Both the OT and NT demonstrate a family solidarity that is alien to Western individualistic thought. The Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants involved the household in the covenant blessings. The OT formula "he and his house" referred to parents and their children of all ages. Thus, wagons were sent by Pharaoh to bring to Egypt those members of the households of Joseph's brothers who could not walk (i.e., old people and children, Gen. 45:18 - 19). When Saul destroyed Ahimelech's household (1 Sam. 22:16 - 19), not even infants were spared. Household includes infants, as is seen in Gen. 17, where every male "in Abraham's house" was circumcised (including a baby eight days old). Deut. 6 shows the importance of teaching children the revealed way of blessing, while Exod. 12 includes children in the Passover meal.
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D F Kelly
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)
Bibliography
J Jeremias, Infant Baptism in the First Four
Centuries; D Kingdon, Children of Abraham: A Reformed Baptist
View of Baptism, the Covenant, and Children.
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