The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: The boy who kills

02/08/2025 22 min Episodio 233
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: The boy who kills

Listen "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: The boy who kills"

Episode Synopsis

The apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas gives us stories about the boy Jesus from the age of 5 to 12 - and it portrays him as precocious at best, and perhaps even evil-minded at worst, as Jesus struggles to understand his powers and his identity.  These stories have been widely read since the second century, and ancient manuscripts have been found in many languages.  We look at what these stories are, and what they tell us about what ancient Christians thought of the child Jesus.  We see what this means for us today, as people raising children, and as adults who, like the apocryphal version of the child Jesus, always have room to grow.