Jesus Part 2. Imaginary Childhood?

Almost nothing is known of the childhood of Jesus. No one around Jesus during His childhood, teenaged and young adult years, and adult years until about age thirty apparently thought anything remarkable about Him. Which implies that He was a pretty typical Jewish boy, pre-adult, and adult of His times. There was a period of approximately forty years when boyhood friends and many relatives of Jesus could have been easily found, interviewed, and good written records could have been made. Why did this not happen?

For hundreds of years a book apparently written by Thomas the Israelite about the infancy and childhood of Jesus was extremely popular. This popularity continued even well after the New Testament was assembled. The New Testament was assembled at the order of Constantine, the Roman Emperor, about AD 360.

The book by Thomas the Israelite became one of the Rejected Gospels. Apparently it was rejected because of its extremely popularity with the common people. It was decided that it distracted from the messages the church leaders wanted their flocks to hear. It was decided that it was written too late, possibly as late as 185 AD. The stories persisted long enough to be included in the next great written text of religion, the Koran.

There were seven major childhood stories about Jesus in Thomas the Israelite’s book.

1. Jesus was very young when playing with clay. He made some clay sparrows. Later He brought them to life and they flew away.

2. Jesus was playing on the roof with a friend and in a sudden fit of anger pushed the boy off roof. The boy died. When Jesus was called to task for this act, He brought him back to life.

3. Jesus, angered at a comment by a customer, blinded him. Later He restored the customer’s sight.

4. There was a story in the book where Jesus rebelled against his teacher.

5. Joseph was supposed to have cut one of two boards short. Jesus stretched the board to match.

6. Jesus healed a person from a snake bite.

7. Distressed at the plight of the poor, Jesus raised a crop of grain to give to them.

These little "embellishments" or plagiarisms were considered too dangerous for the common folk to hear. They might believe them to be true and learn the “wrong” lessons. It took hundreds of years for the organized church to blot out these dangerous stories. Only to have them come back like a bad penny from the desert of Egypt and Ethiopia.

Then, as now, there are all too many people in awe of the written word. They believe that if it is written it must be true. Even if it is a demonstrable falsehood, it must be true. At least spiritually inspired, if not true, and thus still acceptable, even Holy.

Article Source: http://www.religionarticlelibrary.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace completed an MA and taught in the public schools for 28 years. He recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, the layers of money sucking priesthood, and their departures from the fundamental ideas and messages of Religion. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will outrage everyone. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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