The childhood of Jesus : decoding the apocryphal Infancy gospel of Thomas

290 Pages·2010·1.6 MB·English

THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS provides an in-depth analysis of the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of A
Th omas, an ancient tale about Jesus’s boyhood years that narrates his play with other children, a
s
miraculous deeds, fi rst visits to school, and confl icts with his teachers, ending with a retelling g
a
of the New Testament story of Jesus as a twelve-year old in the temple. Originating in a
second-century, Greek-inspired Christianity, it was quickly translated into other languages, r
d
including Latin and Syriac, and enjoyed widespread popularity in the Middle Ages, when it
was included as part of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew.
Aarsgaard presents the history of research history and analyses its story, transmission, narrative
world and values, theology, views of gender and childhood, social setting, and audience – much
of what has not been previously treated. He sees the Infancy Gospel of Th omas as refl ecting
oral storytelling, situates the story within rural Christianity among the common people, and
argues that it can even be considered the fi rst Christian children’s story.
Th e volume includes the Greek text of the gospel with an English translation as well as
extensive appendices, among them surveys of its historical evidence, variants in the stories,
and other ancient infancy gospels.
“Although the Infancy Gospel of Th omas has long been enjoyed by readers interested T
in the Gospels that did not make it into the New Testament, there has been a dearth HE
of scholarship on most of the pressing textual, historical, and theological issues it
Th
raises. Reidar Aasgaard ahs done the scholarly world a real service by presenting
a full, interesting, and informed discussion of all these major questions. Scholars e C

C HILDHOOD
will now turn to this study before any other when they want to explore the Infancy
h
Gospel and its traditions.” – Bart. D. Ehrman
i
l
James A Gray Professor of Religious Studies d
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill h J
o
OF ESUS
o
“Informed by current research on orality and narrative structure, Aasgaard not
d
only furthers our understanding of the content of the document itself including its
o
theology and ethics, but also breaks new ground in reconstructing its social setting f

and audience…. Drawing upon his extensive expertise, Aasgaard also argues that the Je
document was intended for early Christian children and contributes substantially to su
the emergence of the investigation of children and childhood as a key interdisciplinary s Decoding the
subfi eld within early Christian studies.” – Margaret Y. MacDonald
Professor of Religious Studies Apocryphal Infancy
St Francis Xavier University
Gospel of Th omas
Reidar Aasgaard is Associate Professor of Intellectual History at the University of
Oslo, Norway. Among his publications is My Beloved Brothers and Sisters! Christian
Siblingship in Paul.
James Clarke & Co
P.O. Box 60
Cambridge
CB1 2NT
www.jamesclarke.co Reidar Aasgaard
C C
[email protected]
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Th e Childhood of Jesus
Decoding the Apocryphal
Infancy Gospel of Th omas
REIDAR AASGAARD
C

James Clarke & Co
James Clarke & Co
P.O. Box 60
Cambridge
CB1 2NT
United Kingdom
www.jamesclarke.co
[email protected]
ISBN: 978 0 227 17354 1
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A record is available from the British Library
Copyright © Reidar Aasgaard, 2009
First published by James Clarke & Co, 2010
Published by arrangement with Cascade Books,
a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible,
copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and used by permission.
BWHEBB, BWHEBL, BWTRANSH [Hebrew]; BWGRKL, BWGRKN and
BWGRKI [Greek] Postscript® Type 1 and TrueTypeT fonts
Copyright © 1994–2009 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. These
Biblical Greek and Hebrew fonts are used with permission and are from
BibleWorks, software for Biblical exegesis and research.
All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced, stored
electronically or in any retrieval system, or transmitt ed in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without prior writt en permission from the Publisher
([email protected]).
Respectfully dedicated to
Espen A.
Pippi L.
Lisa and Bart S.

Contents
Preface / ix
Abbreviations / x
1. The History of Research / 1
2. Oral/Written Tradition / 14
3. Narrative and Literary Features / 35
4. Daily Life and Social Relations / 53
5. Cultural Concepts and Values / 73
6. Jesus as a Child / 86
7. Jesus from Boy to Man / 103
8. Intertextuality—Reflections of the Bible / 113
9. Strange Sayings / 137
10. Main Theological Issues / 149
11. A Popular Tale from Early Rural Christianity / 166
12. Christianity’s First Children’s Story / 192
13. Conclusions / 214
Appendixes
1. Greek Text / 219
2. English Translation / 233
3. The Structure of Ga/Gb/Gd / 243
4. Designations of Individual Episodes / 245
5. Survey of Greek Variants and the Versions / 248
6. Survey of IGT Evidence by Century / 252
7. Survey of Early Christian Infancy Stories / 254
Bibliography / 259
Index of Biblical Writings / 277
Index of Infancy Gospel of Thomas / 280
Index of Ancient Authors and Writings / 282

Preface
This book is a central outcome of a three-year period of research on
children in antiquity and early Christianity (2003–2006). The project
was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and located at the
Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo.
Chapters and parts of the book have been presented on several
occasions, at the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature/
American Academy of Religion (2005–2007), the Oxford Patristics
Conference (2007), and the AELAC meeting (Association pour l’étude
de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne, 2008). I have also had the op-
portunity to discuss the material with individuals and groups of col-
leagues at the Faculty of Theology, in the Oslo-based cross-institutional
Patristic study group, and with colleagues abroad. An anonymous peer
reader gave me very skilled and valuable advice in a final stage of the
work.
I am grateful for the many invitations and opportunities to pres-
ent my work on IGT and for the numerous insightful comments and
constructive suggestions from friendly co-scholars. I appreciate highly
the enthusiastic support that many have given of my ideas about this
gospel—and also the sober objections of some. These contributions—no
names mentioned and none forgotten—have very much served to improve
the book. Thus, what weaknesses remain are entirely my responsibility.
Easter, Anno Domini 2009
Reidar Aasgaard
 ix 