"Children" - Part 2: "Kids" and "Kiddies"
This is the second article in this series about the Greek words translated as “children.” (The first article is here.) There are six different Greek words that Jesus used to refer to "children" of various types. Jesus used them in different ways, but the distinctions between them are unclear in our English translations, which translate them all, even “son,” as “child.
This article will look at the second and third most common of those words.
Children as Kids
The second most common Greek word translated as “child” is teknon (τέκνον), which means “the young,” “kids,” and "child.” When referring to animals, it means those not fully mature. In the most general sense, it means "offspring” because it refers to both people and animals. The word is neuter, referring to neither gender. The King James Version (KJV) translates teknon as “child” seventy-seven times, as “son,” twenty-one” times, and once as “daughter.” So, the KJV prefers identifying gender, even when the word doesn’t justify it. People of the era also used it as a form of address for their own children.
Because of the connection between human and animal young, our word “kid,” may come closest. This word, like many of Jesus’s words, has a light-hearted and casual tone, like our word “kid.”
Jesus’s Use
Teknon is used by Jesus in twenty-five verses. He most frequently used it in the context of families. For example, in Matthew 7:11:
NIV: If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Listeners Heard: If then you yourselves being worthless have seen valuable gifts to give those kids of yours, how much more that Father of yours, the one in the skies, will give valuable things to those asking him?
This is the word Jesus uses to refer to the "children" of Abraham and Israel. He may have been doing this, however, to suggest that they were not yet fully mature as a nation of people. Jesus seems to used it to refer to “offspring” and older children of working age. It is often used in reference to work.
The Bible only translates this word as “son” in Jesus’s words three times, twice when he is addressing someone when telling a story about two children, and, in translation, the father addresses them as “son.” For example, in Matthew 21:28:
NIV: What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
Listeners Heard: How, however, does it seem to you? A man had two kids. Approaching the first, he said, "Kid, go out for the day, work yourself in the vineyard."
In this story, the “children” could be of either sex, because children of both sexes were expected to contribute to the family enterprise. In the later verses, the “first” and “second” use their masculine form, but in Greek the masculine is used generically so the story could have been about either sex. The story doesn’t identify the ages, but these children seem like kids because of their response, which are basically, “No, I don’t want to,” only to do it later, and “Of course, father,” only not to do it. These are things that only children could normally get away with, at least during Jesus’s time.
Children Under Seven
Next, we come to the word Jesus uses in some of his most mportant verses teaching about children. This word is paidion. (παιδία), which means "little child" or "young child," “youngster,” "infant" or "young slave." Generally, this word refers to those up to about seven or eight years old. Jesus used this Greek word in twenty-one verses, but this word is why we think of Jesus as having a special place in his heart for children. This word is a diminutive of another word for child so translating it with an English diminutive, “kiddies” seems most appropriate. As with “kids,” this translation fits Jesus’s humorous style, especially when we see how he uses it.
Jesus saw these kiddies as a type of paragon and an example for us. Some samples of such verses are:
NIV: Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
Listeners Heard: Let these kiddies go and don't prevent them from showing up in front of me. Because to those such belongs the realm of the skies.
NIV: Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Listeners Heard: Whoever really will lower himself, like this kiddie, this one, that one is the greatest in the realm of the skies.
Notice how the small size of the child in this verse plays into the humor of lowering ourselves. To be as short as a seven-year-old, we must truly get down low.
NIV: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Listeners Heard: Truly I tell you, unless you are turned around and become like these kiddies, you might never enter into the realm of the skies.
As with, teknon, paidon is neuter, so we don’t run into the gender issues of huios. The Judeans and Greeks would just refer to teknon, or paidon. with the pronoun “it.” A child was not considered as having a gender.
This is an interesting contrast with modern languages where children are often referred to as “boys” and “girls.” There were such words in ancient Greek, paidí for “boy“ and kóri for “girl,” but neither of these words appear in the Greek New Testament. However, the root word of paidon is paidí.
The Difference Matters
Dependency in Jesus's time was a far shorter period of time than it is today. This is the age where children in the era started learning how to be productive, getting sent to work in the fields with their parents. After being kiddies and becoming kids, children were productive, productive enough to survive by their own labor, earning at least food and shelter.
While still closely associated with their families, Jesus didn’t find the teknon as praiseworthy as paidon. At one time, the Catholic Church taught that this dividing line was the age of consent, when children could begin to “sin.” This may have been inspired by Jesus’s reaching.