The Bible from a Child's Perspective

Children are often the first victims of a conflict. Instead of listening to this vulnerable group, children are used to evoke emotion in the media. Because of a focus on adults in our society, children with their unique and valuable experiences are still often ignored. Even in religious communities, where great effort is often put into teaching children about the faith tradition, they are not taken seriously. Although children are considered the future, they are expected to listen obediently to adults.

Only implicitly

We see this reflected in the Bible, a book that is still read by millions of people. Children were ever-present in biblical times: they made up 40% of the population. They played in the streets and helped with household tasks. Even in places where modern readers might not expect them, children appear. Think of young children who worked as shepherds in the fields; teenage boys who at an early age learned the trade from their fathers; or children who sang laments at a funeral. Yet we need a great deal of imagination to find them in biblical texts, since they are often present only implicitly. Even when a child is given a role, others speak for them, and the child is forced to remain silent.