# "Suffer the little children" - meaning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398 "2010-01-02T14:37:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398/21 "2010-01-04T00:18:07Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Nice gratuitous dig at them dumb fundy hillbillies though. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398/22 "2010-01-04T02:03:38Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > There are probably areas of the Bible belt where the King James version of the passage is cited in support of corporeal punishment in order to raise children to be God-fearin’ Christians. :rolleyes: Let’s keep religious jabs out of GQ, please. No warning issued. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398/23 "2010-01-04T02:13:26Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Thank you. “Thank you” doesn’t satisfy me; your comment irritated me beyond belief. It’s pistols at dawn, chum or Bowie knives at midnight, while seated on a log with our left wrists bound together. You bring the knives and if I’m not there, cut yourself a few times and then go home. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398/24 "2010-01-04T03:01:44Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > …and Ann Landers, probably not among America’s leading exponents of the New Testament… Just for the sake of completeness: I was insufficiently clear in my previous post. The letter-writer, not Ann Landers, was the person misusing the phrase, though Ms. Landers ran it without comment. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398/25 "2010-01-04T03:04:05Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > The phrase “tenants at sufferance” comes to mind – ‘suffer’ in the sense of allow, permit is still a standard usage. A tenant at sufferance is simply someone who does not have a current lease, a person renting month to month. Our experience as renters has been that landlords offer the legally required lease for the first year, then continue to collect the rent without offering to renew the lease. This means that each month’s rent payment buys you the right to occupy your dwelling place (apartment, house, etc.) for that month – with no guarantees beyond that month except as provided by law. You’re occupying it at the _sufferance_ of the landlord, that is, in exchange for rent he permits you to live there, without an explicit written contract, the conditions of the lease being presumed to hold over on a month-to-month basis until he or you chooses to change them – you can move out on proper notice, and owe him nothing (other than possible forfeiture of all or part of a damage security deposit); he can give you notice he’s raising the rent. > > ‘Suffer’ in this sense works a lot like ‘let’ – if you say, “Let’s go to the beach,” your meaning is, “I suggest we go to the beach if you agree”; it’s not instructions to someone to grant permission to go, even though it sounds like it. > > Similarly, ‘suffer’ has traditionally carried the meaning of ‘permit, allow’ – the more common meaning of ‘be in pain’ derives from the idea that you, or the world in general, is permitting the person suffering (in this sense) to remain in pain, rather than acting to alleviate it. So we can now pretty easily complicate this beyond repair by remembering that a synonym for “to rent” is “to let.” ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398/26 "2010-01-04T03:40:59Z")
> [@CC](#): > > So we can now pretty easily complicate this beyond repair by remembering that a synonym for “to rent” is “to let.” Doesn’t the Bible frown upon those who have rent their garments? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suffer-the-little-children-meaning/523398.md?page=1)