Reviewed by: Children in Early Christian Narratives by Sharon Betsworth Alicia J. Batten sharon betsworth, Children in Early Christian Narratives (LNTS 521; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015). Pp. xi + 211. $112. Although studies of the family in Greco-Roman antiquity and early Christianity have appeared within the past three decades, there has been less specific attention to children. This situation has been changing in recent years, however, such that there is now the term "childist interpretation," which stresses the agency of children rather than viewing them as simply passive or as the victims of others. Such an approach, comparable to those of feminist or womanist biblical criticism, also challenges assumptions regarding what is important about characters within stories. It is precisely this sort of interpretive technique that Sharon Betsworth employs as she examines children in a variety of early Christian narratives. Before turning to the specific texts, B. provides a chapter on the child in the ancient Mediterranean context. She begins by discussing reasons why one is often left with the impression that children were viewed as of little value in antiquity when in fact, as she argues, they were important, loved by their parents, and grieved for when they did not survive. Some of the male elite authors tend to elevate the power of the paterfamilias, who, although he did have legal authority (patria potestas) over other family members, could not simply kill his wife or children unless there was a specific crime, such as adultery. It is true that infanticide and child exposure were realities in Greek and Roman antiquity, but usually such practices were committed in order to eliminate a child born with deformities or to limit the size of the family, especially in the case of poverty-stricken families. Moreover, exposure did not automatically mean death, for often the child was left somewhere such as a busy intersection or temple, where he or she was more likely to be found and raised by someone else. Wet-nursing was common for elites because it was understood that breast-feeding [End Page 134] could hinder a woman's ability to further reproduce. Although these practices do not sit well with modern Western sensibilities, they do not mean that people in Greco-Roman antiquity did not feel affection for children. B. cites many ancient sources attesting to the tenderness and love that parents felt for their offspring, especially funerary monuments for children who died very young. B. does not suggest that life was easy for children, but she does demonstrate that children were valued, participating as they did in religious rituals, family activities, and community life. The next four chapters deal with the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, respectively. In the treatment of each Gospel, B. addresses the broader themes and literary structure of the narrative and then focuses on particular stories that involve children. Throughout these stories the children are silent and are sometimes the recipients of Jesus' healing ministry or are the objects of Jesus' teaching. Yet B. argues that children still play significant roles in each of the Gospels and function as characters who serve to emphasize a variety of themes. For example, in Matthew children become emblematic of what it means to become a disciple, discipleship being an important theme of that Gospel. Although children may be marginal to John's Gospel, the accounts of the boy whom Jesus heals from a distance (John 4:46-54) and of the youth with the barley loaves and fish (John 6:1-15) both underscore the Johannine emphasis on Jesus as a giver of abundant life. In chaps. 5 and 6, B. engages two infancy Gospels: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas as well as the Protevangelium of James, providing a cursory overview of the manuscript evidence, genre, and possible origins of each of these documents and surveying the portrayal of Jesus in the former and Mary in the latter. She argues that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas seeks to bolster the young Jesus' masculinity (and she concurs with some scholars who think that the canonical Gospels present a "masculine" Jesus as well) by limiting his encounters with females. Such a portrayal may be for...