Search Help: Children in the Gospels
(moving from "General" Forum)
I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this, but I thought I'd give it a try. I was looking for some help designing a search.
I would like to find every reference to a child in the Gospels. I would like to EXCLUDE references to Jesus' infancy/childhood and all genealogical references. I'm looking for every reference of an actual physical child in the Gospels.
I am not a search ninja. I've tried a few different attempts but have found them either pulling in unwanted references or leaving out ones that I know should be in.
Suggestions?
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Have you tried using LN numbers? Something like: <LouwNida ~ LN 9.41-9.45> NOT INTERSECTS <Person Jesus>
Just ran that search and the first hit is a "false" hit since "child" in Matt 2:8 isn't tagged as Jesus. I think that's a tagging error.
It's tricky, because there are lots of references to 'sons' in the gospels, where ages are not specified. How do you know whether they are children or not? There are also lots of metaphors (e.g. 'sons of God'). I don't think there's going to be a way of excluding those without manual intervention.
The following search will get you more results than the LN search you've already been given. Lots of the extra results aren't helpful, but Matthew 9:18, 15:22, 18:6 and so on probably are.
(<Sense ~ offspring (human)>, <Sense simple one ⇔ infant>, <Sense child ⇔ little one>, <Sense children>, <Sense young child (endearing)>) NOT INTERSECTS <Person Jesus>
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You might be interested in this pre-pub that I just noticed and ordered today, though by the time it comes out it may be too late for the current need you have:
T&T Clark Handbook of Children in the Bible and the Biblical World
IVP Dictionaries of Jesus and the Gospels (both 1st and 2nd Ed.) have entries on Child/Children that may be helpful, including scripture references.
Pretty sure there is a way to pull the scripture references from the entries and put them in a passage list... but I am not sure how/if that is easily possible.
https://www.logos.com/product/736/dictionary-of-jesus-and-the-gospels
https://www.logos.com/product/45896/dictionary-of-jesus-and-the-gospels-2nd-ed
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These are all helpful responses. Thank you.
I guess if I want to get this as full as possible, I'll need to do some manual work.
One nuance is that there are verses where Jesus is with children, but not a child himself. Those I definitely want. The main type of result I want to leave out are things like the genealogical "son of..." statements and the discussions of Jesus Himself as a child. I'm looking for every other reference in the Gospels that mention children.
I definitely would rather err on too many (and remove) as opposed to too few (and missing passages).
So the general kind of search I'm thinking I'll have to do is something like (not exact):
<Sense child> in the range of the Gospels.
Create a verse list of them all.
Then manually remove the unwanted hits.
I truly am grateful for all of you thinking with me on this. If you have other ideas that might get me closer, do not hesitate to continue the discussion.
One nuance is that there are verses where Jesus is with children, but not a child himself. Those I definitely want.
Which is why you use "NOT INTERSECTS" rather than "ANDNOT".