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In Matthew 21, Jesus quotes Psalm 8 about praise from infants to defend children in the temple. This follows other Jewish traditions, including the Wisdom of Solomon, where children also actively participate in worship.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 10:21
Deuterocanon
17 She rendered to holy men a reward of their toils. She guided them along a marvelous way, and became to them a covering in the daytime, and a starry flame through the night. 18 She brought them over the Red sea, and led them through much water; 19 but she drowned their enemies, and she cast them up from the bottom of the deep. 20 Therefore the righteous plundered the ungodly, and they sang praise to your holy name, O Lord, and extolled with one accord your hand that fought for them, 21 because wisdom opened the mouth of the mute, and made the tongues of babes speak clearly.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Matthew 21:16
New Testament
14 The blind and lame came to him in the temple courts, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the experts in the law saw the wonderful things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant 16 and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there. 18 Now early in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The blindness of those deemed wise is a motif found elsewhere in the Old Testament (compare Isaiah 29:14) and in Qumran (e.g., 1QS 11:6). The word νήπιος, used to refer to “the simple” is found in the LXX of Psalm 18:7; 114:6; 118:30 (compare among “infants” in Wisdom of Solomon 10:21). The contextual evidence supports a positive view of becoming like a child to inherit the kingdom of God (compare 18:1–4 and compare 5:5). It should be noted, moreover, that people have a responsibility and a choice to be infants if they want to receive Jesus’ revelation (verses 20–24; 28). With regard to the content of the revelation that is disclosed to the little ones, it might include the eschatological knowledge which can be linked to the presence of the Kingdom of God. “Many Jews believed that the great redemption would be heralded by revelations concerning the time of the Messiah’s coming and other secrets ‘hidden since the foundation of the world’” (compare Psalm 78:2; 1QpHab. 7:1–5; 11:1–2). This also forms the underlying strands of the idea in 11:27, but the revelation’s tense is shifted to the present ..."
Juheon Kim, “Christology of Q and Wisdom: The Case Study on the Johannine Thunderbolt Pericope” (diss., Chongshin University, 2015), 44–45.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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