While researching for a new tarot card, I came across some interesting stories about the childhood of Jesus. The source of these stories is called The Infancy Gospel of Thomas. I don’t know a lot about the background of this book, but it seems to have been one of the apocryphal books of the Bible which was not included in the official canon for whatever reason, yet still retained a certain measure of popularity. Actually, it’s fairly easy to see in this case why it was not included in the canon. In it, the boy Jesus runs around as sort of a hellraiser, working both miracles and curses equally. I imagine it retained it’s popularity because it helped answer the question of what would the son of God do when he was but an impetuous boy? If you’re used to regular depictions of Jesus, the answers may surprise you.

As far as I’ve always understood it, the main story about Jesus’s youth which was included in the canon was the story in Luke 2:41-52 where Jesus as a 12 year old goes with his parents to Jerusalem for Passover. His parents lose track of him though, only to discover him three days later sitting in the Temple, asking questions of the elders, and speaking great wisdom. This is the more common portrayal of the youthful Jesus.

But the Infancy Gospel of Thomas is really different. Actually, it ends with an almost verbatim re-telling of the finding of the boy Jesus in the Temple. But that’s pretty much the only similarity. The first story it tells is of Jesus when he’s five years old. He’s playing on the Sabbath (a no-no!) and he fashions out of clay twelve sparrows (possibly an allusion to the 12 Apostles?). Line 3:4 states:

[…] Jesus clapped his hands together and cried out to the sparrows and said to them: Go! and the sparrows took their flight and went away chirping

I’ve heard it said somewhere that there were certain criteria that the ecumenical councils used to determine whether or not stories of Jesus’s miracles would be included in the canon. If anybody knows about these (Jeremy, I’m looking in your direction…), I’d love to read up on it. But the thing I heard was that the miracle that Jesus performed at the Wedding at Canaa where he turned the water into wine was almost not included in the canon because it was merely a “miracle of convenience.” That is, it was essentially an act of magic for no other purpose than to get people loaded. Though I don’t know for sure, I’d guess the reason they included it though was that it was both a basis and an echo for the doctrine of Transubstantiation: through the power of god, ordinary profane substance could be transmuted into the “Blood of Christ”, the sacramental wine. Incidentally, I’ve also heard people put forth the possibility that the Wedding at Canaa was actually Christ’s wedding to Mary Magdalene. The evidence for this is usually that Jesus’s mother Mary is depicted as directing the servants - meaning she was somehow in charge of this wedding.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that this story about the boy Jesus and the Clay Sparrows is an example of a miracle which would probably qualify as dubious in the eyes of the Church Fathers. Especially since later on in the canon, when Christ is tempted in the desert, Satan invites him to turn the stones into bread, and Christ refuses.

So getting back to the Infancy Gospel, after that a son of a scribe gets jealous and tries to screw up the clear pools of water from which Jesus had fashioned the sparrows. Jesus then creepily responds:

O evil, ungodly, and foolish one, what hurt did the pools and the waters do thee? behold, now also thou shalt be withered like a tree, and shalt not bear leaves, neither root, nor fruit. And straightway that lad withered up wholly […]

I guess in this case “withered” means that he became suddenly old - which is crazy! Later another kid bumps into Jesus on the street. Jesus gets pissed off, curses him, and the kid dies! The people in the village begin to notice that Jesus has fucked up unnatural powers, and he’s not afraid to use them, and they go to Joseph and tell him to reign in his son or leave the village. Joseph then admonishes Jesus, but Jesus ignores it. Then he strikes all his accusers blind! The whole thing is rather reminiscent of that Twilight Zone episode where there’s a boy who can imagine anyone and anything into and out of existence, and can read the minds and ill-will of the townspeople. He becomes a little dictator, and everyone has to keep saying, “Look how good what he has done is,” even when the “good” things he’s done are like turning his dad into a jack-in-the-box and sending people out to vanish in the cornfield. Does anybody remember how that episode ends?

Later on, this Gospel also talks about how Jesus and some other children were playing in a high place. One child named Zeno falls and dies. The parents come to accuse Jesus:

Then Jesus leaped down from the roof and stood by the body of the child and cried with a loud voice and said: Zeno (for so was his name called), arise and tell me, did I cast thee down? And straightway he arose and said: Nay, Lord, thou didst not cast me down, but didst raise me up.

He also heals a man who is chopping wood and cleaves his foot. Plus his bucket breaks at the well, so he magically uses his cloak as a bucket to bring his mother water. I like the description of her response:

And when his mother saw what was done she kissed him; and she kept within herself the mysteries which she saw him do.

It’s like she knows that she has spawned a little monster, but she knows she just needs to love him and treat him right and everything will be fine. He also saves his brother James (well, half-brother, since he’s Joseph’s son) who gets poisoned by a viper. And he raises a sick child from the dead, as well as another man. This of course is also radically different from the traditional canon, where Lazarus is main dude who he raises from the dead. Well, besides himself that is. Are there other ones? I forget.

Anyway, pretty interesting stuff. It’s from a great website called Early Christian Writings. They have lots of excellent stuff, so go ahead and check them out.