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 .   .   .   .  .   .  .   .  .   .        "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas"
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  . . .  .   .   . . .  . . .  . . .           contributed by Soybean


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 Boyhood deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 1 I, Thomas the Israelite, am reporting to you, all my non-Jewish brothers
 and sisters, to make known the extraordinary childhood deeds of our Lord
 Jesus Christ -- what he did after his birth in my region.  This is how it
 all started:

 2  When this boy, Jesus, was five years old, he was playing at the ford of
 a rushing stream.  He was collecting the flowing water into ponds and made
 the water instantly pure.  He did this with a single command.  He then
 made soft clay and shaped it into twelve sparrows.  He did this on the
 Sabbath day, and many other boys were playing with him.
       But when a Jew saw what Jesus was doing while playing on the Sabbath
 day, he immediately went off and told Joseph, Jesus' father:  "See here,
 your boy is at the ford and has taken mud and fashioned twelve birds with
 it, and so has violated the Sabbath."
       So Joseph went there, and as soon as he spotted him he shouted, "Why
 are you doing what's' not permitted on the Sabbath?"
       But Jesus simply clapped his hands and shouted to the sparrows:  "Be
 off, fly away, and remember me, you who are now alive!"  And the sparrows
 took off and flew away noisily.

 3  The son of Annas the scholar, standing there with Jesus, took a willow
 branch and drained the water Jesus had collected.  Jesus, however, saw
 what had happened and became angry, saying to him, "Damn you, you
 irreverent fool!  What harm did the ponds of water do to you?  From this
 moment you, too, will dry up like a tree, and you'll never produce leaves
 or root or bear fruit."
       In an instant the boy had completely withered away.  The Jesus
 departed and left for the house of Joseph.  The parents of the boy who had
 withered away picked him up and were carrying him out, sad because he was
 so young.  And they came to Joseph and accused him:  "It's your fault --
 your boy did all this."

 4  Later he was going through the village again when a boy ran by and
 bumped him on the shoulder.  Jesus got angry and said to him, "You won't
 continue your journey."  And all of a sudden he fell down and died.
       Some people saw what had happened and said, "Where has this boy come
 from?  Everything he says happens instantly."
       The parents of the dead boy came to Joseph and blamed him, saying,
 "Because you have such a boy, you can't live with us in the village, or
 else teach him to bless and not curse.  He's killing our children!"

 5  So Joseph summoned his child and admonished him in private, saying,
 "Why are you doing all this?  These people are suffering and so they hate
 and harass us."  Jesus said, "I know that the words I spoke are not my
 words.  Still, I'll keep quiet for your sake.  But those people must take
 their punishment."  There and then his accusers became blind.
       Those who saw this became very fearful and at a loss.  All they
 could say was, "Every word he says, whether good or bad, has become a deed
 -- a miracle, even!"  When Joseph saw that Jesus had done such a thing, he
 got angry and grabbed his ear and pulled very hard.  The boy became
 infuriated with him and replied, "It's one thing for you to seek and not
 find; it's quite another for you to act this unwisely.  Don't you know
 that I don't really belong to you?  Don't make me upset."

 6  A teacher by the same of Zacchaeus was listening to everything Jesus
 was saying to Joseph, and was astonished, saying to himself, "He is just a
 child, and saying this!"  And so he summoned Joseph and said to him, "You
 have a bright child, and he has a good mind.  Hand him over to me so he
 can learn his letters.  I'll teach him everything he needs to know so as
 not to be unruly."
       Joseph replied, "No one is able to rule this child except God alone.
 Don't consider him to be a small cross, brother."
       When Jesus heard Joseph saying this he laughed and said to
 Zacchaeus, "Believe me, teacher, what my father told you is true.  I am
 the Lord of these people and I'm present with you and have been born among
 you and am with you.  I know where you've come from and how many years
 you'll live.  I swear to you, teacher, I existed when you were born.  If
 you wish to be a perfect teacher, listen to me and I'll teach you a wisdom
 that no one else knows except for me and the one who sent me to you.  It's
 you who happen to be my student, and I know how old you are and how long
 you have to live.  When you see the cross that my father mentioned, then
 you'll believe that everything I've told you is true."
       The Jews who were standing by and heard Jesus marveled and said,
 "How strange and paradoxical!  This child is barely five years old and yet
 he says such things.  In fact, we've never heard anyone say the kind of
 thing this child does."
       Jesus said to them in reply, "Are you really so amazed?  Rather,
 consider what I've said to you.  The truth is that I also know when you
 were born, and your parents, and I announce this paradox to you: when the
 world was created, I existed along with the one who sent me to you."
       The Jews, once they heard that the child was speaking like this,
 became angry but were unable to say anything in reply.  But the child
 skipped forward and said to them, "I've made fun of you because I know
 that your tiny minds marvel at trifles."
       When, therefore, they thought that they were being comforted by the
 child's exhortation, the teacher said to Joseph, "Bring him to the
 classroom and I'll teach him the alphabet."
       Joseph took him by the hand and led him to the classroom.  The
 teacher wrote the alphabet for him and began the instruction by repeating
 the letter alpha many times.  But the child clammed up and did not answer
 him for a long time.  No wonder, then, that the teacher got angry and
 struck him on the head.  The child took the blow calmly and replied to
 him, "I'm teaching you rather than being taught by you: I already know the
 letters you're teaching me, and your condemnation is great.  To you these
 letters are like a bronze pitcher or a clashing cymbal, which can't
 produce glory or wisdom because it's all just noise.  Nor does anyone
 understand the extent of my wisdom."  When he got over being angry he
 recited the letters from alpha to omega very quickly.
       Then he looked at the teacher and told him, "Since you don't know
 the real nature of the letter alpha, how are you going to teach the letter
 beta?  You imposter, if you know, teach me first the letter alpha and then
 I'll trust you with the letter beta."  He began to quiz the teacher about
 the first letter, but he was unable to say anything.
       Then while many were listening, he said to Zacchaeus, "Listen,
 teacher, and observe the arrangement of the first letter: How it has two
 straight lines or strokes proceeding to a point in the middle, gathered
 together, elevated, dancing, three-cornered, two-cornered, not
 antagonistic, of the same family, providing the alpha has lines of equal
 measure."

 7  After Zacchaeus the teacher had heard the child expressing such
 intricate allegories regarding the first letter, he despaired of defending
 his teaching.  He spoke to those who were present:  "Poor me, I'm utterly
 bewildered, wretch that I am.  I've heaped shame on myself because I took
 on this child.  So take him away, I beg you, brother Joseph.  I can't
 endure the severity of his look or his lucid speech.  This child is no
 ordinary mortal; he can even tame fire!  Perhaps he was born before the
 creation of the world.  What sort of womb bore him, what sort of mother
 nourished him?-- I don't know.  Poor me, friend, I've lost my mind.  I've
 deceived myself, I who am wholly wretched.  I strove to get a student, and
 I've been found to have a teacher.  Friends, I think of the shame,
 because, although I'm an old man, I've been defeated by a mere child.  And
 so I can only despair and die on account of this child; right now I can't
 look him in the face.  When everybody says that I've been defeated by a
 small child, what can I say?  And what can I report about the lines of the
 first letter which he told me about?  I just don't know, friends.  For I
 don't know its beginning or its end.  Therefore, I ask you, brother
 Joseph, take him back to your house.  What great thing he is -- god or
 angel or whatever else I might call him -- I don't know."

 8  While the Jews were advising Zacchaeus, the child laughed loudly and
 said, "Now let the infertile bear fruit and the blind see and the deaf in
 the understanding of their heart hear: I've come from above so that I
 might save those who are below and summon them to higher things, just as
 the one who sent me to you commanded me."
       When the child stopped speaking, all those who had fallen under the
 curse were instantly saved.  And from then on no one dared to anger him
 for fear of being cursed and maimed for life.

 9  A few days later Jesus was playing on the roof of a house when one of
 the children playing with him fell off the roof and died.  When the other
 children saw what had happened, they fled, leaving Jesus standing all by
 himself.
       The parents of the dead child came and accused Jesus: "You
 troublemaker you, you're the one who threw him down."
       Jesus responded, "I didn't throw him down -- he threw himself down.
 He just wasn't being careful and leaped down from the roof and died."
       Then Jesus himself leaped down from the roof and stood by the body
 of the child and shouted in a loud voice:  "Zeno!" -- that was his name --
 "Get up and tell me: Did I push you?"
       He got up immediately and said, "No, Lord, you didn't push me, you
 raised me up."
       Those who saw this were astonished, and the child's parents praised
 God for the miracle that had happened and worshipped Jesus.

 10  A few days later a young man was splitting wood in the neighborhood
 when his axe slipped and cut off the bottom of his foot.  He was dying
 from the loss of blood.
       The crowd rushed there in an uproar, and the boy Jesus ran up, too.
 He forced his way through the crowd and grabbed hold of the young man's
 wounded foot.  It was instantly healed.
       He said to the youth, "Get up now, split your wood, and remember
 me."
       The crowd saw what had happened and worshipped the child, saying,
 "Truly the spirit of God dwells in this child."

 11  When he was six years old, his mother sent him to draw water and bring
 it back to the house.  But he lost his grip on the pitcher in the jostling
 of the crowd, and it fell and broke.  So Jesus spread out the cloak he was
 wearing and filled it with water and carried it back to his mother.
       His mother, once she saw the miracle that had occurred, kissed him;
 but she kept to herself the mysteries that she had seen him do.

 12  Again, during the sowing season, the child went out with his father to
 sow their field with grain.  While his father was sowing, the child Jesus
 sowed one measure of grain.  When he had harvested and threshed it, it
 yielded one hundred measures.  Then he summoned all the poor in the
 village to the threshing floor and gave them grain.  Joseph carried back
 what was left of the grain.  Jesus was eight years old when he did this
 miracle.

 13  Now Jesus' father was a carpenter, making ploughs and yokes at the
 time.  He received an order from a rich man to make a bed for him.  When
 one board of what is called the crossbeam turned out shorter than the
 other, and Joseph didn't know what to do, the child Jesus said to his
 father, "Put the two boards down and line them up at one end."
       Joseph did as the child told him.  Jesus stood at the other end and
 grabbed hold of the shorter board, and, by stretching it, made it the same
 length as the other.
       His father Joseph looked on and marveled, and he hugged and kissed
 the child, saying, "How fortunate I am that God has given this child to
 me.

 14  When Joseph saw the child's aptitude, and his great intelligence for
 his age, he again resolved that Jesus should not remain illiterate.  So he
 took him and handed him over to another teacher.  The teacher said to
 Joseph, "First I'll teach him Greek, then Hebrew."  This teacher, of
 course, knew of the child's previous experience (with a teacher) and was
 afraid of him.  Still, he wrote out the alphabet and instructed him for
 quite a while, though Jesus was unresponsive.
       Then Jesus spoke: "If you're really a teacher, and if you know the
 letters well, tell me the meaning of the letter alpha, and I'll tell you
 the meaning of beta."
       The teacher became exasperated and hit him on the head.  Jesus got
 angry and cursed him, and the teacher immediately lost consciousness and
 fell facedown on the ground.
       The child returned to Joseph's house.  But Joseph was upset and gave
 this instruction to his mother: "Don't let him go outside, because those
 who annoy him end up dead."

 15  After some time another teacher, a close friend of Joseph, said to
 him, "Send the child to my schoolroom.  Perhaps with some flattery I can
 teach him his letters."
       Joseph replied, "If you can muster the courage, brother, take him
 with you."  And so he took him along with much fear and trepidation, but
 the child was happy to go.
       Jesus strode boldly into the schoolroom and found a book lying on
 the desk.  He took the book but did not read the letters in it.  Rather,
 he opened his mouth and spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit and taught
 the law to those standing there.
       A large crowd gathered and stood listening to him, and they marveled
 at the maturity of his teaching and his readiness of speech -- a mere
 child able to say such things.
       When Joseph heard about this he feared the worst and ran to the
 schoolroom, imagining that this teacher was having trouble with Jesus.
       But the teacher said to Joseph, "Brother, please know that I
 accepted this child as a student, but already he's full of grace and
 wisdom.  So I'm asking you, brother, to take him back home."
       When the child heard this, he immediately smiled at him and said,
 "Because you have spoken and testified rightly, that other teacher who was
 struck down will be healed."  And right away he was.  Joseph took his
 child and went home.

 16  Joseph sent his son James to tie up some wood and carry it back to the
 house, and the child Jesus followed.  While James was gathering the
 firewood, a viper bit his hand.  And as he lay sprawled out on the ground,
 dying, Jesus came and blew on the bite.  Immediately the pain stopped, the
 animal burst apart, and James got better on the spot.

 17  After this incident an infant in Joseph's neighborhood became sick and
 died, and his mother grieved terribly.  Jesus heard the loud wailing and
 the uproar that was going on and quickly ran there.
       When he found the child dead, he touched its chest and said, "I say
 to you, infant, don't die but live, and be with your mother."
       And immediately the infant looked up and laughed.  Jesus then said
 to the woman, "Take it, give it your breast, and remember me."
       The crowd of onlookers marveled at this: "Truly this child was a god
 or a heavenly messenger of God -- whatever he says instantly happens."
 But Jesus left and went on playing with the other children.

 18  A year later, while a building was under construction, a man fell from
 the top of it and died.  There was quite a commotion, so Jesus got up and
 went there.  When he saw the man lying dead, he took his hand and said, "I
 say to you, sir, get up and go back to work."  And he immediately got up
 and worshipped him.
       The crowd saw this and marveled: "This child's from heaven -- he
 must be, because he has saved many souls from death, and he can go on
 saving all his life.

 19  When he was twelve years old his parents went to Jerusalem, as usual,
 for the Passover festival, along with their fellow travelers.  After
 Passover they began the journey home.  But while on their way, the child
 Jesus went back up to Jerusalem.  His parents, of course, assumed that he
 was in the traveling party.  After they had traveled one day, they began
 to look for him among their relatives.  When they did not find him, they
 were worried and returned again to the city to search for him.
       After three days they found him in the temple area, sitting among
 the teachers, listening to the law and asking them questions.  All eyes
 were on him, and everyone was astounded that he, a mere child, could
 interrogate the elders and teachers of the people and explain the main
 points of the law and the parables of the prophets.
       His mother Mary came up and said to him, "Child, why have you done
 this to us?  Don't you see, we've been worried sick looking for you."
       "Why are you looking for me?" Jesus said to them.  "Don't you know
that I have to be in my father's house?"
      Then the scholars and the Pharisees said, "Are you the mother of
this child?"
      She said, "I am."
      And they said to her, "You more than any woman are to be
congratulated, for God has blessed the fruit of your womb!  For we've
never seen nor heard such glory and such virtue and wisdom."
      Jesus got up and went with his mother, and was obedient to his
parents.  His mother took careful note of all that had happened.  And
Jesus continued to excel in learning and gain respect.
      To him be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

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  .           anada 142        contributed by Soybean  (c)2000 anada e'zine .
      
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