The Dying Child: The Death and Personhood of Children in Ancient Israel

The death of a child is perhaps the most painful, heartbreaking, and seemingly-unnatural experience we have the displeasure of living with. Yet it is difficult to say with certainty whether or not this sentiment was shared by the inhabitants of ancient Israel. Many studies have explored death in ancient societies by examining types of burial, burial rites, biblical notions of death and the afterlife, care for the dead, even cults of the dead — yet no single study has been devoted to childre...