Children without standing

Little children were the most powerless people in ancient society. In most of that world, status and authority grew with age. Jewish culture loved its children and did not look down on them. Still, a child had no standing of its own; whatever power or privilege it had came through its parents (Keener). Children were easily overlooked, and speakers and writers held up powerful leaders as the heroes to copy. Rank and status were everyday questions, and some Jewish texts spoke of ranks within the kingdom. When people brought children to be blessed, the laying on of hands recalled Jacob blessing his grandsons (Genesis 48:14). Disciples who kept people away from their master might remind hearers of Gehazi pushing the Shunammite woman back (2 Kings 4:27). The ESV Study Bible draws out the point of the comparison: a child cannot push his or her own cause forward without a parent. Jewish and Greco-Roman writers agreed that children must honor their parents and obey them while young. Many Jewish teachers counted honoring parents the greatest commandment. Beating was a normal part of raising and schooling children, and only a few writers objected to harsh discipline. A Greek or Roman newborn became a legal person only when the father acknowledged it. Unwanted babies could be abandoned, and deformed ones killed. Jews and Christians opposed both abortion and abandonment.

Because children had no standing, holding one up as the model of greatness, as in Matthew 18:3-4, turns the ladder of rank upside down, and welcoming a child in Jesus' name treats the powerless as his representatives. When the disciples turn children away in Mark 10:13-14, they are shielding their teacher in the usual way, and he overrules them. Ephesians 6:4 tells fathers not to exasperate their children, where most writers took beating for granted.