Thank you.
But we must always be aware that there were obvious exceptions.
1st, regarding children ( which would have included infants) we are told by Paul in 1 Cor 7:14
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.
What does this sanctification mean. Got Questions answers (in part)
To be
sanctified is to be “set apart.” Synonyms for
sanctified are
holy,
consecrated, and
hallowed. The Bible speaks of
things being “sanctified,” and
people, such as the Israelites (
Leviticus 20:7–8) and Christians (
Ephesians 5:26).
For a thing to be sanctified means it is set apart for a special use.
Things that are sanctified are reserved for God’s purposes and should not be used for mundane tasks.
Jesus spoke of Himself as being sanctified in
John 17:19; in other words, He is holy and “set apart” from sin. His followers are to be similarly set apart from sin and for God’s use (see
1 Peter 1:16).
People who are sanctified are born again and therefore part of God’s family (Hebrews 2:11). They are reserved for God’s use. They know “the sanctifying work of the Spirit” in their lives (
1 Peter 1:2). They abstain from sexual immorality (
1 Thessalonians 4:3). They understand they have been “called to be his holy people” (
1 Corinthians 1:2).
Sanctify according to Webster: (in part)
sanctify
1
: to set apart to a sacred purpose or to religious use
: CONSECRATE
2
: to free from sin
: PURIFY
Why would Paul mention children IF they need to come to the age of reason???
Please read the following posted, in part, elsewhere. (
The False Doctrine of Infant Baptism)
The earliest mention of infant baptism was by Tertullian around A.D. 220. Tertullian mentions the practice in conjunction with sponsors who would aid in the childs spiritual training (as Godparents today).
Many say...
"...Infant baptism is not found anywhere in the Bible. There is not one example in the Bible of one single baby ever being baptized and its origins are largely pagan.
Yet
You are aware of the Jailer, Lydia, and Stephanus... all 3 had their households baptised.Their
households. We often fail to mention....Acts 18:8 (NAS)8 Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.
Question.
Have you read anywhere in the bible or elsewhere that households did not include young children or infants?
See the following... emphasis mine.
Discover the meaning of Household in the Bible. Study the definition of Household with multiple Bible Dictionaries and Encyclopedias and find scripture references in the Old and New Testaments.
www.biblestudytools.com
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Household
HOUSEHOLDhous'-hold:Three words are usually found in the Bible where the family is indicated. These three are the Hebrew word bayith and the Greek words oikia and oikos.
The unit of the national life of Israel, from the very beginning, was found in the family.
In the old patriarchal days each family was complete within itself, the oldest living sire being the unquestioned head of the whole, possessed of almost arbitrary powers.
The house and the household are practically synonymous.
God had called Abraham "that he might command his children and household after him" (
Genesis 18:19). The Passover-lamb was to be eaten by the "household" (
Exodus 12:3). The "households" of the rebels in the camp of Israel shared their doom (
Numbers 16:31-33;
Deuteronomy 11:6). David's household shares his humiliation (
2 Samuel 15:16);
the children everywhere in the Old Testament are the bearers of the sins of the fathers. Human life is not a conglomerate of individuals; the family is its center and unit.Nor is it different in the New Testament.
The curse and the blessing of the apostles are to abide on a house, according to its attitude (
Matthew 10:13). A divided house falls (
Mark 3:25).
The household believes with the head thereof (
John 4:53;
Acts 16:15,34).
Thus the households became the nuclei for the early life of the church, e.g. the house of Prisca and Aquila at Rome (
Romans 16:5), of Stephanas (
1 Corinthians 16:15), of Onesiphorus (
2 Timothy 1:16), etc. No wonder that the early church made so much of the family life. And in the midst of all our modern, rampant individualism, the family is still the throbbing heart of the church as well as of the nation.
Henry E. Dosker
Further:
If family households did not consist of nuclear families in the modern understanding of a married couple and their children but were multigenerational (up to four generations... as history shows) and included the social arrangement of several families... related by blood and marriage... who lived in 2 or 3 connecting houses....
Inclusive of :
those who belong to the family household are mentioned a number of times in the Hebrew Bible
Gen 7 :1 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.
Gen 7:7 Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood.
Gen 36:6 Then Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all his household, and his livestock and all his cattle and all his goods which he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to another land away from his brother Jacob
Gen 45:10 “You shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.
Gen 46:26
All the persons belonging to Jacob, who came to Egypt, his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons,
were sixty-six persons in all,
OKAY... I'll stop posting verses.... The last one shows how many people would be in Jacobs "inner circle" as it were. These texts indicate that the family household was primarily a kinship system that included lineal descent and lateral extension: grandparents, adult male children and their wives and children, unmarried children, and widowed and divorced adult daughters who may have had children.
Thus, it’s not just a matter of a nuclear family but of extended family , which makes it all the more likely that children would typically be present in a biblical “household.”
It’s very difficult, highly improbable, logically and exegetically, and in light of relevant historical knowledge, to concludes that a biblical “household” could not possibly contain small children.
Conclusion: Without writing an entire book this provides an understanding of the precise meaning of a biblical “household.”
And say with certainty If they usually contained children, then the Bible virtually describes infant baptism...
