one born out of wedlock. A bastard among the Greeks was
despised, and exposed to public scorn, on account of his spurious
origin. In Persia the son of a concubine is never placed on a footing
with the legitimate offspring; any attempt made by parental fondness to
do so would be resented by the relations of the legitimate wife, and
outrage the feelings of a whole tribe. The Jewish father bestowed as
little attention on the education of his natural children as the Greek:
he seems to have resigned them, in a great measure, to their own
inclinations; he neither checked their passions, nor corrected their
faults, nor stored their minds with useful knowledge. This is evidently
implied in these words of the Apostle: “If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are
partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons,” Heb. xii, 7, 8. To
restrain the licentious desires of the heart, Yahweh by an express law
fixed a stigma upon the bastard, which was not to be removed till the
tenth generation; and to show that the precept was on no account to be
violated, or suffered to fall into disuse, it is emphatically repeated,
“A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to
his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the
Lord,” Deut. xxiii, 2.
despised, and exposed to public scorn, on account of his spurious
origin. In Persia the son of a concubine is never placed on a footing
with the legitimate offspring; any attempt made by parental fondness to
do so would be resented by the relations of the legitimate wife, and
outrage the feelings of a whole tribe. The Jewish father bestowed as
little attention on the education of his natural children as the Greek:
he seems to have resigned them, in a great measure, to their own
inclinations; he neither checked their passions, nor corrected their
faults, nor stored their minds with useful knowledge. This is evidently
implied in these words of the Apostle: “If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are
partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons,” Heb. xii, 7, 8. To
restrain the licentious desires of the heart, Yahweh by an express law
fixed a stigma upon the bastard, which was not to be removed till the
tenth generation; and to show that the precept was on no account to be
violated, or suffered to fall into disuse, it is emphatically repeated,
“A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to
his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the
Lord,” Deut. xxiii, 2.