The Treatment
of Children:
Select
Primary Sources from Antiquity
for Theological Studies
Rollin G. Grams
This post provides some quotations regarding the treatment
of children from select primary sources in antiquity taken from three contexts:
Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and Early Church. Biblical
references are not included. For further
resources on abortion per se, see Rollin
G. Grams, ‘The Christian Church’s Stance on Abortion,’ Bible and Mission (4 May, 2017).
Jewish
Sources
Letter of Aristeas 248: And on the next day, when the opportunity offered, the king asked the next man, What is the grossest form of neglect? And he replied, 'If a man does not care for his children and devote every effort to their education. For w always pray to God not so much for ourselves as for our children that every blessing may be theirs. Our desire that our children may possess self-control is only realized by the power of God.' (‘The Letter of Aristeas,’ trans. Herbert T. Andrews, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Vol. II: Pseudepigrapha, ed. R. H. Charles, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913).)
Wisdom of Solomon 3:16-19: But children of adulterers will not come to maturity, and the offspring of an unlawful union will perish. 17 Even if they live long they will be held of no account, and finally their old age will be without honor. 18 If they die young, they will have no hope and no consolation on the day of judgment. 19 For the end of an unrighteous generation is grievous. (Trans.: New Revised Standard Version)
Sirach 16:1-3 Do not desire a multitude of worthless children, and do not rejoice in ungodly offspring. 2 If they multiply, do not rejoice in them, unless the fear of the Lord is in them. 3 Do not trust in their survival, or rely on their numbers; for one can be better than a thousand, and to die childless is better than to have ungodly children. (Trans.: New Revised Standard Version)
Josephus, Against Apion 2:202, 204 202 The law, moreover, enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to kill it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by killing a living creature, and diminishing human kind; if anyone, therefore, proceeds to such fornication or murder, he cannot be clean…. 204 Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the births of our children, and thereby afford occasion of drinking to excess; but it ordains that the very beginning of our education should be immediately directed to sobriety. It also commands us to bring those children up in learning and to exercise them in the laws, and make them acquainted with the acts of their predecessors, in order to their imitation of them, and that they might be nourished up in the laws from their infancy, and might neither transgress them, nor have any pretence for their ignorance of them.
Philo, On Mating with the Preliminary Studies/A Treatise on the Meeting for the Sake of Seeking Instruction (De Congreg.). 1:136-137. The Works of Philo Judeus, rans. Charles Duke Yong (London: H. G. Bohn, 1854-1890). [Philo compares the conception of an idea and its full formation to that of an embryo and its full formation. He cites Exodus 21.22 to argue that the unformed is of less worth than the fully formed.]
(136) therefore an indistinct and not clearly manifested conception resembles an embryo which has not yet received any distinct character or similitude within the womb: but that which is clear and distinctly visible, is like one which is completely formed, and which is already fashioned in an artistic manner as to both its inward and its outward parts, and which has already received its suitable character. (137) And with respect to these matters the following law has been enacted with great beauty and propriety: "If while two men are fighting one should strike a woman who is great with child, and her child should come from her before it is completely formed, he shall be muleted in a fine, according to what the husband of the woman shall impose on him, and he shall pay the fine deservedly. But if the child be fully formed, he shall pay life for Life."{35}{#ex 21:22.} For it was not the same thing, to destroy a perfect and an imperfect work of the mind, nor is what is only likened by a figure similar to what is really comprehended, nor is what is only hoped for similar to what really exists. (138) On this account, in one case, an uncertain penalty is affixed to an uncertain action; in another, a definite punishment is enacted by law against an act which is perfected, but which is perfected not with respect to virtue, but with reference to what is done in an irreproachable manner, according to some act. For it is not she who has just received the seed, but she who has been for some time pregnant, who brings forth this offspring, professing boasting rather than modesty. For it is impossible that she who has been pregnant some time should miscarry, since it is fitting that the plant should be conducted to perfection by him who sowed it; but it is not strange if some mishap should befall the woman who was pregnant, since she was afflicted with a disease beyond the art of the physician.
Mishnah
m.Ketuboth 3.8: Wherever there is right of sale no fine is incurred, and whenever no fine is incurred there is no right of sale. She that is a minor is subject to right of sale and no fine is incured through her; but through a girl [that is of age] a fine is incurred and she is not subject to right of sale. If she is past her girlhood she is not subject to right of sale nor can a fine be incurred through her. (Herbert Danby, The Mishnah from the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1933).)
Sotah 3.8: A man may sell his daughter, but a woman may not
sell her daughter; a man may give his daughter in betrothal, but a woman may
not give her daughter in betrothal….
(Herbert Danby, The Mishnah from
the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1933).)
Graeco-Roman Sources
Aeschines, Against Timarchus:
182: I will make mention of our ancestors also. For so stern were they toward all shameful conduct, and so precious did they hold the purity of their children, that when one of the citizens found that his daughter had been seduced, and that she had failed to guard well her chastity till the time of marriage, he walled her up in an empty house with a horse, which he knew would surely kill her, if she were shut in there with him. And to this day the foundations of that house stand in your city, and that spot is called "the place of the horse and the maid." (Aeschines, trans. Charles Darwin Adams (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1919); available at: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/pwh/aeschines.html.)
P. Oxy. 744 (H.E. 105). 1 B.C.
A letter from Hilarion to his wife, Alis:
… Know that I am still in Alexandria. And do not worry if they all come back and I remain in Alexandria. I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I receive payment I will send it up to you. If you are delivered of child [before I get home], if it is a boy keep it, if a girl discard it. You have sent me word, ‘Don’t forget me.’ How can I forget you. I beg you not to worry. (Trans. Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), p. 54; http://www.basarchive.org/bswbSearch.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=17&Issue=4&ArticleID=2&UserID=2263&)
P. Oxy. 275 (H.E. 13), lines 1-15. A.D. 66 Agreement of apprenticeship
Tryphon son of Dionysius son of Tryphon and of Thamounis daughter of Onnophris, and Ptolemaeus son of Pausirion son of Ptolemaeus and of Ophelous daughter of Theon, weaver, both being inhabitants of Oxyrhynchus, mutually acknowledge that Tryphon has apprenticed to Ptolemaeus his son Thoonis, whose mother is Saraeus daughter of Apion, and who is not yet of age, for a period of one year from the present day, to serve and to follow all the instructions given to him by Ptolemaeus in the art of weaving as far as he himself knows it, the boy to be fed and clothed for the whole period by his father Tryphon, who will also be responsible for all the taxes on im, on the condition that Ptolemaeus will pay of the whole period on account of clothing twelve drachmae, nor shall Tryphon have the right to remove the boy from Ptolemaeus until the completion of the period….
B.G.U. 1052 (H.E. 3), lines . 13 B.C. A contract of marriage
To Protarchus from Thermion daughter of Apion, with her guardian Apollonius son of Chaereas, and from Apollonius son of Ptolemaeus. Thermion and Apollonius son of Ptolemaeus agree that they have come together to share a common life, and the said Apollonius son of Ptolemaeus acknowledges that he has received from Thermion by hand from the house a dowry of a pair of gold earrings weighing three quarters and … silver drachmae
Aristotle, Politics 7.XVI Women who are with child should be careful of themselves;
they should take exercise and have a nourishing diet. The first
of these prescriptions the legislator will easily carry into
effect by requiring that they shall take a walk daily to some
temple, where they can worship the gods who preside over birth.
Their minds, however, unlike their bodies, they ought to keep quiet,
for the offspring derive their natures from their mothers as plants do from the earth.
As to the exposure and rearing of children, let there be a law that
no deformed child shall live, but that on the ground of an excess in
the number of children, if the established customs of the state forbid this (for in our state population has a limit), no child is to be
exposed, but when couples have children in excess, let abortion
be procured before sense and life have begun; what may or may
not be lawfully done in these cases depends on the question of
life and sensation.
And now, having determined at what ages men and women are to begin their
union, let us also determine how long they shall continue to beget and
bear offspring for the state; men who are too old, like men who are too young, produce children who are defective in body and mind;
the children of very old men are weakly. The limit then, should
be the age which is the prime of their intelligence, and this
in most persons, according to the notion of some poets who
measure life by periods of seven years, is about fifty; at four
or five years or later, they should cease from having families;
and from that time forward only cohabit with one another for the
sake of health; or for some similar reason.
Aelian, Historical Miscellanies V. 18. When the Areopagus had arrested a witch and were about to impose the death penalty on her, they did not execute her until she had given birth; for she was pregnant when arrested. Exempting the child from responsibility and punishment they inflicted the death penalty on the guilty party alone. (Aelian, Historical Miscellanies, trans. Nigel G. Wilson (Loeb Classical Library 486; Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1997).
Plutarch, Moralia Ch. 3 *: For
just as it is necessary, immediately after birth, to begin to mould the limbs
of the children’s bodies in order that these may grow straight and without
deformity, so, in the same fashion, it is fitting from the beginning to
regulate the characters of children.
(Trans. F. C. Babbit, Plutarch’s Moralia, V. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Univ. Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1927), p. 15.)
Plutarch, ‘Lycurgus’, The Parallel Lives, Vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard, 1914).
This excerpt is taken from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lycurgus*.html. Plutarch is describing the customs of Sparta. The text shows that strong, healthy children were favoured, while others could be put to death.
16.1 Offspring was not reared at the will of the father, but was taken and carried by him to a place called Lesche, where the elders of the tribes officially examined the infant, and if it was well-built and sturdy, they ordered the father to rear it, and assigned it one of the nine thousand lots of land; but if it was ill-born and deformed, they sent it to the so‑called Apothetae, a chasm-like place at the foot of Mount Taÿgetus, 2 in the conviction that the life of that which nature had not well equipped at the very beginning for health and strength, was of no advantage either to itself or the state. On the same principle, the women used to bathe their new-born babes not with water, but with wine, thus making a sort of test of their constitutions. For it is said that epileptic and sickly infants are thrown into convulsions by the strong wine and loose their senses, while the healthy ones are rather tempered by it, like steel, and given a firm habit of body. 3 Their nurses, too, exercised great care and skill; they reared infants without swaddling-bands, and thus left their limbs and figures free to develop; besides, they taught them to be contented and happy, not dainty about their food, nor fearful of the dark, nor afraid to be left alone, nor given to contemptible peevishness and whimpering. This is the reason why foreigners sometimes brought Spartan nurses for their children. Amycla, for instance, the nurse of the Athenian Alcibiades, is said to have been a Spartan.
Regarding harsh treatment, diet, and teaching children to fend for themselves, including learning to steal, Plutarch says the following:
16.4
But Lycurgus would not put the sons of Spartans in charge of purchased or hired
tutors, nor was it lawful for every father to rear or train his son as he
pleased, but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered them all to
be taken by the state and enrolled in companies, where they were put under the
same discipline and nurture, and so became accustomed to share one another's
sports and studies. 5 The boy who excelled in judgement
and was most courageous in fighting, was made captain of his company; on him
the rest all kept their eyes, obeying his orders, and submitting to his
punishments, so that their boyish training was a practice of obedience.
Besides, the elderly men used to watch their sports, and by ever and anon
egging them on to mimic battles and disputes, learned accurately how each one
of them was naturally disposed when it was a question of boldness and
aggressiveness in their struggles.
6 Of
reading and writing, they learned only enough to serve their turn; all the rest
of their training was calculated to make them obey commands well, endure
hardships, and conquer in battle. Therefore, as they grew in age, their bodily
exercise was increased; their heads were close-clipped, and they p259were
accustomed to going bare-foot, and to playing for the most part without
clothes. When they were twelve years old, they no longer had tunics to wear,
received one cloak a year, had hard, dry flesh, and knew little of baths and
ointments; only on certain days of the year, and few at that, did they indulge
in such amenities. 7 They slept together, in troops and
companies, on pallet-beds which they collected for themselves, breaking off
with their hands — no knives allowed — the tops of the rushes which grew along
the river Eurotas. In the winter-time, they added to the stuff of these pallets
the so‑called "lycophon," or thistle-down, which was thought to have
warmth in it.
17 When
the boys reached this age, they were favoured with the society of lovers from
among the reputable young men. The elderly men also kept close watch of them,
coming more frequently to their places of exercises, and observing their
contests of strength and wit, not cursorily, but with the idea that they were
all in a sense the fathers and tutors and governors of all the boys. In this
way, at every fitting time and in every place, the boy who went wrong had
someone to admonish and chastise him. Nor was this all; 2 one
of the noblest and best men of the city was appointed paedonome, or inspector
of the boys, and under his directions the boys, in their several companies, put
themselves under the command of the most prudent and warlike of the so‑called
Eirens. This was the name given to those who had been for two years out of the
class of boys, and Melleirens, or Would‑be Eirens, was the name for the oldest
of the boys. This eiren, then, a youth of twenty years, commands his
subordinates in their mimic battles, and in doors makes them
serve him at his meals. 3 He commissions the larger ones
to fetch wood, and the smaller ones potherbs. And they steal what they fetch,
some of them entering the gardens, and others creeping right slyly and
cautiously into the public messes of the men; but if a boy is caught stealing,
he is soundly flogged, as a careless and unskilful thief. They steal, too,
whatever food they can, and learn to be adept in setting upon people when
asleep or off their guard. 4 But the boy who is caught
gets a flogging and must go hungry. For the meals allowed them are scanty, in
order that they may take into their own hands the fight against hunger, and so
be forced into boldness and cunning. …
…. 18 The boys make such a serious matter of their stealing, that one
of them, as the story goes, who was carrying concealed under
his cloak a young fox which he had stolen, suffered the animal to tear out his
bowels with its teeth and claws, and died rather than have his theft detected.
And even this story gains credence from what their youths now endure, many of
whom I have seen expiring under the lash at the altar of Artemis Orthia.
Early Church Sources
Athenagoras, A Plea for Christians 34 (paederasty)
Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians 21.8: Our children must have their share of a Christian upbringing; they must learn how effective with the Lord is a humble frame of mind, what holy love can accomplish with God, how honorable and excellent is the ear of Him, and how it brings salvation to all who in this fear lead holy lives, with a conscience undefiled. (James A. Kleist, The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch (New York: Newman Press, 1946).)
Didache 2.2 ‘… thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born…’ (Lightfoot trans.)
Didache 5.1, 2 ‘… But the way of death is this … murderers of children…’ (Lightfoot trans.).
Ignatius to the Philadelphians (long) 4:3 Children, obey your parents, and have an affection for them, as workers together with God for your birth into the world.
Ignatius to the Philadelphians (long) 4:3 Husbands, love your wives, as fellow-servants of God, as your own body, as the partners of your life, and your co-adjutors in the procreation of children.
Ignatius to the Philadelphians (long) 4:5 Fathers, "bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and teach them the holy Scriptures, and also trades, that they may not indulge in idleness. Now the Scripture says, "A righteous father educates his children well; his heart shall rejoice in a wise son."
Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans (long) 13:1 CONCLUSION I salute the families of my brethren, with their wives and children, and those that are ever virgins, and the widows. Be ye strong, I pray, in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Ignatius to Polycarp (long) 8:2 I salute all by name, and in particular the wife of Epitropus, with all her house and children. I salute Attalus, my beloved.
Epistle of Barnabas 19:5 Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born. Thou shalt not withdraw thy hand from thy son, or from thy daughter, but from their infancy thou shalt teach them the fear of the Lord.
Epistle of Barnabas 20:2 In this way, too, are those who persecute the good, those who hate truth, those who love falsehood, those who know not the reward of righteousness, those who cleave not to that which is good, those who attend not with just judgment to the widow and orphan, those who watch not to the fear of God, but incline to wickedness, from whom meekness and patience are far off; persons who love vanity, follow after a reward, pity not the needy, labor not in aid of him who is overcome with toil; who are prone to evil-speaking, who know not Him that made them, who are murderers of children, destroyers of the workmanship of God; who turn away him that is in want, who oppress the afflicted, who are advocates of the rich, who are unjust judges of the poor, and who are in every respect transgressors.
Epistle to Diognetus 5:6 They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring.
Polycarp to the Philippians 4:2 Next, teach your wives to walk in the faith given to them, and in love and purity tenderly loving their own husbands in all truth, and loving all others equally in all chastity; and to train up their children in the knowledge and fear of God.
Athenagoras, Apology 304b-305: Again, we call it murder and say it will be accountable to God if women use instruments to procure abortion: how shall we be called murderers ourselves? The same man cannot regard that which a woman carries in her womb as a living creature, and therefore as an object of value to God, and then go about to slay the creature that has come forth to the light of day. The same man cannot forbid the exposure of children, equating such exposure with child murder, and then slay a child that has found one to bring it up. No, we are always consistent, everywhere the same, obedient to our rule and not masters of it. (Trans. and ed. Joseph Hugh Crehan, S.J., Ancient Christian Writers—The Works of the Fathers in Translation (*).)
Justin, Apology I, XXVII: but as for us, we have been taught that to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men; and this we have been taught lest we do anyone an injury, and lest we should sin against God, first because we see that almost all so exposed (not only the girls, but also the males) are brought to prostitution…. And anyone who uses such persons, besides the godless and infamous and impure intercourse, may possibly be having intercourse with his own child, or relative, or brother. And there are some who prostitute even their own children and wives and some are openly mutilated for the purpose of sodomy; and refer these mysteries to the mother of the gods…. (Trans?**, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325: Volume One, The Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 1994).) [There is more to this section—review and change. The section is actually 27.191-193.]
Hermas, The Shepherd of Hermas 1.3.2 But now the mercy of the Lord has taken pity on you and your house, and will strengthen you, and establish you in his glory. Only be not easy-minded, but be of good courage and comfort your house. For as a smith hammers out his work, and accomplishes whatever he wishes, so shall righteous daily speech overcome all iniquity. Cease not therefore to admonish your sons; for I know that, if they will repent with all their heart, they will be enrolled in the Books of Life with the saints." (BibleWorks edition: THE PASTOR of HERMAS, trans. by the Rev. F. Crombie, M.A. (in vol. 2: Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, ... Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. 1994 reprint) in Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D. American Edition, by A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D. )
Hermas, Shepherd, Similitude 7 1:6 Only continue humble, and serve the Lord in all purity of heart, you and your children, and your house, and walk in my commands which I enjoin upon you, and your repentance will be deep and pure; and if you observe these things with your household, every affliction will depart from you. And affliction," he added, "will depart from all who walk in these my commandments." [This is one of several such sayings in Hermas that includes instructing children and the whole household in righteousness.]
Hermas, Shepherd, Similitude 9 29:3 All of you, then, who shall remain steadfast, and be as children, without doing evil, will be more honored than all who have been previously mentioned; for all infants are honorable before God, and are the first persons with Him. Blessed, then, are ye who put away wickedness from yourselves, and put on innocence. As the first of all will you live unto God."
Minucius Felix, Octavius 9: Thirstily--O horror!--they lick up its blood; eagerly they divide its limbs. By this victim they are pledged together; with this consciousness of wickedness they are covenanted to mutual silence. Such sacred rites as these are more foul than any sacrileges. And of their banqueting it is well known all men speak of it everywhere; even the speech of our Cirtensian testifies to it. On a solemn day they assemble at the feast, with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and of every age. There, after much feasting, when the fellowship has grown warm, and the fervour of incestuous lust has grown hot with drunkenness, a dog that has been tied to the chandelier is provoked, by throwing a small piece of offal beyond the length of a line by which he is bound, to rush and spring; and thus the conscious light being overturned and extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust involve them in the uncertainty of fate. Although not all in fact, yet in consciousness all are alike incestuous, since by the desire of all of them everything is sought for which can happen in the act of each individual. (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/octavius.html)
Minucius Felix, Octavius 30-31: "And now I should wish to meet him who says or believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant. Think you that it can be possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those fatal wounds; for any one to shed, pour forth, and drain that new blood of a youngling, and of a man scarcley come into existence? No one can believe this, except one who can dare to do it. And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to birds; at another, that you crush them when strangled with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your gods. For Saturn did not expose his children, but devoured them. With reason were infants sacrificed to him by parents in some parts of Africa, caresses and kisses repressing their crying, that a weeping victim might not be sacrificed. Moreover, among the Tauri of Pontus, and to the Egyptian Busiris, it was a sacred rite to immolate their guests, and for the Galli to slaughter to Mercury human, or rather inhuman, sacrifices. The Roman sacrificers buried living a Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gallic man and a Gallic woman; and to this day, Jupiter Latiaris is worshipped by them with murder; and, what is worthy of the son of Saturn, he is gorged with the blood of an evil and criminal man. I believe that he himself taught Catiline to conspire under a compact of blood, and Bellona to steep her sacred rites with a draught of human gore, and taught men to heal epilepsy with the blood of a man, that is, with a worse disease. They also are not unlike to him who devour the wild beasts from the arena, besmeared and stained with blood, or fattened with the limbs or the entrails of men. To us it is not lawful either to see or to hear of homicide; and so much do we shrink from human blood, that we do not use the blood even of eatable animals in our food.
31 "And of the incestuous banqueting, the plotting of demons has falsely devised an enormous fable against us, to stain the glory of our modesty, by the loathing excited by an outrageous infamy, that before inquiring into the truth it might turn men away from us by the terror of an abominable charge. It was thus your own Fronto acted in this respect: he did not produce testimony, as one who alleged a charge, but he scattered reproaches as a rhetorician. For these things have rather originated from your own nations. Among the Persians, a promiscuous association between sons and mothers is allowed. Marriages with sisters are legitimate among the Egyptians and in Athens. Your records and your tragedies, which you both read and hear with pleasure, glory in incests: thus also you worship incestuous gods, who have intercourse with mothers, with daughters, with sisters. With reason, therefore, is incest frequently detected among you, and is continually permitted. Miserable men, you may even, without knowing it, rush into what is unlawful: since you scatter your lusts promiscuously, since you everywhere beget children, since you frequently expose even those who are born at home to the mercy of others, it is inevitable that you must come back to your own children, and stray to your own offspring. Thus you continue the story of incest, even although you have no consciousness of your crime. But we maintain our modesty not in appearance, but in our heart we gladly abide by the bond of a single marriage; in the desire of procreating, we know either one wife, or none at all.
Tertullian, An Exhortation to Chastity 12: The fact that children are a troublesome burden, especially in our times, should be a sufficient argument for widows and widowers to remain unmarried…. But suppose that, in spite of this reluctance of yours, you do cause your wife to conceive. What will you do? Will you interrupt her pregnancy by the use of drugs? I rather imagine that we have no more right to murder a baby before birth than after it. (William P. Le Saint, Tertullian Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife An Exhortation to Chastity Monogamy (New York: Newman Press, 1951).)
Tertullian, Apology, 9
But in regard to child murder, as it does not matter whether it is committed for a sacred object, or merely at one’s own self-impulse—although there is a great difference, as we have said, between parricide and homicide—I shall turn to the people generally. How many, think you, of those crowding around and gaping for Christian blood,—how many even of your rulers, notable for their justice to you and for their severe measures against us, may I charge in their own consciences with the sin of putting their offspring to death? As to any difference in the kind of murder, it is certainly the more cruel way to kill by drowning, or by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs. A maturer age has always preferred death by the sword. In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fÅ“tus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed.
Origen, De Principiis (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/origen123.html.)
[Origen affirms God’s just judgement by arguing that people and creatures, including children, are judged in accordance with their acting out according to their created natures—I think! The text or translation poses some obstacles….*]
9.7. But even holy Scripture does not appear to me to be altogether silent on the nature of this secret, as when the Apostle Paul, in discussing the case of Jacob and Esau, says: "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calleth, it was said, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." … And in like manner it seems to me, that as he there says, "The children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil," so it might also be said of all other things, "When they were not yet" created, "neither had yet done any good or evil, that the decree of God according to election may stand," that (as certain think) some things on the one hand were created heavenly, some on the other earthly, and others, again, beneath the earth, "not of works" (as they think), "but of Him who calleth," what shall we say then, if these things are so? "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." As, therefore, when the Scriptures are carefully examined regarding Jacob and Esau, it is not found to be unrighteousness with God that it should be said, before they were born, or had done anything in this life, "the elder shall serve the younger;" and as it is found not to be unrighteousness that even in the womb Jacob supplanted his brother, if we feel that he was worthily beloved by God, according to the deserts of his previous life, so as to deserve to be preferred before his brother; so also is it with regard to heavenly creatures, if we notice that diversity was not the original condition of the creature, but that, owing to causes that have previously existed, a different office is prepared by the Creator for each one in proportion to the degree of his merit, on this ground, indeed, that each one, in respect of having been created by God an understanding, or a rational spirit, has, according to the movements of his mind and the feelings of his soul, gained for himself a greater or less amount of merit, and has become either an object of love to God, or else one of dislike to Him; while, nevertheless, some of those who are possessed of greater merit are ordained to suffer with others for the adorning of the state of the world, and for the discharge of duty to creatures of a lower grade, in order that by this means they themselves may be participators in the endurance of the Creator, according to the words of the apostle: "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." Keeping in view, then, the sentiment expressed by the apostle, when, speaking of the birth of Esau and Jacob, he says, "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid," I think it fight that this same sentiment should be carefully applied to the case of all other creatures, because, as we formerly remarked, the righteousness of the Creator ought to appear in everything. And this, it appears to me, will be seen more clearly at last, if each one, whether of celestial or terrestrial or infernal beings, be said to have the causes of his diversity in himself, and antecedent to his bodily birth. For all things were created by the Word of God, and by His Wisdom, and were set in order by His Justice. And by the grace of His compassion He provides for all men, and encourages all to the use of whatever remedies may lead to their cure, and incites them to salvation.
Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies 9.7
[Regarding the practices of a heretical group following a leader named Callistus, Hippolytus writes:] For even also he permitted females, if they were unwedded, and burned with passion at an age at all events unbecoming, or if they were not disposed to overturn their own dignity through a legal marriage, that they might have whomsoever they would choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free, and that a woman, though not legally married, might consider such a companion as a husband. Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time! And withal, after such audacious acts, they, lost to all shame, attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church! (Roberts-Donaldson trans.)
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, 4.1: When any Christian becomes an orphan, whether it be a young man or maid, it is good that some of the brethren who is without a child should take the young man, and esteem him in the place of a son. (Trans?*; ed. James Donaldson (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1847), p. 433.)
Lactantius, Divine Institutes 6.20 (c. 250-c. 325)
Therefore let no one imagine that even this is allowed, to strangle newly-born
children, which is the greatest impiety; for God breathes into their souls for life, and not for death. But men, that there
may be no crime with which they may not pollute their hands, deprive souls as yet innocent and simple of the light which they
themselves have not given. Can any one, indeed, expect that they would abstain
from the blood of others who do not abstain even from their own? But these are
without any controversy wicked and unjust. What are they whom a false piety compels to expose their children? Can they be
considered innocent who expose their own offspring as a prey to dogs, and as
far as it depends upon themselves, kill them in a more cruel manner than if
they had strangled them? Who can doubt that he is impious who gives occasion for the pity
of others? For, although that which he has wished should befall the child—
namely, that it should be brought up— he has certainly consigned his own
offspring either to servitude or to the brothel? But who does not understand,
who is ignorant what things may happen, or are accustomed to
happen, in the case of each sex, even through error? For this is shown by the example of Oedipus alone,
confused with twofold guilt. It is therefore as wicked to expose as it is to kill. But truly parricides complain of the scantiness of their
means, and allege that they have not enough for bringing up more children; as
though, in truth, their means were in the power of those who possess
them, or God did not daily make the rich poor, and the poor rich. Wherefore, if
any one on account of poverty shall be unable to bring up children, it is
better to abstain from marriage than with wicked hands to mar the work of God (Translated by William Fletcher. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, trans.
William Fletcher, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland
Coxe (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886).
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