The expositor Campbell Morgan used to use this verse in a particular way. Here is a quote from a little book of his called "The Bible and the Child", he writes...[color=0000ff]We now pass to something of vital importance in the text. As we have it in our Bibles, a phrase read, “In the way he should go.” In the Hebrew there is no such verb as “to go.” There is nothing at all about going. There is one little word which in English may be written ‘peh’, which means, according to. Therefore the statement is, “Train up a child according to his way.” We may definitely say then that it means that it is our business to see the child has his or her own way. Such a statement I can quite understand will cause almost a shock. Let us however pause a moment. What do we mean by the child’s own way? If we are thinking of the word “way” as synonymous with wish, or desire, we are entirely wrong. A child’s wish or desire may be influenced in a hundred ways at any given moment, and may run counter to the highest interests of the child. The truth realised is this that in every child there is a way, or in other words, in every child there is some capacity, potentiality, possibility, peculiar to itself; and if we are to train the child, we must know that, somehow discover it in order to lead it out in fulfillment. [/color]The point he is making here is that 'the way' is not something imposed from outside but is part of the inherent character and potential of the child, which is to be encouraged and released by the particular way in which we 'train' [b]that[/b] child.
I like the idea but the intrinsic idea of the Hebrew word 'chanak' is 'to narrow'. It is used elsewhere in the OT such as[color=0000ff]Deut. 20:5 ¶ “Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying: ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not [b]dedicated[/b] it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man [b]dedicate[/b] it.
1Kings 8:63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the LORD, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel [b]dedicated[/b] the house of the LORD.
2Chr. 7:5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people [b]dedicated[/b] the house of God.
Prov. 22:6 [b]Train up[/b] a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. [/color]The impression I get from the word is of a restriction of use, it is linked to the word for 'strangle'!!
Perhaps we can still add Campbell Morgan's insights. I think I like Darby's translation the most...[color=0000ff]“Train up the child according to the tenor of his way, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”(Prov 22:6 DRBY)[/color]This restores the idea that there is no standard prescription for a child but it lays an extra level of responsibility on the parents to 'know' their child to 'shape' him in a way which fulfils God's purpose for his life rather than hedging him in with lots of rules and regulations.
