According to recent reports, researchers in Germany have decoded what they claim is the oldest manuscript describing the early life of Jesus Christ when he was a child. Experts claim the papyrus manuscript is over 1600 years old dated to the 4th or 5th century A.D.
Previously, the document sat in a library in Hamburg, Germany, where its significance was not fully understood. Professor and researcher Lajos Berkes, who decoded the document, noted the magnitude of the discovery.
“The fragment is of extraordinary interest for research,” Berkes said. “On the one hand, because we were able to date it to the 4th to 5th century, making it the earliest known copy. On the other hand, because we were able to gain new insights into the transmission of the text.”
Per the researcher, it was initially thought to be a casual, everyday document based on the characteristics of its handwriting. However, upon realizing the first word on the papyrus was “Jesus,” they quickly realized they had something of greater importance on their hands.
“It was thought to be part of an everyday document, such as a private letter or a shopping list, because the handwriting seems so clumsy,” he added. “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.” According to Berkes, the document pertains to the Gospel of Thomas, an apocryphal book excluded from the canonical texts that make up the Bible, describing the early life of Jesus before he began his ministry.
“Jesus plays at the ford of a rushing stream and molds twelve sparrows from the soft clay he finds in the mud. When his father Joseph rebukes him and asks why he is doing such things on the holy Sabbath, the five-year-old Jesus claps his hands and brings the clay figures to life,” a press release read.
However, the Gospel of Thomas has been largely discredited for a number of reasons and not accepted as scripture. According to
CrossExamined.org, “
Despite the best efforts of some, Thomas doesn’t even come close to Scripture. It wasn’t backed by apostolic authority. Its contents contradict the orthodox texts. And the church never even came close to considering it as authoritative. Unlike the real Thomas, we have good reasons to doubt here.”Furthermore, Cold Case Christianity
writes, “These elaborate stories, legends and fabrications were written by authors who were motivated to alter the history of Jesus to suit their own purposes. They built these alternative narratives on the foundational truths of the original Gospels, however, and much can be learned about the historic Jesus from these late lies.”
GotQuestions.org
weighed in, “The Gospel of Thomas was not written by Jesus’ disciple Thomas. The early Christian leaders universally recognized the Gospel of Thomas as a forgery. The Gospel of Thomas was rejected by the vast majority of early Christians. The Gospel of Thomas contains many teachings that are in contradiction to the biblical Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. The Gospel of Thomas does not bear the marks of a work of inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
Featured image credit: Joshua Keller, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gutenberg_Bible,_New_York_Public_Library,_USA._Pic_01.jpg
