XXIII. Herod, meanwhile, sought out John, and sent his servants to Zecharias, saying, Where hast thou hidden thy son? And he answered, saying, I am a servant of God, I am in the temple, and I know not where my son is. And the servants came and told these things to Herod. And Herod said in anger, His son shall be king of Israel. And he sent (servants) to him again, saying, "Tell me the truth, where is your son?" For know that your life is in my power. And Zacharias answered: I am a witness (martyr) of God,186 if you shed my blood, the Lord will receive my soul, for you will shed innocent blood before the temple. And before dawn Zechariah was killed, and the children of Israel did not know that he had been killed.

XXIV. And during the kissing the priests were assembled, and Zacharias did not meet them, according to custom, with a blessing. And the priests, standing, waited for Zachariah to pray and glorify the Almighty. But since he did not appear, they were all filled with fear. And one of them dared to enter (into the sanctuary) and saw the blood caked at the altar, and a voice announced, "Zacharias has been killed, and his blood will not disappear until vengeance comes." Hearing these words, the priest was frightened and, going out, told the other priests. And they dared to go in, and saw what was there, and the walls of the temple cried out, and the priests themselves tore their garments; but his body was not found, only blood, which had become like stone, and seized with terror they went out and announced to the people that Zacharias had been killed. And all the tribes of the people heard, and wept and wept for him for three days and three nights. After three days, the priests began to consult who to do in his place, and the lot fell on Simeon. This was announced to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw the living Christ[187].

XXV. And I, James, who wrote this story in Jerusalem, hid in the wilderness during the troubles, until Herod died and the troubles subsided in Jerusalem. I praise the Lord God, who has given me wisdom to describe this. May his grace be to all who fear our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Childhood of Thomas and Commentaries

On the Gospel of Childhood according to Thomas

Along with the Protoevangelium of James, the description of the early years of Jesus' life, created in the second century, was very popular.

In connection with the perception of Jesus as a powerful deity, there was a need to describe his early years, to show him as a miracle worker from childhood. Such a perception of the deity corresponded to ancient mythology: for example, Hercules (his cult was widespread in the 1st-2nd centuries in the Roman provinces), being in swaddling clothes, strangled two huge snakes. Similar ideas are found in the East: Indian legends about Krishna's childhood tell about his pranks and miracles performed by him (victory over demons, swallowing up a forest fire, etc.). [189].

From the point of view of superstitious people brought up on such myths, Jesus the child must also have miraculous powers. The Gospel of Thomas tells of miracles performed by Jesus between the ages of five and twelve. However, this is not just an entertaining story, it has a clearly perceptible theological orientation. Already in childhood there are events that seem to be signs (signs) of his future preaching and his deeds. In this work, the influence of Gnostic works is clearly felt; The Gnostics were interested in the childhood of Jesus precisely because they did not recognize his human nature [190] and believed that Jesus the child had the same unearthly qualities as Jesus the adult. Characteristic in this respect is the surviving story from the Gnostic work "Pistis Sophia" [191] It tells how a boy (spirit) came to the house of Jesus (when he was three years old) absolutely like Jesus; little Jesus himself was working in the vineyard with his father at that time. The Spirit asked: "Where is Jesus, my brother?" Frightened, Mary tied the stranger to the bed and went to Joseph. When Jesus heard her say, he said: "Where is he, for I have been waiting for him here." When the boy entered the room, the spirit was freed, they embraced and became one. In this account, the fusion of the spirit with Jesus occurred when Jesus was very young. But this merging did not have the same religious meaning as the descent of the spirit in the form of a dove on the prophet Jesus during baptism: before merging with the stranger, Jesus is not frightened, announces that he was waiting for him, embraces the spirit, recognizes him – the boy, thus, according to this legend, already possessed supernatural properties, possessed "gnosis" – divine knowledge. The story from Pistis Sophia is characterized by the use of everyday details (as in the Protoevangelium of James): a child working with his father in a vineyard, a bed to which a spirit is tied. This everyday detail is opposed to the secret, incomprehensible meaning of what is happening. The visible world, the world of visible, concrete things, in which even Mary does not recognize the spirit and acts in accordance with primitive human reactions, is opposed to the hidden world, the true world, from the point of view of the Gnostics.

Under the influence of such stories, the Gospel of Thomas' childhood was also created. This work is a multi-layered story, where the everyday narrative about children's games, school, chopping wood, etc., as it were, hides the true meaning, which can be revealed only to those who know the meaning of the miracles performed by the boy Jesus. In the Gospel of childhood, even more than in the Protoevangelium of James, detail plays a special role. In the New Testament gospels, details, as we have shown by comparing Judeo-Christian and canonical stories, were often omitted as insignificant. Those episodes that had theological significance were explained in more or less detail. Thus, in the Gospel of Luke, Joseph's departure to Bethlehem was justified, since, according to the Old Testament prophecies, the messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. However, why Mary lived with Elizabeth, Luke does not explain, for it was only important for him to show the connection between Jesus and John the Baptist. The Gospel of Matthew does not explain the reasons for Jesus' migration from Nazareth to Capernaum (4:13). These were details of the true biography of Jesus, preserved by tradition, but they did not have a specifically doctrinal meaning. The author of the Gospel of Childhood introduces everyday details: children are playing by the stream, Jesus is sculpting birds from clay, his mother sends him to fetch water with a clay jug, a neighbor wounds his leg with an axe. True, these details are not taken from the early Christian tradition, where there could be echoes of real events, and not from the author's own knowledge of the life of a small Palestinian settlement – he clearly did not know it – they are constructed in accordance with the ideological and artistic task of the work and the needs of readers. The author was not interested in whether the Galilean boys sculpted birds from clay, whether they began their education at school with the Greek alphabet, or whether they were called by Greek names. He wrote for Greek-speaking readers, who also did not know this. It was important for him to incorporate the miracle into everyday life, which would look familiar to these readers. They believed the description and believed in the miracle that happened in a life so similar to their own. The inclusion of a miracle in a quasi-everyday reality gave rise to the hope that in their everyday existence, too, faith could lead to a miracle. But the miracles performed by Jesus in the mundane world of a small village also carried a different meaning: they acted in sharp opposition to this world, as a reminder that outside the visible world there is another one, which cannot be penetrated by anyone. This contrast is very clearly seen in the episode with the revival of the dead child (Chapter XVII). It says that after he resurrected the child and gave him to his mother, Jesus went to play with the other children, i.e. the miracle worker who had just pronounced sacred words becomes (apparently!) an ordinary child.

The composition of the Gospel of childhood is quite simple: each episode contains a story about the miracle performed by little Jesus; sometimes it is indicated at what age he committed it. In general, the first episodes are devoted to the description of miracles related to the punishment of Jesus' opponents: the boy who pushed him died, people who complained about him to Joseph went blind, the teacher who dared to raise his hand against him fell dead... The author immediately suggests to his reader that Jesus is an omnipotent and formidable, even cruel deity. However, in subsequent episodes, miracles of healing and resurrection are introduced: Jesus resurrected a boy who had fallen from a roof, though not out of pity for the boy, but because the parents of the deceased accused Jesus of pushing the boy against him. Jesus not only resurrected him, but made him testify that he had fallen by accident. Jesus heals a neighbor who injured himself with an axe and Jacob's brother who was bitten by a snake. When the new teacher recognized Jesus as full of goodness and wisdom, the lad said that for the sake of him, who truly testified, the punished teacher would also be healed. Thus, having first frightened the reader, the author of the Gospel of Childhood shows the possibility of mercy, a miracle not only of punishment, but also of salvation, and for the sake of one, the chosen one, he can have mercy on others – the accursed. The punishment itself contains an allegory: those who do not see the truth actually lose their sight. The author sees a higher meaning behind every act of Jesus, whether retribution or salvation: punishment also serves to make "the blind in their hearts" see clearly.

Almost all miracles of healing are performed by Jesus as a child in public, twice he says to the saved: "And remember me" (this addition is absent in the description of healings in the New Testament gospels). Salvation, like punishment, is not important in itself, it, according to the author of the apocrypha, should serve the conversion of unbelievers; the call to remember the miracle also contains a hidden warning to the "forgetful" — this call was addressed not only to the characters of the Gospel of childhood, but also to its readers.

In addition to the miracles of punishment and healing, the Gospel of childhood includes episodes with miracles, which are supposed to reveal in visual images the teaching of Jesus or his future. All descriptions of such miracles, in addition to the desire to once again demonstrate the supernatural nature of Jesus, have a hidden meaning: the twelve sparrows that he sent to fly are the symbol of the twelve apostles whom he will send to preach, and Jesus the sower who gathered an unprecedented harvest from the grain he threw away - the symbol of the sower of the true faith - a common image in the Christian scriptures (this image is found in both the canonical and apocryphal gospels). and Jesus, who brought water in his garment, is a symbol of the living water of faith. But what was parables in the early gospels becomes an accomplishment in the gospel of childhood, according to the constantly repeated words: everything he says becomes an act, a miracle to be understood.

In the stories of the miracles performed by Jesus, in addition to the problem of the true and the visible, there is another problem that worried Christians of the second century, the problem of punishment and intercession. Primitive Christianity was first of all a religion of "salvation", those who believed in the redemptive mission of Christ felt their chosenness. The very act of baptism meant for them the possibility of salvation from death. In the early tradition, Jesus did not punish his enemies. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus was not accepted by the inhabitants of the Samaritan village, and the angry disciples offered to call upon this village "heavenly fire", but Jesus forbade them ("For the Son of Man came not to destroy human souls, but to save." – 9:53-56). Those who listened to such stories expected a reward for their sufferings in the kingdom of God on earth, and not momentary revenge on their offenders: retribution was to be accomplished once and for all during the Last Judgment. All those who did not follow Christ must be thrown into "hell of fire," or, as Matthew's Gospel says in the parable of the feast, "into outer darkness." But over time, Christians, who continued to exist in the same earthly, difficult life full of misfortunes, were faced with the question of these misfortunes as a punishment of God, the causes of which had been incomprehensible to people since the time of the ancient Eastern works about "innocent sufferers" (the most striking example is given in the Old Testament Book of Job). God, who sends misfortune, unwittingly acquired the features of a formidable and incomprehensible power, cruelly punishing for the slightest offense (death for splashed water – in the Gospel of childhood). Naturally, the punishing deity had to punish all who did not recognize him, and the Christians, in spite of their preaching of mercy, hoped that their persecutors and persecutors would perish as well as those who dared to offend the boy Jesus. The theme of punishment began to manifest itself clearly in Christian literature of the second and fourth centuries: in the Apocalypse of Peter, apparently written in the second century, along with a description of paradise, a detailed description of hell is given, with a list of all the transgressions and sins for which punishment was imposed, and in the later Gospel of Nicodemus, a story about Christ's descent into hell, which is in no way connected with the first part, is added to the absolutely fantastic description of the trial of Jesus.

Less definitely, but still perceptibly, the theme of "intercession" is present in the Gospel of childhood, which also reflected the mentality of Christians at that time, when the process of spreading the new religion in breadth was underway.