Does the bible cite breastfreeding, if not are there any other religous references to a mother breastfeedng?

Question

Thank you to all for your help. By they way I have nursed my one and only and for 22mos. Yea me it was wonderful,she is a healthy and happy, 2 1/2 year old now. I am needing info for a persuasive speech about breastfeeding, to encourage and educate others!!!

Answer 1

YES.
LUKE 11:27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.

Answer 2

The Hebrew word "meh ne'qeth" used at Gen. 24:59; Gen 35:8; Ex. 2:7; 2Kings 11:2; 2Chron. 22:11; Isa. 49:23 is translated "nursing woman". This nursing woman was used as a substitute for breast-feeding an infant.

At 1 Thess. 2:7, Paul likens himself to a "nursing mother"(Gr., tro phos') showing his gentleness toward new believers.

Great question!!

Answer 3

Exodus 2:5-10 talks about Pharoahs daughter finding Moses among the reeds & telling Moses' sister to find a nurse maid for him. Then she went & brought Moses' own mother, unbeknownst to Pharoahs daughter, to nurse him.

I'd like to also add that when my toddlers both got the chicken pox & I had a newborn baby, the doc said that because I was breastfeeding my newborn would have my antibodies. He didn't get them until 10 years later. There is alot science doesn't know yet about breast milk. You can also express & freeze it for short periods of time if you have to go back to work. Good luck!

Answer 4

I think in the Bible it was just a given that a mother would breastfeed. Look up weaned, or nursing on a Bible website and there are a lot of references that include it - just nothing specifically. It is mostly used as a metaphor for childhood or helplessness. I think they weaned their kids about five years old. Hannah promised Samuel to God after he was weaned

Answer 5

Breastfeed mommy. It does a baby good. And plenty of studies show breastfeeds protects the mother from some cancers. God loves the connection it creates between a mother and her child. Nothing else in this world is like that!

Answer 6

Well since the didn't have glass or plastic bottles back then with rubber nipples to attach to them . the babies still got feed and it wasn't the males that did it. that is why females have working milk glands and men don't. There were some other ways if the mother couldn't produce milk herself. but other than a wet nurse most were sloppy and inefficent means that just barley keep the baby alive till it could eat on its own.

Answer 7

You have already beem given some examples -- to these I would add the images of God as a nursing mother --the list below has some of these, as well as images of God as a mother giving birth:

A: Female images for God (drawn from women’s biological activity)
1. God as a Mother:
a. a woman in labor (Isa. 42:14) whose forceful breath is an image of divine power . God is threatening to come against Israel in power, a power likened to the forceful air expelled from the lungs of a woman who is in the final throes of labor. Calvin misunderstood Isaiah’s intent and construed this as an image of maternal tenderness!
b. a mother suckling her children (Num. 11:12)
c. a mother who does not forget the child she nurses (Isa. 49:14-15)
d. a mother who comforts her children (Isa. 66:12-13)
e. a mother who births and protects Israel (Isa. 46:3-4). In contrast to idol worshippers who carry their gods on cattle, God carries Israel in the womb. The message to the people is two-fold: it demonstrates God’s superiority over other gods, and reiterates the divine promise to support and redeem. In short, God’s maternal bond of compassion and maternal power to protect guarantee Israel’s salvation.
f. a mother who gave birth to the Israelites (Dt. 32:18) The biased translation of the Jerusalem Bible ("fathered you") obscures the feminine action of the verb, more accurately rendered "gave you birth":

Answer 8

The Bible makes many references to children being breastfed. It doesn't say anything about mothers have to do it this way. It just mentions babies or mothers in various places, and it talks about the babies being fed from the breast.

Answer 9

three verses specific to breast feeding:
Eze 23:21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.
Lu 11:27¶ And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
Lu 23:29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

+Moses mother was also hired by his rescuer to breast feed him.

Answer 10

While Hebrew women usually nursed their infants, it was a common practice in Mesopotamia and Egypt for wealthy women to hire a wetnurse to care for their infant (cf. 2 Kings 11:2).


2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedchamber; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain;

Also see from Exodus:

Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?"

8 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." The maiden went and called the child's mother.

9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." The woman took the child, and nursed it.

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