Photo: Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky State and University Library Berlin (KNA) Papyrus experts have deciphered a manuscript fragment as the earliest surviving copy of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. They dated the manuscript to the 4th to 5th century, as the Institute for Christianity and Antiquity at Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin announced on Tuesday. The Gospel tells of the childhood of Jesus and is one of the so-called apocryphal writings. These were not included in the Bible, but their stories were very popular and widespread in antiquity and the Middle Ages.
According to the information provided, the papyrus fragment had been lying unnoticed for decades in the Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky State and University Library with the inventory number P.Hamb.Graec. 1011. The discovery was made by papyrus expert Lajos Berkes from the Berlin Institute and his colleague Gabriel Nocchi Macedo from the University of Liège, Belgium.
New insights into the textual tradition
“The fragment is of extraordinary interest for research,” explained Berkes, a research associate at the HU’s Faculty of Theology. “On the one hand, because we were able to date it to the 4th to 5th century, making it the earliest known copy. Secondly, because we were able to gain new insights into the transmission of the text.” Until now, a codex from the 11th century had been considered the earliest Greek text version of the Gospel of Thomas.
The Gospel was probably first written down in the 2nd century AD. “Our findings on this late antique Greek copy of the work confirm the current assessment that the Infancy Gospel according to Thomas was originally written in Greek,” says Nocchi Macedo. The fragment, which measures around 11 by 5 centimetres, contains the remains of 13 lines in Greek letters, around ten letters per line, and comes from Egypt in late antiquity.