Jesus As An Infant

Pressing on, the critics of Jesus argued that had the record on his boyhood years been found, they would have shown Jesus as a teenager, behaving as all teenagers his age did in biblical times, engaging in petty mischief, and having physical fights with playmates, all of which would have been unseemly for a deity.

For more specious stories to fill in the gap in the scriptures about Jesus early boyhood, his critics didn't have to look too far. They found what they were looking for in the "Infancy Gospel of Thomas."

The book claims Jesus was an infant prodigy at school. He mesmerized his teachers by explaining religious mysteries and revealed the true meaning of Greek letters. He astounded his playmates by performing miracles, and when they offended him, used his miraculous powers to bring death upon them.

The Infancy Gospel also claims that Jesus made those who were angry with his adopted father Joseph, go blind. It was also said that Jesus made his teachers faint when they attempted to discipline him for doing something wrong in class.

The veracity of these stories certainly, depends on the authenticity of the early manuscripts of the "Infancy Gospel of Thomas".

For one thing, a disciple of Jesus did not write the manuscripts. For another, the authorship was first given to James, the brother of Jesus, but later given to Thomas, because the writer did not demonstrate sufficient knowledge about Jewish life, customs and tradition during the time of Jesus' infancy. He knew very little beyond Jerusalem and the Passover activities.

This piece of information is important because if the author had been James, he would have demonstrated more knowledge about Jewish life in Jesus' boyhood days than is revealed in the "Infancy Gospel".

Even more telling is that, the "Infancy Gospel" could not have been written in the 1st Century, as it depended on the Gospel of Luke for the story of Jesus sitting among the teachers of the law at the age of twelve. As a result, biblical scholars generally agree that the manuscripts were written in the middle of the 2nd Century, too far removed from the events they claim to have recorded accurately.