Scientists for the discovery of the ancient papyrus! “Jesus performed a miracle when he was five years old”

Scientists recently deciphered and published a fragment of a papyrus containing part of the apocryphal “Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” an ancient text that tells stories from Jesus’ childhood.
The fragment is written in Greek, dates from the 4th or 5th century, and is the earliest known copy of that Gospel.

Although there are other copies of the Gospels, they are from later periods. That gospel was never included in the canonical Bible.

Study authors Lajos Berkes of Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany) and Gabriel Nocchi Macedo of the University of Liège (Belgium) noted that this is the earliest surviving manuscript of the text in any language.

Scholars generally believe that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was originally composed in the 2nd century, based on similarities with other Christian writings of the period. The papyrus fragment describes a miracle performed by the young Jesus.

Clay sparrows
The text says that at the age of 5, Jesus molded 12 sparrows out of clay while playing by the stream. When his father Joseph scolded him for doing such a thing on the Sabbath, Jesus clapped his hands and brought the clay sparrows to life.

This story is known from later copies of the Gospels, which also describe other childhood miracles, such as the resurrection of a child named Zeno and the healing of Joseph from a snake bite. But the origin of the fragment is not certain.

“We know almost nothing about the origin of the papyrus, its history and ownership,” explains Nocchi Macedo.
The papyrus is known to have come from Egypt and may have been part of the Hamburg collection from 1906 to 1939 or from Berlin in 1990. Scientists are convinced that it was in Germany before World War II.

One of the reasons for the fragment’s late investigation is its sloppy handwriting, which originally looked more like a private letter or shopping list than a gospel. Researchers speculate that it could be a written exercise from a school or monastery.

“This is exciting”
Experts agree that the fragment is an ancient manuscript, not a modern forgery.

“It is exciting that there is a new, early manuscript of this text,” said Simon Gathercole of the University of Cambridge, stressing that although the manuscript is old, it does not provide historical evidence for Jesus’ childhood.
Tony Burke of York University (Toronto, Canada) noted that the discovery, while valuable, does not change the existing consensus that the text was composed in the 2nd century.

Christopher Frilingos of Michigan State University (USA) called the discovery “very significant” because of the fragment’s age and language. He noted that other early Christian writers also referred to stories about the childhood of Jesus, and this manuscript is the earliest known evidence of such texts. Frilingos also suggested that further investigation into the origins of the text may yield more insight.

This remarkable discovery underscores the continuing interest and scholarly efforts to uncover and understand ancient texts, providing deeper insight into early Christian literature and the stories that shaped religious traditions.