What's This Newly Discovered Manuscript about Jesus' Childhood?
7/4/24
This is actually a question I (Pastor Spotts) thought to bring up. It was interesting to me to see news reports in the second week of June about a newly deciphered manuscript. People are often curious about the childhood of Jesus. The canonical Gospels make mention of only a few events during his childhood. Specifically, we can read about his birth, a visit of Magi, a move under cover of darkness to Egypt, then a subsequent move back, ending up in Nazareth. We also have a description of part of a visit to the Jerusalem temple when he was a teen. There's very little personal detail. So people normally perk their ears up when someone is willing to tell something about Jesus as a young person.
Our legacy news media are always happy to produce something that will gain attention. Universities and research centers are likewise glad for notoriety. That's what this story is. I'd like to clear it up a little bit for you.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas has been known of from antiquity. It was never really "banned" or "disappeared," but floated around from place to place. The work itself probably comes from the mid to late 2nd century, so around 100-150 years after the resurrection of Jesus. The work is classified among Gnostic writings. The Gnostics, who were particularly active in the late second century, taught that there was some sort of secret knowledge which would enlighten people and make them able to be partakers of true Christianity, as opposed to those who would adhere to the writings we now recognize as canonical, such as the four Gospels, the letters of Paul, and the like. One of the works presented some of Jesus' childhood. An English translation of this work, published by Oxford's Clarendon Press in 1924, comes to about 3000 words, roughly five or six typewritten pages. At the time of publication, the editor notes that there are a few fragmentary manuscripts which seem to be from about the seventh century, in Syriac, but that the Greek manuscripts, numbering only a few, are from a later period, perhaps the 13th century. There are more Latin manuscripts than Greek, but they are likewise fairly late. The work was known, but apparently didn't circulate very widely.
The content of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas describes several vignettes, placed at different times in the childhood of Jesus. It provides none of the elements of verisimilitude we might desire, such as a setting in a particular location or any indication about substantial interactions among various people. Jesus is portrayed as being at times selfish and vengeful, using divine power to destroy people with whom he has minor disagreements. He is also, at times, quite willing to use his divine powers to heal people who are injured or to create large amounts of food from a small amount of grain. The portrayal of Jesus in this work seems very much like a cardboard cutout rather than a real person.
So, we have a work that's been known since ancient times and has faced roughly the same criticisms for the past 1800 years. Was this a new discovery? Not really. The piece of papyrus with a few words from the work had been among unclassified pieces of papyrus in a museum for some time. Scholars recently made out enough of the writing on it that they could say what work it was from. So the information isn't new. The manuscript is clumsily written, as if someone was using it for handwriting practice. There are only about a dozen lines, none of them a complete line. However, there are several complete words, which was enough to identify that source as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The text was already known. However, this is probably the oldest piece of a Greek manuscript of that work known to date. The piece of papyrus probably dates to the fourth or fifth century.
What do we take from this? First, the Gnostic writings are not nearly as real to life as the Canonical Scriptures. Second, when someone makes a big news splash about something being newly discovered, it's fair to ask what element of it was newly discovered. Third, it's pretty neat to be able to look at something that's around 1500 years old.
And, since we're in the digital age, here's a picture of the papyrus fragment. It's a public domain shot, published by the Staats - und Universitatsbibliothek of Hamburg. The scholars think the fragment probably was located in Egypt.
7/4/24
This is actually a question I (Pastor Spotts) thought to bring up. It was interesting to me to see news reports in the second week of June about a newly deciphered manuscript. People are often curious about the childhood of Jesus. The canonical Gospels make mention of only a few events during his childhood. Specifically, we can read about his birth, a visit of Magi, a move under cover of darkness to Egypt, then a subsequent move back, ending up in Nazareth. We also have a description of part of a visit to the Jerusalem temple when he was a teen. There's very little personal detail. So people normally perk their ears up when someone is willing to tell something about Jesus as a young person.
Our legacy news media are always happy to produce something that will gain attention. Universities and research centers are likewise glad for notoriety. That's what this story is. I'd like to clear it up a little bit for you.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas has been known of from antiquity. It was never really "banned" or "disappeared," but floated around from place to place. The work itself probably comes from the mid to late 2nd century, so around 100-150 years after the resurrection of Jesus. The work is classified among Gnostic writings. The Gnostics, who were particularly active in the late second century, taught that there was some sort of secret knowledge which would enlighten people and make them able to be partakers of true Christianity, as opposed to those who would adhere to the writings we now recognize as canonical, such as the four Gospels, the letters of Paul, and the like. One of the works presented some of Jesus' childhood. An English translation of this work, published by Oxford's Clarendon Press in 1924, comes to about 3000 words, roughly five or six typewritten pages. At the time of publication, the editor notes that there are a few fragmentary manuscripts which seem to be from about the seventh century, in Syriac, but that the Greek manuscripts, numbering only a few, are from a later period, perhaps the 13th century. There are more Latin manuscripts than Greek, but they are likewise fairly late. The work was known, but apparently didn't circulate very widely.
The content of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas describes several vignettes, placed at different times in the childhood of Jesus. It provides none of the elements of verisimilitude we might desire, such as a setting in a particular location or any indication about substantial interactions among various people. Jesus is portrayed as being at times selfish and vengeful, using divine power to destroy people with whom he has minor disagreements. He is also, at times, quite willing to use his divine powers to heal people who are injured or to create large amounts of food from a small amount of grain. The portrayal of Jesus in this work seems very much like a cardboard cutout rather than a real person.
So, we have a work that's been known since ancient times and has faced roughly the same criticisms for the past 1800 years. Was this a new discovery? Not really. The piece of papyrus with a few words from the work had been among unclassified pieces of papyrus in a museum for some time. Scholars recently made out enough of the writing on it that they could say what work it was from. So the information isn't new. The manuscript is clumsily written, as if someone was using it for handwriting practice. There are only about a dozen lines, none of them a complete line. However, there are several complete words, which was enough to identify that source as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The text was already known. However, this is probably the oldest piece of a Greek manuscript of that work known to date. The piece of papyrus probably dates to the fourth or fifth century.
What do we take from this? First, the Gnostic writings are not nearly as real to life as the Canonical Scriptures. Second, when someone makes a big news splash about something being newly discovered, it's fair to ask what element of it was newly discovered. Third, it's pretty neat to be able to look at something that's around 1500 years old.
And, since we're in the digital age, here's a picture of the papyrus fragment. It's a public domain shot, published by the Staats - und Universitatsbibliothek of Hamburg. The scholars think the fragment probably was located in Egypt.
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