Newly deciphered manuscript is oldest written record of Jesus Christ's childhood, experts say

[sl8]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/manuscript-deciphered-jesus-christ-childhood-oldest-written-record-experts-say/

Newly deciphered manuscript is oldest written record of Jesus Christ's childhood, experts say

By Kerry Breen
Updated on: June 13, 2024 / 11:23 AM EDT / CBS News

A newly deciphered manuscript dating back 1,600 years has been determined to be the oldest record of Jesus Christ's childhood, experts said in a news release.

The piece of papyrus has been stored in a university library in Hamburg, Germany, for decades, historians at Humboldt University announced. The document "remained unnoticed" until Dr. Lajos Berkes, from Germany's Institute for Christianity and Antiquity at Humboldt University in Berlin, and professor Gabriel Nocchi Macedo, from Belgium's University of Liège, studied it and identified it as the earliest surviving copy of the "Infancy Gospel of Thomas," a document detailing Jesus Christ's childhood.

The translation marks a "significant discovery for the research field," Humboldt University said. Until now, it was believed that the earliest version of this gospel was a codex from the 11th century.



The papyrus fragment.
STAATS- UND UNIVERSITÄTSBIBLIOTHEK HAMBURG/PUBLIC DOMAIN MARK 1.0

The document translated by Berkes and Macedo was dated between the 4th and 5th century. The stories in the document are not in the Bible, the news release said, but the papyrus contains anecdotes that would have been widely shared in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The few words on the fragment describe a "miracle" that Jesus performed as a child, according to the Gospel of Thomas, which says he brought clay figures of birds to life.

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[John1956PA]

1. Erich von Daniken wrote that, over 1,000 years ago, many tall tales circulated about Yeshua of Nazareth.

My reading of a few of Mr. Daniken's books did not convince me of visits to our planet by extraterrestrials, but it did cause me to question the integrity of the four gospels of the Bible.

[wolfie001]

2. Never fear!!!

A new Ark expedition to Ararat should settle this once and for all!!!

ps: give me all yo money.

[calguy]

3. So, if we have a new account of Christ's youth dating back 1600 years...

and Christ was supposedly born 2024 years ago, then this was written what...? Four hundred years after the fact?

[FirefighterJo]

5. The first version of the bible

Was born (And redacted) in the 9th century.

[edhopper]

6. you mean our current version

with the four books?

[FirefighterJo]

7. Yes, though

There are variants .

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Not really true; 4th century for basically the current New Testament

Codex Sinaiticus

Date 4th century (after 325 AD)

The books of the New Testament are arranged in this order: the four Gospels, the epistles of Paul (Hebrews follows 2 Thess.), the Acts of the Apostles, the General Epistles, and the Book of Revelation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus

The 4th century was when Constantine put the weight of the Roman Empire behind Christianity, and got many areas of it standardized.

[Voltaire2]

4. It is not a record of anything other than

what stories were being told and written about Jesus between 300-400 ce. That is centuries after any person who might have been the basis of the Jesus myths lived.

Consider the myth you were taught in school about George Washington and the cherry tree. The origin of that myth is much closer in time to the childhood of Washington than these stories are.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. No, it's not a written record of Jesus' childhood

It's merely another, older written version of the mythology.