Grace
Theological Journal 9.1 (1988) 3-19
Copyright © 1988 by Grace Theological
Seminary; cited with permission.
PROVERBS 22:6a:
TRAIN UP A CHILD?
TED
HILDEBRANDT
Careful consideration of lexical and
contextual factors suggests
that "train up a child in the way he should go" needs
to be reexam-
ined. The verb "to
train" really refers to a bestowal of status and re-
sponsibility. The noun translated
"child" denotes the status of a
late adolescent rather than a child. "In the way he should
go" is
best understood as "according to what is
expected." The original
intent then of this verse addresses a late adolescent's entrance
into his
place in adult society.
This should be done with celebration and
encouragement-giving him respect, status and responsibilities com-
mensurate with his position as a young adult. This reinterpretation
necessitates fresh application of the proverb beyond the concerns of
childrearing.
*
* *
“Train
up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he
will not depart from it" (Prov
22:6). This proverb has brought
encouragement, hope, anxiety and
guilt to countless parents who have
faced the uncertainty and confusion of
child-rearing. It has provided
encouragement to those responsible
parents who, after working to
balance family, relationships and careers, find
reassurance that all of
their labors ultimately will not be in vain. This verse has also pro-
vided rays of hope to those who, having reared their
child in the best
way they knew, have had their hearts broken as
their child rebels and
goes astray.
They agonize under the pain that God recognized to be
one of the deepest sorrows of human existence (Mt
2;
Prov 10:1). To
those parents this verse gives hope that when he is
old the prodigal will return. Another group of young parents, sensi-
tive to daily feelings of
inadequacy, experiences intense anxiety over
the possible long-term damage they see themselves
doing to their
child. If the
child does go astray, this verse seems to point the finger
of guilt at them.
4
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
Assuming that Proverbs 22:6 is a proverb,
and not a promise,1
the first question of interpretation must be:
"What did this verse
originally mean when it was recorded in the book of
Proverbs?”2
j`noHE:
TRAIN UP OR
INITIATE?
"Train up" is an initial verbal
imperative, found only five times
in the Old Testament. The tension between how this word is used
elsewhere in Scripture and the alleged
pedagogical, semantic com-
ponent found in the
translation "train up" (KJV, NASB, RSV, NIV,
TEV
[teach]) has been passed over by many commentators.
To Stimulate Desire
Since there are so few uses of j`
have overemphasized etymology and ignored the cautions
that Barr
has so clearly articulated.3 With the recent psychological concentra-
tion on needs,4
there has been a renewed emphasis on the alleged
etymological root of j`
(hanakun: desire). The Arabic image is of a mother preparing
date
jam which is gently rubbed on the gums of a newborn
baby, thereby
enhancing the infant's appetite for and ability to
digest succulent
condiments.6 Yet to suggest that the assumed etymological root
de-
termines or shades the meaning
of the word in Proverbs 22:6 is like
saying that when one uses the word "cute" it
is shaded by its early
1W. Mouser, Walking in Wisdom (Downers Grove:
Intervarsity, 1983) 13-14;
J.
Williams, Those Who Ponder Proverbs:
Aphoristic Thinking and Biblical Literature
(Sheffield:
Almond, 1981); N. Barley, "A Structural Approach to the Proverb and
Maxim
with Special Reference to the Anglo-Saxon Corpus," Proverbium 20 (1972)
737-50;
"'The Proverb' and Related Problems of Genre-Definition," Proverbium 23
(1974)
880-84; and the classic work on the proverbial form and nature of the proverb,
A.
Taylor, The Proverb (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University, 1931).
2A good example of the errors
of putting application before interpretation is
Proverbs
29:18, "Where there is no vision the people perish" (KJV). How this
verse has
been misused for "good causes"!
Fortunately, most modern versions (NIV, TEV, LB,
RSV)
have changed this incorrect understanding.
3James Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the
Old Testament (
Clarendon, 1968) 266-67.
4David Keller, "Child
Discipline: A Scriptural View," The
King's Business,
(December
1970) 49, and J. A. Walter, Need: the New
Religion (
Varsity, 1986).
5BDB (335) and KB (320) take j`
gums, roof of the mouth). Cf. Gleason Archer, R. L. Harris, B. K. Waltke, eds.,
Theological Wordbook of
the Old Testament,
vol.
I (Chicago: Moody, 1980) 301.
6Both BDB (335) and KB (315)
link it to an Arabic cognate hanaka referring to
the rubbing of the palate (gums = hanakun) of a child with oil and dates before he
begins to suck, thus making the material more
digestible and palatable (cf. also TDOT,
v.
19f.; Delitzsch, Commentary
on the Old Testament, vol. 6 [
HILDEBRANDT:
PROVERBS 22:6A: TRAIN UP A CHILD? 5
Elizabethan root meaning of "bow
legged." Thus, it cannot be as-
sumed that etymology
determines current meaning/usage. One
should
be doubly leery about reading in a suggested etymology [j`He (palate)
or hanakun (desire)]
when none of the biblical usages has anything to
do with such sensual, cuisinal
nuances.
Another way of establishing this
oral-appetitive meaning for j`noHE
is on the basis of the use of ypi (mouth) in the idiom
"mouth of his
way" (OKr;da). This was possibly used for literary effect in
Proverbs
22:6.7 Such an oral meaning fixation seems unlikely,
however, in light
of the apparent absence of such inferences
elsewhere (Exod 34:27;
Deut
17:10-11; etc.).
To Train
Most commentators accept, without
discussion, the translation
of "train up" as the meaning of the word
j`noHE in Proverbs 22:6.8 By
"train up" is meant the careful nurturing, instructing
and disciplining
of the child in an attempt to inculcate a wise and
moral character.
Such
training is frequently mentioned in Proverbs (Prov
is cited in support of a plethora of educational
and developmental
child-rearing philosophies, paradigms
and programs.
The importance of early child training
cannot be over-emphasized,
particularly given the
destructiveness of the absent/ preoccupied-parent
Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1973] 87). The nexus with Egyptian Execration text (2000
B.C.),
hnk.t, "tribute, offering," or the
Neo-Punic, hnkt(?), "memorial tombstone," is doubtful,
as Dommershausen
observes (cf; Albright, "The Predeuteronomic
Primeval," JBL [1939] 58).
7James Collins, "A
Hermeneutical and Exegetical Examination of Proverbs 22:6"
(M.Div. thesis, Grace
Theological Seminary, 1983) 29.
8Toy, Proverbs in ICC, 415; McKane, Proverbs: A New Approach (
The
Bible
Commentary (Cambridge: University Press, 1972) 124; Bridges, A Commentary
on Proverbs (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1846)
402-4; Charles Fritsch,
Proverbs in the Interpreter's
Bible (NY: Abingdon, 1955) 907; W. G. Plaut, Book of
Proverbs (NY: Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, 1961) 227-28; Edgar Jones,
Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes,
in the Torch Bible Commentaries (London: SCM, 1961)
183-84;
Julius Greenstone, Proverbs with
Commentary (
Soc.
of
Press,
1916) 142; and Otto Zockler, The Proverbs of Solomon in Lange's Commentary
(NY: Charles Scribner and Son, 1904) 192. Zockler
illustrates the point with several
proverbs ("What little Johnnie does not
learn, John learns never" and "Just as the twig
is bent the tree's inclined"). Similarly,
modern experiments of Piaget ("The Mental
Development
of the Child" in Six Psychological
Studies by Piaget, ed. O. Elkind [New
W.
W. Norton] 247-74), and the work of others highlight the importance of early
childhood training. Many affirm that 85% of the
child's personality is formed by the
6
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
syndrome that plagues American home life. However, until the origi-
nal meaning of Proverbs
22:6 is explicated, we dare not jump to
dynamic, family-focused, modern applications of
the verse.
It may be suggested that the
discipline/instruction view of j`noHE is
confirmed by a lone use in Aramaic concerning
training for fasting on
the Day of Atonement.9 Modern Hebrew uses synonyms like dmalA or
English
glosses like "education" and "apprentice/pupil".10 In
modern
Hebrew,
j`Un.yHi means
"education."11 One wonders, however, if such
later developments are based on an assumed
interpretation of this
verse, which has therefore affected the consequent
use of this verb in
modern times.12 This verb and its noun forms do not occur
elsewhere
in Scripture with this discipline/instruction
meaning. If instruction
was the point, why were the more instructional and
frequently-used
wisdom verbs not employed (dmalA, rsamA, fmawA, fdayA [Hi])? Or why
were there not more generic verbs used (NtanA, HqalA) with the usual wisdom
nouns attached (e.g., righteousness, wisdom,
knowledge, discernment)?
One further tendency should be resisted in
developing the seman-
tic components of this word. Every nuance of the
word should not be
imported into its use in a particular context.
Reich, for example,
collects several divergent meanings of j`noHE (dedication, discipline
[train
up], desire) and develops each of them in light of
early childhood
training.
Such a technique is to be avoided as a violation of valid
semantic theory.13
To Dedicate/ Initiate
The four other occurrences of
"train" (j`noHE) in the Old Testament
are in contexts of dedicating or initiating the use
of buildings. This
time he is 6 years of age. Such findings, chaining
early childhood to later life, are held
to be supported by this biblical proverb (see
e.g., Paul Meier, Christian Child-rearing
and Personality Development [
9Marcus Jastrow,
A Dictionary of the Tarqumim
(NY: Pardis Publishing House,
1950) 483.
10Even-Shoshan,
Abraham. Yrbfh
Nylymh (
and E. A. Levenston, The New Bantam-Megiddo Hebrew and English
Dictionary (NY:
Schoken,
1977) 91.
11S. C. Reif,
"Dedicated to jnH," VT 22 (Oct 1972) 501. Cf. Sivan & Levenston,
12This is not ignoring the fact
that modern meanings may be helpful in under-
standing ancient words (vid.
James Barr, Comparative
Philology, 38-75, 223-37; W.
Chomsky,
Hebrew: The Eternal Language [
make this writer a little reticent--fearing an
anachronistic, semantic projection back
into the text.
13William Reich,
"Responsibility of Child Training: Proverbs 22:6" (M.Div. thesis,
Grace
Theological Seminary, 1971) 27, 35-41.
HILDEBRANDT:
PROVERBS 22:6A: TRAIN UP A CHILD? 7
dedication/ initiation is usually accompanied by
great celebration.
Deuteronomy
20:5 talks about the initiation of a new house as the
reason for a man's not going off to war. The parallel references in
1
Kings 8:63 and 2 Chronicles 7:5 are both in the context of the
celebrations
surrounding the dedication of the Solomonic temple.
Reif follows Rankin when he observes that in
Deuteronomy 20:5 the
word should be understood as the "initial use
of" rather than a
formal dedication.
Dedication is the moving of an object from the
realm of the profane to the realm of the sacred.14 In ritual contexts,
however, both dedication and initial use aspects
are closely linked.
Since
the practice of dedicating houses is not found in the Old
Testament
or in the later Jewish religious traditions, the dedication
interpretation seems less likely in
Deuteronomy 20:5. The idea of
initiating the use of is more consistent with the
context.15
Reif carefully
discerns the cultic use of j`
17:5).16 Here
the cultic setting causes a coalescing of the idea of
dedicating the sacred building with the idea of its
initial use. While
“make
holy" (wdaqA) and "anoint"
(HwamA) may be more frequently
and
exclusively used in dedication contexts, they may be
sequentially
related to the meaning of j`
court must be wdaqA before it can be j`
e]gkaini<zw--while
etymologically stressing the idea of newness and
initial use--has lexical glosses that favor the
idea of dedication.17
This cultic initiation/dedication use is
affirmed through the eight
uses of the noun form hKAnuHE which occur exclusively
in cult object
dedication celebrations (Num 7: 10, 11, 84, 88; 2 Chr 7:9; Neh 12:27;
Ps 30: 1 [title]. Again in Numbers 7, Reif
carefully distinguishes that
the "anointing" (HwamA) and "consecrating/dedicating" (wdaqA) come be-
fore the "initial use" (j`
88).18 Similarly,
Psalm 30:1 is a song that celebrates the initial use of
the temple rather than focusing on the dedication
of the structure
itself. It is
interesting that the word for the feast of Hanukkah is
derived from the same root and focuses on the Maccabean celebra-
tion of the initial
use/rededication of the second temple after its being
profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes.
14Reif, "Dedicated to jnH" 495-501; O. S. Rankin, The Origins of the Festival of
Hanukkah: The Jewish
New-Age Festival
(
Festival
of Hanukkah," in The Labyrinth, ed. S. H, Hooke (
Also
Rashi (M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann,
Pentateuch . . . with Rashi's
Commentary translated
into English and Annotated [
HaShorashim [
15TDOT, vol.
5, 20. "
16Reif, "Dedicated to jnH, 497.
17BAGD, 214;
LSJ, 469. Cf. Latin "dedicare." 18Reif, "Dedicated to jnH", 497ff.
8
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
The same basic noun form is used four
times in biblical Aramaic
to describe the initial use/dedication of the
second temple (Ezra
17)
and of Nebuchadnezzar's 90 foot image of gold (Dan
3:2-3).
Jastrow also provides examples of the use of
this word by later
Jewish
sources to describe the dedication of an altar.19
In summary, the root j`
in Proverbs 22:6.
All four are in the context of the celebration of the
initiation or dedication of a building (temple). The eight noun uses
all
have reference to the cultic initiation of material
objects (altar/tem-
ple/wall). The four uses in biblical Aramaic parallel
this usage exactly
(idol/second temple).
What is to be made of this data, which clearly does
not favor the normal pedagogical reading of
Proverbs 22:6 as "train up"?
j`noHE Analysis
The relationship between wisdom and the
cult has been shown
not to be mutually exclusive.20 Nevertheless, importing cultic meaning
("to dedicate") into a proverbial setting is problematic
to those who
are sensitive to wisdom as a literary genre. Several commentators
have realized this problem yet have attempted to
include the idea
of dedication in their definition of training.21 The vast majority of
writers, however, virtually ignore the above
data and simply attach
the meaning "train up" to the Hebrew term
j`
comment about the semantic bifurcation.
Barr22 and others23
have indicated the hazards of carelessly carry-
ing over components of
meaning from one context into another.
All
of the above usages of j`naHAA have inanimate objects
(altars, houses,
temples, walls) as their object. When the word has an animate object,
it should not be assumed that the meaning will
necessarily be homo-
geneous. For example, the meaning of the word
"runs" will have a
different set of semantic components depending on
whether it is used
19Jastrow, Dictionary,
483f.
20For an
excellent study on the relationship of wisdom and the cult, vid.
Leo
Perdue, Wisdom
and the Cult (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1977) 225-26.
21Derek Kidner,
Proverbs (Downers Grove:
Inter-Varsity Press, 1964) 147; Robert
Alden,
Proverbs (Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House, 1983)160; Reich, "Responsibility
of Child," 32-35.
22Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (London: Oxford University, 1961)
144-46.
23Moises Silva, Biblical Words and Their Meaning (
1983);
John Lyons, Semantics (Cambridge:
Cambridge University, 1977); Eugene Nida,
Exploring Semantic
Structures
(Leiden: Brill, 1975); G. N. Leech, Semantics (Har-
mondsworth,
University,
1981); and John Beekman and John Callow, Translating the Word of God
(Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1974) 90-100.
HILDEBRANDT:
PROVERBS 22:6A: TRAIN UP A CHILD? 9
for something animate or inanimate: "the boy
runs" or "the faucet
runs".
The question becomes: what does j`
people? Jastrow provides several examples in postbiblical
Aramaic
where the term is used of the high priest, who is
inaugurated, and
Isaac,
who was initiated (j`
In
Genesis
rescues
a mistake to think of these men as novices. Rather they seem to be
sent out as men who were strong, experienced and
already initiated
into military affairs. It is interesting that the Arabic root
proposed
under "desire" also may be read "make
experienced," which fits well
the sense here.25
Similarly, in the Taanach
letters (Akkadian documents dating
from just before the Amarna
age [15th century BC]), Albright has
found a complaint from Amenophis
of Egypt that Rewassa of
Taanach, in the context of mustering troops for
war, had not sent his
"retainers" (ha-na-ku-u-ka) to
greet Amenophis. Thus both in Genesis
and in the Akkadian Taanach letters the root j`
people, refers to one who is initiated and
experienced, having duties
commensurate with his status as a
military cadet who has completed
his training.
What makes this example even more inviting is that later
in the Genesis 14 passage these same military
cadets (retainers/squires)
are called MyrifAn; (
men) is significant because these are the same word
roots used in
Proverbs
22:6 which are usually translated "train up" and "child".
Thus, while the term later acquired the
meaning "to train" in a
didactic sense (similar to dmalA), it is better to see this word as having
specific reference to the inauguration process
with the bestowal of
status and responsibility as a consequence of having
completed an
initiation process.
In short, the word j`
process of training as on the resultant
responsibility and status of the
one initiated.
This meaning of
j`
a strictly parental admonition for providing the
child with good
instruction. j`1naHA will be returned to in
order to show how this new
initiation interpretation fits into Proverbs 22:6,
after discussing the
Cf; term translated "child" (rfana).
24Jastrow, Dictionary,
483f.
25TDOT,
20; BDB, 335; and Collins, 23.
26Albright, "A Prince of Taanach in the Fifteenth Century B.C.," BASOR 94
(April
1944) 24-25. Cf. CAD, H 6:76. Note also that
name Enoch (hanok),
concludes that if it comes from the same root (Gen
means "initiated" as one who walked with
God ("Some Hebrew Etymologies," JQR
25
[1934-35] 261). Similarly, Albright
calls him "retainer (of God)" (Albright, "Predeu-
teronomic," 96).
10
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
rfana: CHILD OR CADET?
The second lexical problem that the
interpreter faces in Proverbs
22:6
is how to render the term rfana. Who was this rfana
that was to
be
initiated with celebration, status and
responsibility? In this verse rfana
is generally translated "child" (KJV,
NIV, NASB, RSV,
et al.) or
"boy" (NAB). MacDonald, in a
study based on an analysis
of hundreds of Ugaritic
and Hebrew usages, has demonstrated that
the age-focused idea of "child" is
insufficient for understanding who
the rfana was.27
Status
Looking at the contexts in which the word
rfana
is
employed, three
things immediately present themselves. First, the age span is so di-
verse that age cannot be the primary focus of the
word. It is used of
infancy: for a child yet unborn (Judg .13:5-12); one just born (1 Sam
baby (Exod 2:6). However, Joseph at 17--already a man in that
culture--is also called a rfana (Gen 37:2). When he is 30 years old-
surely beyond childhood--he is still called a rfana (Gen 41:12, 46).
Thus,
MacDonald is correct when he states that the renderings "child,
lad, young man, and servant" are
"inadequate and produce a totally
false impression of the person involved.”28 Second,
the rfana is fre-
quently active in strictly adult
activities (war [1 Sam
missions [Josh
priest, king or son of a king [Gen 18:7; 2 Kgs 5:1-27; 1 Sam
24-25;
2 Sam 9:9; 2 Sam
monic labor force [1 Kgs
one who is designated as an wyxi (man) (2 Sam 1:5, 10, 13).
While he
may be a young male, the point is not his age but
his societal status
and resulting responsibility. Third, there are numerous terms that
focus on the age of a young male when age is the
point (dl,y,, NBe, Ml,f,,
lleOf, qneOy, JFa).29 It is not merely with these terms that rfana finds its
semantic field.
Rather, it is equally at home with terms like db,f,
(servant) or NqezA (elder).
An upper-class role and societal status
are consistently ascribed to
the rfana. MacDonald reports that in the historical
books there are no
27John McDonald, "The Status
and Role of the Na'ar in Israelite Society," JNES
35.3 (1976) 147-70. This article has been
summarized briefly also as "The 'Naar' in
Israelite
Society," Bible and Spade
(Winter 1977) 16-22. The results of this detailed and
conclusive study have not yet been utilized for
interpretive purposes.
28McDonald
"The Status and Role of the Na'ar in Israelite
Society," 147.
29Ibid.,
150.
HILDEBRANDT:
PROVERBS 22:6A: TRAIN UP A CHILD? 11
examples of a rfana of lowly birth.30 Thus, whether the rfana