Scholars have deciphered an ancient papyrus fragment that may contain the earliest known account of Jesus’ childhood.
The fragments are Hamburg Karl von Ossietzky State and University Library For decades, The Infancy Gospel of ThomasAn ancient apocryphal book that claims to tell the story of Jesus’ childhood from the ages of 5 to 12.
“We deciphered it letter by letter and quickly realized that it was no everyday document.”
Scholars believe the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was written in the second century, but the newly discovered Greek fragment is thought to date to the fourth or fifth century.
The discovery was made by Dr Lajos Berkes of the Institute of Christianity and Antiquity at Humboldt University Berlin and Professor Gabriel Nocchi Macedo of the University of Liège.
“This piece is very interesting for research,” Burks said. Said“On the one hand, we were able to date the manuscript to the 4th-5th century, making it the oldest known manuscript. On the other hand, we gained new insights into the tradition of this manuscript.”
The oldest known manuscript of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas dates to the 11th century.
“Our discovery of a Late Ancient Greek manuscript of this work supports the current assessment that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was originally written in Greek,” Macedo said.
Image credit: Hamburg State University Library/Public Domain Mark 1.0
Burks said the manuscript fragment went unnoticed because researchers initially thought it was a “routine document.”
“The handwriting is so poorly done that it was thought to be part of an everyday document, like a personal letter or a shopping list,” Burks explains. “We first noticed the word ‘Jesus’ in the text. We then deciphered it letter by letter, comparing it with many other digitized papyri, and quickly realized that this could not have been an everyday document.”
Further information from Humboldt University of Berlin press release:
The two researchers speculate that the Gospels were created as a writing exercise in a school or monastery, judging by the awkward handwriting with its irregular lines.
A few words written on the fragment reveal that the passage describes the beginning of the “animation of the sparrows,” an episode from Jesus’ childhood that is described as the “second miracle” in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas. Jesus plays in the shallow waters of a rapids and fashions 12 sparrows out of soft clay he finds in the mud. When his father Joseph scolds him, asking why he is doing this on the holy Sabbath, the five-year-old Jesus claps his hands and brings the clay figures to life.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas was a popular text in the early and medieval Christian church. However, early church leaders considered the work to be fictitious and heretical.
This text differs from the better known Gospel of Thomas.
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