In mid-2023, researchers at the University of Hamburg uncovered a piece of early Christian history during a routine digitization project. Scholars Gabriel Nocchi Macedo and his colleague, Lajos Berkes, discovered a fragment believed to be the oldest preserved Greek copy of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a narrative detailing events from Jesus Christ's childhood between the ages of five and twelve.
"For the past 18 months, we've been closely studying these papyrus documents," Macedo said, according to BioBioChile. The fragment, measuring approximately 11 by 5 centimeters and dating from the 4th or 5th century, contains remnants of 13 lines of ancient Greek text. Until now, the oldest known Greek textual version of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas dated back to the 11th century.
"The Greek is supposed to be the original language. The oldest manuscript of this text that existed until now dates from the 11th century," Berkes explained. Initially, the papyrus was overlooked in the library's vast collection due to its unassuming appearance and clumsy handwriting. "People thought it was part of a mundane document, like a private letter or a shopping list, because the writing seemed very clumsy," Macedo noted, according to OK Diario.
The researchers suspect that the copy of the gospel was created as a writing exercise in a monastery or school, possibly by a monk training to become a scribe. "In the case of our papyrus, it is not calligraphed, it is not beautiful or well done. It's uglier writing, made by someone who didn't know how to write very well. It wasn't a professional, a copyist; I think that's why it didn't attract attention," Macedo said, as per BBC News.
The fragment offers insights into episodes of Jesus's childhood not found in the canonical Bible. One account describes Jesus at five years old, playing by the bank of a stream. He gathered the flowing waters into small pools and purified them with a word. Another passage recounts Jesus forming twelve sparrows from soft clay on the Sabbath while many other children played with him. When Joseph, his father, saw this, he rebuked Jesus, saying: "Why are you doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath?" In response, Jesus clapped his hands and commanded the clay birds, "Away with you!" and they flew away chirping.
These narratives provide a deeper understanding of early Christian literature and perceptions of Jesus during the formative years of Christianity. "This discovery is very important because it dates from the early days of Christianity and such texts reveal insights about Christianity," Macedo emphasized.
The fragment was identified thanks to access to a database of ancient Greek literature. "We deciphered letter by letter, comparing it with many other digitized papyri, and quickly realized that it couldn't be a mundane document. When we searched paleochristian texts, we recognized that it was a copy of the Infancy Gospel according to Thomas," the researchers stated.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is considered an apocryphal text and was not included in the canonical New Testament. Its accounts of Jesus's childhood have intrigued scholars for centuries. The discovery of this fragment challenges previous understandings of the dating and distribution of such texts. "The fragment is of extraordinary interest for research," Berkes commented.
Until this discovery, only papyri up to number 782 had been cataloged in the collection, and this particular papyrus was listed under number 1011. The fragment went unnoticed for decades because its content was deemed insignificant. However, the digitization project allowed researchers to uncover its true value.
This fragment indicates the potential for further discoveries within existing archives. "This initially secondary project became a significant finding, highlighting the potential for discovering more ancient texts," Berkes stated.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.