They found the oldest known manuscript of Jesus’ childhood: this is what it says about his life

Recently, A team of papyrologists has found a 1,600-year-old manuscript that includes a story from Jesus’ childhood .

The discovery was made by specialists Lajos Berkes and Gabriel Nocchi Macedo .

As the first one explained to Deutsche Welle , Although the discovery does not involve an unknown history, it is important because of its antiquity and will be used to study certain word changes. which have been achieved over centuries of transcription and translation.

This is the oldest known Gospel of Thomas, known as the Infancy. said the academic also from the Institute for Christianity and Antiquity at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.

This text is considered apocryphal or non-canonical which means that it is rejected by the Catholic Church and was never included in the New Testament.

The text contains fragments which They describe Jesus at the age of 5, playing near a river. There, he finds clay which he begins to mold into the shapes of birds. .

Realizing, Jose catches his attention because he is active on a Saturday day considered as rest.

In the midst of this situation, Jesus claps his hands andThe characters turn into sparrows that fly away .

According to the papyrologist told the aforementioned German media, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is known to scholars because it presents another side of Jesus. which distances him from the traditional image that shows him as kind and merciful.

In fact, he said there are stories that tell from cursing other children to blinding neighbors and killing a teacher for scolding him.

Previously, other versions of the manuscript have been found in Greek, Latin, Slavic, Georgian, Ethiopic, Arabic and Syriac.

Berkes stated that “Greek is supposed to be the original language” and that “The oldest manuscript of this text in existence today dates from the 11th century. “.

Rather, it is assumed that The one they saved dates from between the 4th and 5th centuries. .

Now they will focus on making a new translation that allows us to understand the words used, in order to demonstrate that “the register and stylistic value of this original Greek text were much greater than previously thought” .

The discovery of this manuscript was donated to the collection of the Carl von Ossietzky State University Library in Hamburg .

Among the more than 1,000 pieces of history they have there, about a third is catalogued and available in digital format the same one in which they discovered this specimen.

Although Berkes said he couldn’t guarantee it for sure, he suggested that It is likely that other manuscripts of the same nature exist in the archives. .