CHILDHOOD IN THE BIBLE AND ITS PEDAGOGICAL CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

Whether we like it or not, our occidental culture is born and raised in the footsteps of the
Judeo-Christian religion. The Bible and its way of interpreting reality have influenced our
society inevitably. Despite this, the Biblical world has hardly been attended to in the history
of pedagogy. Knowing how the Holy Scriptures consider children and how the Bible is situated
in relation to them will allow us to understand better some historical developments
of the learning process of children. While it appears that Biblical mentality located adulthood
around twenty years of age, it is possible to distinguish between two previous stages:
infancy, and the stage immediately preceding adulthood. The Hebrew terms used for the
first vital stage lack a precise definition, which could indicate a wisdom issue rather than a
chronological one. This article aims to acquire an overview of how the Bible considers the
issue of childhood and to study the references of Jesus to children, in order to extract some
useful pedagogical implications.