Library/New Testament apocrypha
Infancy Gospel of Thomas
A child who withers playmates, raises them, models birds from clay and makes them fly, and submits, eventually, to learning the alphabet. The most unsettling of the infancy texts — a power without a fully grown will.
- Status
- New Testament apocryphon
- Date
- 2nd century CE
- Languages
- Greek · Syriac · Latin
- Setting
- The child Jesus in the village
What it contains
- Clay birds
- The cursed boy
- Zacchaeus the teacher
- The obedient end
Why it sits outside most canons
The great church wanted a childhood that was hidden, not this.
Themes
- Power
- Childhood
- Wonder
- Fear
Passages
Inf. Thom. 2
He made soft clay and fashioned twelve sparrows. He clapped and cried, ‘Go!’ and the sparrows took flight and went away chirping.