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When Children Die
Shawn W. Flynn ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This book chapter is a study of how violence against children is portrayed in ancient texts, mainly the Hebrew Bible. It looks at war, curses, child sacrifice and childhood burials to understand how children were valued. It argues that texts depicting violence against children work rhetorically because readers already held children in high regard. It is a literary and historical analysis, not a study of the well-being of children today.
Key points
- Brutal treatment of children in war contexts is used in promotional texts for its rhetorical effect.
- Violence against children through curses is met with an equally robust societal response.
- Child sacrifice was rarely practiced but had broad narrative impact.
- Childhood burials show a high regard for children, reflecting the child's value in the domestic cult.
- Violence against children in texts such as Psalm 137, 2 Kings 8:11–12, 2 Samuel 12, 2 Kings 2 and Genesis 22 assumes the child's broadly held value in order to be effective.
Limitations
The abstract describes an interpretation of ancient texts and says nothing about the well-being of children today or about any intervention. It gives no data, and no modern country or population is studied.
Abstract
This chapter examines texts in which children experience violence. By examining childhood violence in war contexts, we see how brutal treatment is used in promotional texts for its rhetorical effect. Likewise, violence against children through curses is met with an equally robust societal response. Further, child sacrifice is rarely practiced but had broad narrative impact. In childhood burials, we see a high regard for children reflecting the child’s value in the domestic cult. These contexts frame how we read childhood violence in the Hebrew Bible. Psalm 137 and 2 Kings 8:11–12 offer a poetic and narrative example of how violence against children assumes a child’s value in order to be effective texts. This is demonstrated through 2 Samuel 12 and the boys and the bears in 2 Kings 2 as well as in Genesis 22. To be rhetorically effective, violence used against children assumes their broadly held value.