The Child Snatched Away: Reading Revelation Through a Childist Lens

A great deal of biblical interpretation over the past 30 years has focused upon imagery related to women in the book of Revelation. Very little scholarship has discussed children in Revelation, likely because there are very few in the Apocalypse. However, the limited passages in which children are present deserve to be examined with a focus upon the child. This article will discuss two passages in Revelation which refer to children, Rev. 2:18–29 and Rev. 12:1–5, with the latter receiving greater attention. I will analyze these passages using childist interpretation, building upon Kathleen Gallagher Elkins’s study of feminist and childist interpretation, which uses Rev. 12 as a case study to apply both methods to the same text. Imperial-critical reading will enhance the interpretation of these passages. As I discuss Rev. 12, I will also compare the myth of three Greek child gods, Apollo, Dionysius, and Persephone, to the child snatched away in Rev. 12:5, to understand more fully how this child fits within the overall message of Revelation.