By Kyle Wallace, Staff Writer
An OCU professor has just published her second book after several years of research and help from students.
Children in Early Christian Narratives by Dr. Sharon Betsworth, associate professor of New Testament, will be released on tomorrow.
The book explores the lesser-known role of children in the four Gospels of the Bible and two non-canonical texts.
The Gospels are the first four books in the New Testament and non-canonical texts are ones not included in the Bible.
Inspiration for the book came from Dr. Betsworth’s earlier research on the lesser-known women’s stories in the Bible.
“Very few scholars have written on children in the gospels,” Betsworth said.
Because of this absence of research, Betsworth decided to create a comprehensive analysis of children in the Gospels.
Students also influenced the book. Dr. Betsworth’s Liberal Arts Seminar and Gospels and Acts courses reviewed parts of the book before it was published.
“Students in my classes were very helpful in shaping various parts of the book,” Betsworth said. “Both made significant changes in the way I was thinking about some of the material I was working on.”
Some students involved enjoyed the process and look forward to reading the book.
“I took her lost children in the gospels class, and she had a ton of knowledge about childhood in antiquity,” said Claire Baer, religious education junior. “I think it will be interesting read.”
Bloomsbury Publishing, publisher of the Harry Potter series, is publishing Dr. Betsworth’s book.
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