Description: The mid-second-century apocryphal infancy gospel, the
Gospel of Thomas, which deals with the childhood of Jesus from age
five to age twelve, has attained only limited interest from
scholars. Much research into the story has also been seriously
misguided--especially study of the story's origin, character, and
setting. This book gives a fresh interpretation of the infancy
gospel, not least by applying a variety of new approaches,
including orality studies, narrative studies, gender studies, and
social-scientific approaches. The book comes to a number of
radically new conclusions: The Gospel of Thomas is dependent on
oral storytelling and has far more narrative qualities than has
been previously assumed. The narrative world depicted in the gospel
is that of middle-class Christianity, with the social and cultural
ideas and values characteristic of such a milieu. The gospel's
theology is not heretical--as has often been claimed--but mirrors
mainstream thinking rooted in biblical tradition, particularly in
the Johannine and Lukan traditions. Jesus is portrayed as a divine
figure but also as a true-to-life child of late antiquity. The
audience for the Gospel of Thomas is likely to have come from the
rural population of early Christianity, a milieu that has received
little attention. A main audience for the story was children among
early Christians, making this--at least within Christianity--the
oldest-known children's tale. The book provides a Greek text and a
translation, and several appendixes on the story, along with other
early Christian infancy material. Endorsements: ""Although the
Infancy Gospel of Thomas has long been enjoyed by readers
interested in the Gospels that did not make it into the New
Testament, there has been a dearth of scholarship on most of the
pressing textual, historical, and theological issues it raises.
Reidar Aasgaard has done the scholarly world a real service by
presenting a full, interesting, and informed discussion of all
these major questions. Scholars will now turn to this study before
any other when they want to explore the Infancy Gospel and its
traditions."" --Bart D. Ehrman James A. Gray Professor of Religious
Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ""This thorough
and outstanding volume addresses a wide-range of historical,
literary, and theological questions about the Infancy Gospel of
Thomas and offers a fresh interpretation of this baffling text. A
highly valuable resource for those interested in biblical studies,
early Christianity, the history of childhood, and religious
understandings of children."" --Marcia J. Bunge Professor of
Humanities and Theology Valparaiso University ""Informed by current
research on orality and narrative structure, Aasgard not only
furthers our understanding of the content of the document itself
including its theology and ethics, but also breaks new ground in
reconstructing its social setting and audience . . . Drawing upon
his extensive expertise, Aasgard also argues that the document was
intended for early Christian children and contributes substantially
to the emergence of the investigation children and childhood as a
key interdisciplinary subfield within early Christian studies.""
--Margaret Y. MacDonald Professor, Religious Studies St. Francis
Xavier University About the Contributor(s): Reidar Aasgaard is
Project Leader in the Norwegian Bible Society and has earned a
doctorate in New Testament/Early Christianity. He is the author of
My Beloved Brothers and Sisters (2004) and has published a study
edition of the New Testament as well as Norwegian translations of
Augustine.
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