Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Abstract

The so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) or Paidika is an apocryphal document that narrates episodes from Jesus’ youth from the age of five up until his twelfth year. With the exception of the Temple narrative based on Luke 2:41–52, the episodes are not found in the New Testament. While the deeds attributed to the youthful Jesus—such as healing—sometimes foreshadow those of the adult Jesus, they also include a number of curses and punishment miracles, where Jesus kills or harms those who thwart him. These punishment miracles tend to taper off as Jesus matures, but it is disputed among scholars whether this change reflects a transformation on the part of Jesus or on those around him. Also open to question is whether the IGT’s early audiences would have considered its picture of a punitive Jesus “unchristian” or whether this verdict reflects modern sensibilities. Whatever the case, the IGT proved to be highly popular with ancient audiences, and it was quickly disseminated across the empire and throughout the Christian world thereafter. Although scholars are not unanimous about its date, provenance, or original language, many would postulate that it was written in Greek sometime in the 2nd century ce in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire. Our earliest manuscripts are Syriac and Latin and date from the 5th or 6th century, but later forms of the IGT are attested in a host of other languages, including Greek, Slavonic, Ethiopian, Irish, Georgian, Latin, and Arabic. These versions show considerable variation within the narratives themselves. The earliest recensions tend to be shorter, and not all episodes are found in all versions. The version most commonly translated into modern languages is Tischendorf’s Greek A text, but it is based on late manuscripts that differ significantly from earlier versions of the IGT. It should also be kept in mind that the IGT’s associations with Thomas are tenuous at best; he is only mentioned in versions of the IGT dating from after the 8th or 9th centuries. Long-standing confusion between the IGT and the Gospel of Thomas has led some scholars to suppose that it might have gnostic features. Recent scholarship, however, has largely rejected this theory. It is now generally supposed that the work is proto-orthodox and was probably intended for the edification and entertainment of members—adults and children alike—of the emergent Christian church.