By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A recently deciphered manuscript, stored for decades in a university library in Hamburg, Germany, has been identified as the oldest known record of Jesus Christ’s childhood. The document, written on papyrus, dates back 1,600 years and provides an account of a miraculous event from Jesus’s early years that is not found in the canonical Bible.
The discovery was made by Dr. Lajos Berkes from the Institute for Christianity and Antiquity at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Professor Gabriel Nocchi Macedo from the University of Liège in Belgium. The manuscript has been identified as an early copy of the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” a text detailing stories from Jesus’s childhood.
The manuscript includes an anecdote where a young Jesus molds sparrows from clay, and when scolded by his father Joseph for working on the Sabbath, he brings the clay birds to life and they fly away. This story, not found in the Bible, would have been known and shared during the Middle Ages.
Dr. Berkes explained the significance of the find, noting that the papyrus was initially overlooked because of its clumsy handwriting, leading past researchers to dismiss it as an everyday document such as a letter or shopping list. “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,” Berkes stated.
The papyrus, written in Greek, contains 13 lines and originates from late antique Egypt. New technology enabled Berkes and Macedo to translate the document and compare it with other early Christian texts, leading to the groundbreaking identification.
The researchers speculate that the story might have been part of a writing exercise in a school or monastery, due to the awkward handwriting and inconsistent lines. The document had been neglected for so long because it was considered insignificant until modern technology revealed its true value.
The findings of Berkes and Macedo will be published in the Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy. The scholars plan to produce a critical edition and commentary on the manuscript, and re-address the style and language of the Gospel of Thomas text. Further details about the discovery will be shared in upcoming publications.
This discovery sheds new light on early Christian literature and provides a fascinating glimpse into stories that shaped the beliefs and traditions of the time.