An ancient manuscript fragment was found in a library in Hamburg, Germany. It is a small part of a book called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT), which talks about Jesus when he was a child. This fragment is thought to date back to the fourth or fifth century AD.
For years, the ancient parchment was largely neglected. However, a team of researchers from different universities finally figured out what it was.
Dr. Lajos Berkes from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Prof. Gabriel Nocchi Macedo from the University of Liège cracked the code. They realized it is a part of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a significant discovery for biblical literature experts, as reported by Archaeology Mag.
“The fragment is of extraordinary interest for research,” said Dr. Berkes. “On the one hand, because we were able to date it to the fourth to the fifth century, making it the earliest known copy. On the other hand, because we were able to gain new insights into the transmission of the text.”
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) is not part of the main Bible
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is not part of the main Bible that most Christians use. However, during antiquity and the Middle Ages, it was immensely popular. It belongs to a tradition of texts telling stories of Jesus’ youth that early Christians shared with one another.
Before this finding, the oldest Greek version of this book was from the 11th century. However, experts think the original was written much earlier, maybe in the second century. The text is valuable because it offers a different perspective on Jesus’ life, even though it is not part of the regular Bible.
The papyrus fragment is about 11 by 5 centimeters in size and has around 13 lines of Greek writing on it. Each line has about 10 letters. It comes from Egypt and was probably used in a school or monastery there.
The writing looks messy as if the author was still learning to write well. Copying texts like these to improve writing skills was a common practice in antiquity.
Berkes and Macedo realized the importance of the fragment when they spotted the name “Jesus” in it. “We first noticed the word Jesus in the text,” Berkes said.
“Then, by comparing it with numerous other digitized papyri, we deciphered it letter by letter and quickly realized that it could not be an everyday document.”
They found more important words, like “crowing” and “branch,” that matched parts of other known IGT writings.
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