Proverbs 22:6

“Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

— ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭6‬‬

 Two ways to read this but both get you to the same conclusion:

First way is traditional/all translations way. “Train” is not like in an athletic sense. NET relates it to the word for “dedication” as in the temple or a child being dedicated to the Lord (e.g., Samuel). This would probably go back to Deuteronomy 6 where kids are trained in the OT law. This would make sense since wisdom literature is obsessed with going in one of the two ways, wisdom or foolishness, and wisdom is the path of obedience. 

Child is not necessarily baby or infant. The word applies to anyone under mid twenties. So this applies to all of those early parenting years regardless of interpretation. 

The hard part to this line of thought is the second line. But it doesn’t have to be. Perhaps the problem is with fundamental Christianity and its love of being judgmental. As in, when we see a child go astray, we think the parenting went south or a father wasn’t involved enough or blah blah blah. Well, kids make stupid mistakes. And though prodigals sometimes “come to themselves,” it doesn’t always happen. We can’t forget the genre of Proverbs. Ever. These are not promises. They are general timeless principles. We usually say there are exceptions, but sometimes we see so many wayward children, we wonder if that’s not the rule. But we forget (as is so often the case) the tons of faithful parents raising good, godly children, and the wonderful children remaining faithful to God and their families in the middle of a broken and chaotic world. (And yes, prodigals do still come home, but I’m not sure that’s the point of this verse.)

The other way to read this verse is satirical. No translation does this, but the first Jewish rabbi to use this interpretation was around 1000 A.D. We can’t really use the word “literally” when it comes to translation because words and ideas don’t cross over word for word. That’s not how translation “works.” But if we did what we typically think of as a “word for word” translation it would be “train a child —according to his way—“. His way is usually taken (and in the context of Proverbs probably should be taken) as the way of wisdom. But it could be his natural inclination. How he/she is bent. What they naturally choose. And when he gets old, it would be difficult to turn him away from it. This is satirical, because we all know this would be an awful way to parent. The natural leaning of all children is selfishness, greed, complaining, laziness, etc. Nurturing these characteristics breeds all sorts of problems down the road and would be nearly impossible habits and issues to break. Stated in a positive way leads to another proverb: Spare the rod and spoil the child. So we reach the same conclusion, in that children need guidance, training, “dedication” to the way of wisdom. It’s just a matter of whether the author was being straightforward or sarcastic. 

In either case, there are always exceptions.