Boys Will Be Boys: The Physiology of Childhood and the Apocryphal Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages

Abstract

Intellectuals’ thinking about the nature of children in the high and late Middle Ages may have influenced the reception of centuries-old apocryphal infancy legends that portray Jesus acting like a real human child. As human beings undergoing physical and psychological development, children were thought to be emotionally unstable and rambunctious. While apocryphal portrayals of the boy Jesus may be compared to new naturalistic images of a smiling and playful Christ Child, they are also linked with the traditional iconography of Jesus as a stern little God. The divine child of the apocrypha who, besides engaging in play, displays his wisdom and power on numerous occasions and often causes the deaths of those around him clearly differs from the sentimental Child of late medieval devotional culture, who inspires affection and pathos.