UNBELIEVABLE: Experts Discover Oldest Written Record of Jesus Christ’s Childhood, Revealing an Amazing Miracle Not in the Bible

Gateway Pundit ^ | Jun. 12, 2024 | Cullen Linebarger

[george76]

Experts in Germany have uncovered a deciphered manuscript that has been determined to be the oldest record of Jesus Christ’s childhood.

As CBS News reported, the 1,600-year-old document had been stored in a university library in Hamburg, Germany, for decades. It was ignored until Dr. Lajos Berkes, from Germany’s Institute for Christianity and Antiquity at Humboldt University in Berlin, and professor Gabriel Nocchi Macedo from Belgium’s University of Liège looked it over and revealed it as the earliest surviving copy of the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” a document detailing Jesus Christ’s childhood.

The two experts said in a news release the papyrus contains anecdotes not found in the Bible but one that would have been available and shared during the Middle Ages. The words on the document reveal a remarkable miracle Jesus performed as a child, where he brought clay figures of birds to life.

In the Gospel of Thomas story, a five-year-old Jesus is playing in a stream while molding 12 sparrows out of soft clay in the riverbed mud. But when his father, Joseph, sees what he is doing, he scolds Jesus and demands to know why he is molding clay on the Sabbath.

Jesus responds by telling the clay figures to take flight as living birds, and they obey his command.

...

According to Macedo, the papyrus was written in Greek. CBS notes it contains 13 lines in Greek letters and originates from late antique Egypt.

Berkes and Macedo said the papyrus was neglected for so long because past researchers considered it “insignificant.” However, new technology enabled the two men to translate the language on the document and compare it to other early Christian texts.

“It was thought to be part of an everyday document, such as a private letter or a shopping list because the handwriting seems so clumsy,” Berkes explained. “We first noticed the word Jesus in the text. Then, by comparing it with numerous other digitized papyri, we deciphered it letter by letter and quickly realized that it could not be an everyday document.”

The experts speculated that the story of Jesus’s miracle was written as part of a writing exercise in a school or monastery. This is due to the awkward handwriting and inconsistent lines, as the Daily Mail notes.

“Apart from what can be deduced from the general history of the collection, there is no evidence of how or when the papyrus was discovered,” Berkes and Macedo wrote.

Macedo said the date the papyrus was placed in the library is unknown, but it was likely after 2001.

Dr Macedo told the Daily Mail that he and Berkes would produce a critical edition and commentary on the manuscript. They will also re-address the style and language of the Gospel of Thomas text.

The results will be published in the Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy.

[SunkenCiv]

Heh, so it got posted, eh? :^)

[SunkenCiv]

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[Flying Circus]

First, the Gospel of Thomas is not considered canon by any Christian sect since the Gnostic heretics. Second, this story isn’t new. It is one of the first anecdotes from the Gospel of Thomas I ever heard about.

[TECTopcat]

umm... so the document was written 400 years after Jesus birth?

[SoConPubbie]

I see your problem, you had to stick another word in front of Bible to modify it.

[Cronos]

Its actually a part of a 4th century Gnostic book that has been rejected since the 4th century by orthodoxy ie by Catholic and Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox church

[Cronos]

What rot. No it isn’t.

Where do you get your false biblical statements from? Your pastor?

[daniel1212]

Irreverent.

[daniel1212]

I find it interesting that in this story, Joseph chides him for breaking the Sabbath, and not for creating the birds. I just looked it up. Jesus’ response was to ignore his dad and release the birds. When the priest heard and chided Jesus, Jesus said some words and the priest’s son “withered away”. Then he caused an entire crowd of people to go blind. I didn’t read far enough to come to the point where the child has some sort of epiphany and becomes the person we know of in the Bible. Another thing that is interesting is that His first REAL miracle was fairly mundane (as miracles go); turning water into wine. And He didn’t make a big show about it.

Yes, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him." (John 2:11) But it may be possible to understand this as meaning the beginning of miracles as a ministry of such.

And did it perhaps reluctantly, only after his mom requested that he do it. Moms are good about stuff like that - knowing when their child is ready and giving them a little push!

Rather than knowing when their child is ready and giving them a little push, she was responding to an important need, and looking to her savior for a solution, already knowing He was the One to help.

And a study the use of the phrase "what have I to do with thee" (2 Samuel 16:9; 1 Kings 17:18; 2 Kings 3:13; 2 Chronicles 35:21) shows that it is a challenge to the presumed justifiable nature of the request, and not as if the object of such is under any obligation to provide what is requested. But which premise Catholic devotees of their Mary find offensive.

Meanwhile, the Lord is again reminding Mary that His highest obligation is to obey His Heavenly Father, but who sanctioned this compassionate request for human need.

[metmom]

I have often wondered about the water into wine account.

I was thinking that it was possible they were at a relatives wedding, and when they ran out of wine if Mary had not done one of two things.

One is just go up to Him and say it, as anyone would in that situation, just talking about it. n If mr. mm and I were at a wedding and they ran out of wine, I have no doubt that one of us would say to the other, *Oh no. They ran out of wine,* just for informing them.

The other thing is, if it were a relatives wedding, maybe she went to Him expecting Him to solve it in the usual way. Have someone go and buy more wine.

I SERIOUSLY doubt she anticipated the way He dealt with it.

[metmom]

This is nothing new. Many of these are Gnostic writings that are very anti-Christian. One of these fake infancy narratives had Our Lord as a youngster being beaten in a footrace, cursing the winner “May you never walk again”, and breathing life in a toy bird he was making in arts and crafts. Some of these types of writings MAY have historical values and MAY have truths (NOT inspired writing) in them (”The Assumption of Moses”). Any of these faux infancy narratives are worse than worthless.

It makes it sound like Jesus was a little brat with Jedi powers.

No way Jesus cursed someone for beating Him, and He allegedly caused a whole crowd of people to go blind?

In Scripture, He tells the disciples that He always does the Father's will, and we know He never sinned.

Those actions attributed to Him as a child in that faux so-called *gospel* are completely inconsistent with the character and nature of God.

[metmom]

The miracle is not in the Bible because the Gospel of Thomas, although long known, is regarded as not canonical. I heard the story of Jesus as a boy making birds of clay come to life about sixty years ago in Catholic elementary school, with the admonition that it may not have been true.

Then it should never have been taught as possibly true.

When Catholicism treats something like that as feasible, Catholics should stop wondering why their religion has no credibility as far as Scripture goes.

[Elsie]

So?

What’s ‘new’ about this ‘find’?

[Elsie]

Next thing ya know they’ll find some gold plates under a hill in New York.

[Rockingham]

The story of Jesus bringing clay birds to life was related only as a story, nothing more. We would no doubt hear of it again, of course, and we had to know that it was not in the Bible.

Could the story be true? Who knows? It makes us think though of Jesus as a human boy, poised for small mischief like even good boys are by their nature.

The story is also about St. Joseph, chiding Jesus to remember and obey the Sabbath, but he does so without being wrathful and punitive. Surely there are fathers who would do better to take more of that approach to the inevitable misdeeds of their children.

[Elsie]

...Jesus said some words and the priest’s son “withered away”. Then he caused an entire crowd of people to go blind.

'Jesus' did something similar in the Book of Mormon:

Many people are destroyed...

---

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/8?lang=eng

[Elsie]

With a qualifier:

...did in Cana of Galilee...

[Elsie]

SOB!

[metmom]

Jesus never sinned.

He could not have, or rather would not have, done *misdeeds* or mischievous things.

[aimhigh]

With a qualifier: ...did in Cana of Galilee...

More likely, a description of where it took place.