The Infancy Gospel of Thomas accounts for instances of Jesus' life when he was five, six, eight and twelve years old in Israel, his alleged birthplace. In one account, Thomas explains that he could turn inanimate objects into real life creatures. Also, Jesus sought revenge when people disturbed him: he put a child to death with words because he bumped into him. The words that came out of his mouth became reality. People noticed this and feared him, accusing him to Joseph. When Joseph tried to stop Jesus from harming people, he not only commanded Joseph to not refute him, but also, he blinded the people who made the accusations. Later on, Jesus corrected Zaccheus, a teacher, on the meaning of the first letter of the alphabet, Alpha, but he could not understand him; nevertheless, he mentions the power in Jesus’ glance and speech and that he felt like the student instead of the teacher. At a young age, through just his speech, Jesus could curse and heal people, as well as transform things, like one grain of wheat into one hundred measures which he gave to the poor of the village. Lastly, astonishing everyone at the Temple, he was able to argue and discuss matters of the Law with his elders at the age of twelve. When his mother found him, he told her that the Temple was his fathers’ house.
For Thomas, Jesus curses and seeks revenge to any who contradict or cross him. Thomas stresses the authoritative speech he used when addressing people. His writings on how people reacted to Jesus when he cured or cursed could be a way of instilling fear and belief in his readers, that he was, in fact, God. As Lapham puts it, “It was never the intention to write biographies, but to engender faith…”(129). We can begin to see a pattern in Thomas’ account of Jesus’ childhood as all passages refer to a supernatural action followed by a resolution. With this it seems that Thomas was trying to rule out for his intended readers any possibility of normalcy in Jesus’ childhood. This is, in the words of Lapham, “to demonstrate the miraculous power of Jesus from his birth and that he possessed the same extraordinary wisdom and insight in infancy that he exhibited in later years” (131). Moreover, some passages are about someone crossing Jesus and him casting dismay or a curse upon them. When they repent or someone else ‘correctly’ witnesses the grace and wisdom of Jesus, the curse is lifted such as the case of one teacher being redeemed thanks to another teacher’s acceptance of Jesus (15. 4). In another example, where Zaccheus acknowledges his greatness, Jesus lifts the curse of the people he had made blind (7.3). It seems that Thomas is trying to point out that one’s acceptance of Jesus as God can redeem not only oneself but other fellow men also. This account reminds me of myths used to teach lessons. In this case, Thomas' goal could have been to make readers believe in and be obedient to Jesus as God because of his supernatural ability to punish, rather than a truthful account of his childhood.
For Thomas, Jesus curses and seeks revenge to any who contradict or cross him. Thomas stresses the authoritative speech he used when addressing people. His writings on how people reacted to Jesus when he cured or cursed could be a way of instilling fear and belief in his readers, that he was, in fact, God. As Lapham puts it, “It was never the intention to write biographies, but to engender faith…”(129). We can begin to see a pattern in Thomas’ account of Jesus’ childhood as all passages refer to a supernatural action followed by a resolution. With this it seems that Thomas was trying to rule out for his intended readers any possibility of normalcy in Jesus’ childhood. This is, in the words of Lapham, “to demonstrate the miraculous power of Jesus from his birth and that he possessed the same extraordinary wisdom and insight in infancy that he exhibited in later years” (131). Moreover, some passages are about someone crossing Jesus and him casting dismay or a curse upon them. When they repent or someone else ‘correctly’ witnesses the grace and wisdom of Jesus, the curse is lifted such as the case of one teacher being redeemed thanks to another teacher’s acceptance of Jesus (15. 4). In another example, where Zaccheus acknowledges his greatness, Jesus lifts the curse of the people he had made blind (7.3). It seems that Thomas is trying to point out that one’s acceptance of Jesus as God can redeem not only oneself but other fellow men also. This account reminds me of myths used to teach lessons. In this case, Thomas' goal could have been to make readers believe in and be obedient to Jesus as God because of his supernatural ability to punish, rather than a truthful account of his childhood.