Resurrecting Silent Voices – A Socio-Rhetorical Analysis of Children in the Gospels

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to approach Gospel texts with a child centered lens. So often readers and exegetes are adult focussed, which causes children to be read-over. The aim of this thesis is to redress this by accessing the bodies of children in antiquity. To do this I have used a socio-rhetorical approach which has a two pronged methodology; attentive to text semantics and the cultural world in which Gospel children are immersed. Several texts in which children appear in the Gospels will be analysed to explore how children function. My findings reveal that children in general are rendered mute by gospel authors. While they are essentially voiceless, my analysis yields they are not invisible. In the main, parents and adults show concern for them. Children function in two main ways: firstly children are generally portrayed to be in need of healing. Secondly children are used as a teaching medium for adults. My findings have contemporary implications. Children teach adults valuable life-lessons if adults observe their presence and enable children to be empowered.