1 Samuel 1, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, and “The Best Interests of the Child”

Is it possible that the contemporary idealization of childhood as a period of physical and emotional protected well-being, coupled with uncritical readings of biblical tradition, combine to obscure instances of violence against children in the Hebrew Bible? Briefly, my answer to this question is yes. In order to explore this perspective, the first part of this essay examines theory on the social construction of childhood and builds on this research to uncover the socio-economic factors that contributed to the construction of childhood in ancient Israel.