The question 'What is a child?' is not easily answered. To make us aware of the multiplefactors that contribute to the social construction of childhood in the Hebrew Bible,Naomi Steinberg draws on ethno-historical evidence and incorporates the insightsof contemporary social studies of childhood. Through close readings of Genesis 21,1 Samuel 1 and Exodus 21.22-25, she argues that chronological age and biologicalimmaturity do not determine the boundaries of childhood in biblical Israel.The social constructions of childhood in the Hebrew Bible were based on what the childcould do for the parent, not vice versa. Children were their parents' property and wereused to fulfil their parents' desires and needs. Not all children had the same experiencesof childhood, of course. For example, whether a child was born into a monogamousor polygamous family shaped the course of its future. Other relevant factors in theconstruction of the multiplicities of childhoods included gender, birth order, and thesocio-political historical contexts of ancient Israel. Steinberg convincingly corrects thenotion that childhood is a static category in the human life cycle, showing that meaningsof childhood are not generic and cannot be carried over from one society to another.This fascinating study, in which the author draws fruitfully on her personal cross-culturalexperience of children's lives in Guatemala, exposes the reality that childhood in theHebrew Bible was radically different from present-day childhood.