially slaves, or the children of the poor, as objects of desire.A slave had no rights over his body, and it was regarded as legal and not immoral in the least to use the slave sexually. Both little boys and little girls were used sexually, although it appears little boys were preferred. The boys were considered of interest sexually until they sprouted body hair, which gives some idea of the age of the children abused. After the master had used the slave, the slave could also obtain money for his master by being sent to one of the many boy brothels in Rome. (Pick up a copy of "The Economy of Prostitution in Rome" for a fuller treatment).Christianity, of course, viewed this as utterly immoral. Many Christians wrote scathing denunciations of such practices, such as Tatian, who pointed out that, at least in this matter, the barbarians, whose cultures despised such things, were more moral. Tatian bitterly criticized "the Romans...for gathering herds of boys for this purpose" (p 230).In the area of protecting children "from sexual advances...may be the one area of morality in which early Christianity was truly counter-cultural" (p 231).The ancient world, including the Second Temple Jews, regarded a girl as ready for marriage between the ages of 12 to 14. Boys, on the other hand, appear to have been older at the age of marriage, perhaps in the late teens or early twenties. This seems to have held true across all the cultures in the Roman empire.Where Jewish and later Christians differed from the other cultures was the importance they placed on the child. "In significant strands of Judaism, the family is based upon the child" (p 72). Because every child had an immortal soul, Christians taught their children early the truths of Christianity and brought them to Christian gatherings to participate. "The process of socializing children into the Christian Church was closely related to the quality and extent of the religious education and formation the children received" (p 271).They also strove to keep their children from the immoral influences all around them. John Chrysostrom insisted young men should be kept away from the theater, for example, since ''the sight of naked women uttering shameful words'" (p 157) should be avoided. Chrysostrom urged boys to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, pray, and to be taught to fear hell.Children had toys and games similar to many today. One I had never heard of was tying a rattle around the neck of a baby. Every time the baby moved, the rattle would jingle and amuse the child. Tops, hoops, balls, and dolls were all available, although many of the dolls appear to be based on pagan gods, and therefore were likely unused by Christian children.I would also strongly recommend the book "When Children Became People", which also deals with the changes Christianity brought to the ancient world for children.