Late antiquity was a perilous time for children, who were often the first victims of economic crisis, war, and disease. They had a one in three chance of dying before their first birthday, with as many as half dying before age ten. Christian writers accordingly sought to speak to the experience of bereavement and to provide cultural scripts for parents who had lost a child. These late ancient writers turned to characters like Eve and Sarah, Job and Jephthah as models for grieving and for confronting or submitting to the divine.

Jephthah's Daughter, Sarah’s Son traces the stories these writers crafted and the ways in which they shaped the lived experience of familial bereavement in ancient Christianity. A compelling social history that conveys the emotional lives of people in the late ancient world, Jephthah's Daughter, Sarah's Son is a powerful portrait of mourning that extends beyond antiquity to the present day.

About the Author

Maria E. Doerfler is Assistant Professor of Late Antiquity in Yale University’s Department of Religious Studies.

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Acknowledgments

(Premature) Death as a Good: An Introduction

1. Children’s Deaths in Late Antiquity in Ritual and
Historical Perspective

2. East of Eden: The First Bereaved Parents

3. Mourning Sarah’s Son: Genesis 22 and the Death
of Children

4. Echoes of the Akedah: Jephthah’s Daughter and the
Maccabeans’ Mother
5. Death, Demons, and Disaster: Job’s Children

6. Children and the Sword: The Holy Innocents and the
Death of Children

Conclusion: Children in the Quicksand

Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"Theologically astute yet ably interacting with gender theory and social history, this book will interest scholars of early Christianity and biblical interpretation."
— CHOICE

"This book is not only beautiful to hold and a pleasure to read, but also it has rare intellectual clarity and high scholarly relevance."
— Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"A powerful study. . . . This is a book that belongs on the bookshelf of all who study . . . late antiquity."
— Church History and Religious Culture

"Doerfler’s outstanding merit is the use of a large and well-mastered corpus of sources. . . . This very well-written volume on the reception of selected biblical figures concerning the death of children will be worthwhile to students and experts in the fields of theology, religious sciences, classical literature, ancient history, Near Eastern studies, psychology, and social studies."
— Reading Religion

"Rich and engaging. . . . Jephthah’s Daughter, Sarah’s Son offers profound material with which to think about liturgy and liturgical action."
— Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies

"The book comfortably situates itself among best scholarship on late-antique Syriac Christianity."
— the American Academy of Religion

“Doerfler paints vibrant portraits of how late antique Christian communities responded to children’s deaths and parental grief, reading their lives and experiences through the accounts of biblical heroes and heroines faced with tragedy. Both vivid and clear, this book will appeal to many readers.” —Caroline T. Schroeder, author of Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe

"Children’s death is a timeless grief, crossing history and cultures. In this beautifully written and sensitive book, Doerfler explores biblical stories in conversation with modern perspectives on children and violence. An important addition to patristic research, her study will also speak to readers in theology, human rights, and social justice." —Susan R. Holman, John R. Eckrich Chair and Professor of Religion and the Healing Arts, Valparaiso University

Awards

Best First Book in the History of Religions 2021 2021, American Academy of Religion

About the Book