Attention Citizens of Earth!
The passage from the King James Bible that says “Suffer the little children to come unto me” — often unfortunately abbreviated to “Suffer the little children” — does NOT mean that little children do, will, should, or must suffer!
Way back in the day, “suffer” meant “allow” — in current parlance, one might equate it to “put up with.”
So the gospel writer reports Jesus saying, presumably to their parents, “Allow the little children to come over here.” That’s all!
The truly sad part? I most recently saw this in not one but TWO different volumes of a mystery series I otherwise enjoyed very much so I won’t tell you the author’s name. But it’s set in 1560, and the character who says it is an educated man who would certainly have known what “suffer” meant in that context. Fie, for shame, churl!