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Childhood of Jesus : Decoding the Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas

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Childhood of Jesus : Decoding the Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas Aasgaard THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS provides an in-depth analysis of the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Th omas, an ancient tale about Jesus’s boyhood years that narrates his play with other children, miraculous deeds, fi rst visits to school, and confl icts with his teachers, ending with a retelling of the New Testament story of Jesus as a twelve-year old in the temple. Originating in second-century, Greek-inspired Christianity, it was quickly translated into other languages, including Latin and Syriac, and enjoyed widespread popularity in the Middle Ages, when it was included as part of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. Aarsgaard presents the history of research history and analyses its story, transmission, narrative world and values, theology, views of gender and childhood, social setting, and audience – much of what has not been previously treated. He sees the Infancy Gospel of Th omas as refl ecting oral storytelling, situates the story within rural Christianity among the common people, and argues that it can even be considered the fi rst Christian children’s story. Th e volume includes the Greek text of the gospel with an English translation as well as extensive appendices, among them surveys of its historical evidence, variants in the stories, and other ancient infancy gospels. “Although the Infancy Gospel of Th omas has long been enjoyed by readers interested in the Gospels that did not make it into the New Testament, there has been a dearth of scholarship on most of the pressing textual, historical, and theological issues it Jesus e Childhood of Th THE raises. Reidar Aasgaard ahs done the scholarly world a real service by presenting a full, interesting, and informed discussion of all these major questions. Scholars will now turn to this study before any other when they want to explore the Infancy Gospel and its traditions.” – Bart. D. Ehrman CHILDHOOD James A Gray Professor of Religious Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “Informed by current research on orality and narrative structure, Aasgaard not JESUS only furthers our understanding of the content of the document itself including its OF theology and ethics, but also breaks new ground in reconstructing its social setting and audience…. Drawing upon his extensive expertise, Aasgaard also argues that the document was intended for early Christian children and contributes substantially to the emergence of the investigation of children and childhood as a key interdisciplinary subfi eld within early Christian studies.” – Margaret Y. MacDonald Decoding the Professor of Religious Studies St Francis Xavier University Apocryphal Infancy Reidar Aasgaard is Associate Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Oslo, Norway. Among his publications is My Beloved Brothers and Sisters! Christian Gospel of Th omas Siblingship in Paul. James Clarke & Co P.O. Box 60 Cambridge CB1 2NT www.jamesclarke.co [email protected] C C Reidar Aasgaard Th e Childhood of Jesus James Clarke & Co and The Lutterworth Press Click on the links above to see our full catalogue for more excellent titles in Hardback, Paperback, PDF and Epub! The Childhood of Jesus ISBN: 9780227903018 C L Would you like to join our Mailing List? Click here! Th e Childhood of Jesus Decoding the Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Th omas REIDAR AASGAARD C James Clarke & Co James Clarke & Co P.O. Box 60 Cambridge CB1 2NT United Kingdom www.jamesclarke.co [email protected] ISBN: 978 0 227 17354 1 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A record is available from the British Library Copyright © Reidar Aasgaard, 2009 First published by James Clarke & Co, 2010 Published by arrangement with Cascade Books, a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and used by permission. BWHEBB, BWHEBL, BWTRANSH [Hebrew]; BWGRKL, BWGRKN and BWGRKI [Greek] Postscript® Type 1 and TrueTypeT fonts Copyright © 1994–2009 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. These Biblical Greek and Hebrew fonts are used with permission and are from BibleWorks, software for Biblical exegesis and research. All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced, stored electronically or in any retrieval system, or transmitt ed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior writt en permission from the Publisher ([email protected]). Respectfully dedicated to Espen A. Pippi L. Lisa and Bart S. Contents Preface / ix Abbreviations / x 1. The History of Research / 1 2. Oral/Written Tradition / 14 3. Narrative and Literary Features / 35 4. Daily Life and Social Relations / 53 5. Cultural Concepts and Values / 73 6. Jesus as a Child / 86 7. Jesus from Boy to Man / 103 8. Intertextuality—Reflections of the Bible / 113 9. Strange Sayings / 137 10. Main Theological Issues / 149 11. A Popular Tale from Early Rural Christianity / 166 12. Christianity’s First Children’s Story / 192 13. Conclusions / 214 Appendixes 1. Greek Text / 219 2. English Translation / 233 3. The Structure of Ga/Gb/Gd / 243 4. Designations of Individual Episodes / 245 5. Survey of Greek Variants and the Versions / 248 6. Survey of IGT Evidence by Century / 252 7. Survey of Early Christian Infancy Stories / 254 Bibliography / 259 Index of Biblical Writings / 277 Index of Infancy Gospel of Thomas / 280 Index of Ancient Authors and Writings / 282 Preface This book is a central outcome of a three-year period of research on children in antiquity and early Christianity (2003–2006). The project was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and located at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo. Chapters and parts of the book have been presented on several occasions, at the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature/ American Academy of Religion (2005–2007), the Oxford Patristics Conference (2007), and the AELAC meeting (Association pour l’étude de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne, 2008). I have also had the op- portunity to discuss the material with individuals and groups of col- leagues at the Faculty of Theology, in the Oslo-based cross-institutional Patristic study group, and with colleagues abroad. An anonymous peer reader gave me very skilled and valuable advice in a final stage of the work. I am grateful for the many invitations and opportunities to pres- ent my work on IGT and for the numerous insightful comments and constructive suggestions from friendly co-scholars. I appreciate highly the enthusiastic support that many have given of my ideas about this gospel—and also the sober objections of some. These contributions—no names mentioned and none forgotten—have very much served to improve the book. Thus, what weaknesses remain are entirely my responsibility. Easter, Anno Domini 2009 Reidar Aasgaard ix Abbreviations Ancient Acts Thom. Acts of Thomas Ant. Josephus Antiquities of the Judeans Ap. Jas. Apocryphon of James Arab. Gos. Inf. Arabic Gospel of the Infancy Arm. Gos. Inf. Armenian Gospel of the Infancy Assum. Vir. Assumption of the Virgin Civ. Augustine De civitate Dei (City of God) 1 Clem. 1 Clement Conf. Augustine Confessiones Deipn. Athenaeus Deipnosophists Dial. Justin Dialogue with Trypho Ep. Pliny the Younger Epistles Ep. Apos. Epistle of the Apostles Gos. Bart. Gospel of Bartholomew Gos. Nic. Gospel of Nicodemus Gos. Thom. Gospel of Thomas Gos. Truth Gospel of Truth Haer. Irenaeus Against Heresies Herm. Vis. Shepherd of Hermas Visions Hist. Jos. Carp. History of Joseph the Carpenter Hom. Jo. John Chrysostom Homilies on John Ign. Pol. Ignatius To Polycarp IGT Infancy Gospel of Thomas Inan. glor. John Chrysostom De inani gloria (Address on Vainglory and the Right Way for Parents to Bring Up Their Children) Inst. Quintilian Institutio Oratoria (The Orator’s Education) Itin. Antoninus Placentinus Itinerarium J.W. Josephus The Judean War LXX Septuagint Metam. Ovid Metamorphoses NT New Testament Or. Dio Chrysostom Orationes x Abbreviations OT Old Testament Pan. Epiphanius Panarion Pap. Eg. Papyrus Egerton Prot. Jas. Protevangelium of James/Infancy Gospel of James Ps.-Mt. Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew Modern ACW Ancient Christian Writers AKA Abhandlungen (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur) BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin BZRGG Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistegeschichte CCSA Corpus Christianorum: Series Apocryphorum CP Classical Philology CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium FC Fathers of the Church HTR Harvard Theological Review HTS Harvard Theological Studies JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies JRS Journal of Roman Studies JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series JTS Journal of Theological Studies LAA Late Antique Archaeology LCL Loeb Classical Library LNTS Library of New Testament Studies Neot Neotestamentica NHMS Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies NovT Novum Testamentum NTTS New Testament Tools and Studies OrChr Oriens Christianus PG Patrologia Graeca PTS Patristische Texte und Studien SacPag Sacra Pagina SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series SBLRBS Society of Biblical Literature Resources for Biblical Studies xi Abbreviations SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series SemeiaSt Semeia Studies SHC Studies in Hellenistic Civilization
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