What is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas?

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a second-century apocryphal text detailing the childhood and early miracles of Jesus. Because it was hand-copied by scribes without a central authority, the text developed an unusually complex manuscript tradition with many differing versions, translations, and expansions. While it was widely popular throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, it was ultimately excluded from the New Testament canon.

What we know

• The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is an apocryphal gospel about the childhood of Jesus, created around the second century. [2]
• The text depicts a young Jesus possessing full divine power who performs miracles, such as turning clay sparrows into live ones, but who also sometimes curses and kills those who cross him. [2]
• The manuscript tradition is unusually complex because scribes altered, translated, added, and removed stories without a central authority keeping copies standardized. [3]
• The author of the text is unknown, though some medieval versions include a pseudepigraphal attribution to Thomas the Israelite. [2]

Still open

• Whether the attribution to Thomas the Israelite refers specifically to Thomas the Apostle remains uncertain, as the attribution only appears in some medieval manuscripts.

Where to go next

• how we knowWhat is the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew?
• what followedHow did the Arabic Infancy Gospel develop?
• the bigger pictureWhat are the New Testament apocrypha?
• how it workedHow did medieval scribes alter manuscripts?
• compared withHow does it compare to the Gospel of James?
• an unexpected connectionHow did a medieval Western text incorporate the Quran?Surviving manuscripts of the Arabic Infancy Gospel, which drew heavily upon the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, show distinct influence from the Quran.

Sources

• [1]Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Wikidata Q210709) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Infancy Gospel of Thomas · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Versions of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Arabic Infancy Gospel · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew · CC BY-SA 4.0