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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Reuben Helmuth

Have you tried using LN numbers? Something like: <LouwNida ~ LN 9.41-9.45> NOT INTERSECTS <Person Jesus>

Reuben Helmuth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1056190#Comment_1056190

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.

Mark Barnes

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>

Rosie Perera

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

Richard Villanueva

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

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1056243#Comment_1056243

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.

If you select the entire text in the article then you can add the included verses to a Passage List as below

Matt Hudson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1056257#Comment_1056257

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.

Reuben Helmuth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1056262#Comment_1056262

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".

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1056262#Comment_1056262

I guess if I want to get this as full as possible, I'll need to do some manual work.

I find it's often worth it to do such manual work, because I am increasing my familiarity with Scripture when I do so. It's almost never wasted time.

Richard Villanueva

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1056257#Comment_1056257

If you select the entire text in the article then you can add the included verses to a Passage List as below

thanks!!