Among the Christians who were baptized by the middle of the second century, there were people of different social status, different occupations, and different moral capabilities. Already in Paul's epistles we speak of conflicts within Christians, of violations of the norms of Christian ethics[193]; Among the Christians there were people who were in the civil service, who fulfilled the prescriptions that were not always in accordance with their religious convictions [194], but along with people who renounced Christianity during the persecutions, there were also people who were ready to endure any torture for the faith [195]. In such a situation, among ordinary Christians, who, on the one hand, saw each other's shortcomings and muteness, and on the other hand, took their misfortunes for God's punishment, began to hope for "intercessors", intermediaries between them and the punishing deity (this psychological factor contributed, in particular, to the identification of the clergy as people who acted as such "mediators"). In the Gospel of childhood, the theme of forgiveness "for the sake of the righteous" appears in several episodes: Jesus promises to be silent, that is, to restrain his anger, for the sake of Joseph's requests, although Joseph does not understand the true meaning of his actions. Then, after the teacher Zacchaeus was shocked by his wisdom and recognized him as "God or an angel," Jesus pardoned those he had punished. True, this pardon was made not only for the sake of the teacher, but also so that the punished and forgiven would believe in him. And in another episode with the teacher (perhaps these episodes are duplicated in copying and editing; originally there were only two teachers: one who struck Jesus, and the other who recognized him), Jesus directly says: "... Since thou hast spoken and testified truly, for thy sake he who has been smitten shall be healed." Here the idea is clearly formulated that Jesus forgave those who sinned against him for the sake of the one who believed in him and testified about him, i.e. it was not their repentance (however, the death penalty did not give them the opportunity to repent), but the one who believed in him and comprehended his essence acts as their savior. The hope of intercessors compensated for the fear of the formidable deity into which Jesus was becoming more and more in the fantastic notions of his followers.

The image of Jesus in the Gospel of Childhood is different from the image of Jesus in the New Testament and, as far as we can judge from the fragments, in the Judeo-Christian Gospels. This difference can be traced in the description of almost all episodes of the Gospel. In the canonical texts, the few that mention Jesus' childhood and adolescence, it is said that he "grew and was strengthened in spirit, being filled with wisdom"; "But Jesus abounded in wisdom..." (Lk. 2. 40, 52). For the author of Thomas' story of Jesus' childhood, he is not "filled" with wisdom and does not succeed in it, he possesses it. Even Jesus the teacher in the Apocrypha is very different from Jesus the teacher of the New Testament. In the Gospel of Luke, there is an episode when Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth "got up to read"; the Bible was handed to him, he opened it, found the place he needed, and having read it, he sat down and began to preach (4:16-20). Such was the usual situation in synagogues. Little Jesus from the Apocrypha also takes a book at school, but does not read it, but immediately begins to speak by inspiration from above. Human features completely disappear in the image of Jesus, historical reality is replaced by a pseudo-reality created by the author. In this episode, perhaps, there is a polemic with the New Testament (and, probably, other early) gospels, a desire to introduce similar episodes, but in a different interpretation. The same fullness of true knowledge given to Jesus from the beginning is also evident in the episodes with the teachers, when Jesus demands that they explain the hidden meaning of the letters (according to Irenaeus, the Marcosians were engaged in interpreting the mystical meaning of letters and numbers). True, the explanation of the alpha lines given in the Gospel (or rather a description of them) is not quite clear, unless behind this description there was a symbolism known to readers, associated with the idea of separation and union, so important to the Gnostics. In this episode, Jesus not only possesses schoolboy wisdom, he possesses knowledge hidden from ordinary mortals.

To reveal this idea, the author of the Gospel of childhood uses an episode from the Gospel of Luke about the stay of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. According to the canonical gospel, Jesus went with his parents to Jerusalem for a feast, at the end of the feast the parents went home, but Jesus remained in Jerusalem; his parents found him in the temple, where he sat among the teachers, listened to them and asked them; "all who heard Him marveled at His understanding and at His answers" (2:42-47). In the story of this event in the Gospel of childhood, individual phrases from Luke's text are used verbatim, but the author of the apocrypha embellished the legend transmitted in the New Testament, introducing and modifying some details. In the Gospel of Childhood, Jesus silences the elders and instructs the "teachers of the people and the elders" gathered in the temple, explaining to them the meaning of the Law and the prophets. The scribes and Pharisees who listen to him are not merely amazed at his intelligence, but say to his mother, who has come for Jesus: "Such glory, such valor and wisdom we have never seen or heard of." Thus, the uniqueness of Jesus is emphasized here, teaching (and not talking) and immediately arousing the admiration of the listeners, as in the episode in school, when all who heard his sermon marveled at his grace and wisdom. The author is not interested in the question of why later the Pharisees and scribes did not recognize the teachings of Jesus and opposed it (these statements are described in both the canonical and some apocryphal gospels). His Jesus is a deity, and as a teacher, he cannot fail to convince everyone who hears him.

The episode in the temple, which concludes the Gospel of childhood, seems to connect it with the New Testament stories; the inclusion of phrases from the Gospel of Luke was probably a special stylistic device, showing that the account of Jesus' childhood is directly adjacent to the accounts of the life and preaching of the adult Jesus, which are revered by most Christians. But this connection was purely external, for the Jesus of the Gospel of childhood could not have become the Jesus created by the first preachers, who gathered around them the poor, the crippled, the orphans, the widows, all those who could not find a place for themselves in the imperial society of the beginning of our era. The acts of cruelty and self-will committed by the boy Jesus could not have been committed by the prophet who then declared: "... My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matt. 11:30), and also, according to the Judeo-Christian Gospels, he told his disciples: "And never be joyful, except when you love your brother."

For the first Christians, the miracles that the preachers told them about were primarily miracles of healing, for their messiah acted as a savior, a healer of soul and body. The canonical gospels also describe symbolic miracles, such as feeding thousands of people with a few loaves of bread, turning water into wine, etc., but the main acts of Jesus are "casting out demons" and healing the sick. This is how he was perceived by the first Christians (as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles: "And he went about doing good and healing all those possessed by the devil." – 10:38). And the same gift, according to Christian traditions, he endowed his disciples. The miracles of healing and resurrection in the Gospel of childhood are meant to show the power of Jesus; characteristically, none of these miracles is performed at the request of the sufferer (cf. Mk. 5:22:33-34): He Himself chooses those to whom He shows mercy.

In describing the resurrection, expressions are used that occur in similar episodes of canonical texts. Witnesses of miracles say: "... He saved many souls from death and will save them all his life." However, by including the use of New Testament texts in his story, the author of the Gospel of childhood changes it where it differs from his theological concept. For example, in the Gospel of Luke, the young men present at the resurrection exclaim: "... a great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people" (7:16); in the apocrypha, the witnesses of miracles call Jesus God or an angel, but not a prophet. The New Testament texts reflect the oldest Christian tradition about Jesus the prophet, which was traced in Judeo-Christian writings. But by the time the Gospel of Childhood was written, the image of Jesus for Gentile Christians was increasingly dehumanized, so that the word "prophet" no longer expressed their perception of Christ, not to mention the fact that for Greek-speaking readers who were far from Judaism, the concept of a prophet was devoid of the religious meaning that it had for the first Christians who came from a Jewish environment.

Thus, the author of the Gospel of Childhood, without entering into an open polemic with the New Testament texts revered by many Christians of the second century and even emphasizing the connection with them, at the same time pursues a different theological concept, which goes back to Gnostic ideas. The image of Jesus depicted in the Apocrypha could not but influence the readers' perception of the entire subsequent life of Jesus up to his martyrdom, creating ideas close to the ideas of the Docetists (a sorcerer who punished with death for an offense inflicted on him could not experience real torment).

The Gnostic influence was also evident in certain word usages: along with phrases directly borrowed from the Gospels of the New Testament, the author also uses terminology found in the works of the Gnostics ("power", "chosen", "stoicheion" is a word meaning "letter" and "beginning", etc.). However

In works like the Gospel of Childhood, there was a vulgarization of Gnosticism, which, despite the polemics of the leaders of the majority of Christian communities, penetrated the masses, reinterpreted and in turn influenced theologians, especially in the East.

Ортодоксальная церковь не могла признать священным Евангелие детства: оно было создано достаточно поздно, образ Иисуса существенно расходился с тем, что было сказано о нем в канонических писаниях, наконец, оно испытало заметное влияние учений, с которыми церковь вела борьбу. Но популярность его была очень велика.

В III–IV вв. появляются писания от имени Иосифа и других персонажей, мельком упомянутых в христианских священных книгах. Продолжением традиции, проявившейся в Евангелии детства, было, например, Евангелие Никодима, дошедшее до нас в более позднем латинском переводе. Оно состоит из двух частей, тематически не связанных друг с другом. В первой части подробно описывается процесс над Иисусом, во второй — его схождение в ад, где он схватил Сатану и приказал заковать его в цепи. Вероятно, первоначально это были два разных произведения, но объединение их не было простой случайностью: обе части при всей их внутренней несвязанности отражают общий подход к образу Иисуса. Он предстает фигурой совершенно фантастической: как и в Евангелии детства, главное место занимают не речения его, а самые невероятные чудеса [196].

Характерной чертой поздних сказаний типа описания процесса над Иисусом в Евангелии Никодима было отсутствие в них этических и догматических положений. Они одинаково далеки и от мистической философии гностиков, и от призывов помогать беднякам, столь ярко выраженных в иудео–христианских евангелиях. Но, невзирая на настороженное отношение церкви к этим произведениям, они продолжали распространяться. Учение о сошествии Христа в ад, отраженное во многих замечательных произведениях иконописи, вошло в церковную традицию под влиянием этих поздних апокрифов.

Евангелие детства в раннем средневековье было переведено на сирийский, коптский, армянский, грузинский языки; существуют также его эфиопская и арабская версии. Существовали и древнеславянские переводы этого евангелия; в списках древнерусских запрещенных книг оно встречается и как «История Фомы израильтянина» (причем добавлено — философа, а не апостола, дабы не смущать умы верующих апостольским именем), и как «Детство Христово» (XIV в.). На Западе на основе Евангелия детства было создано латинское евангелие псевдо–Матфея, изобилующее еще большими подробностями, чем оригинальный апокриф. Популярность этих произведений, как и популярность рассказов о Марии, объясняется все теми же социально–психологическими факторами: связью с привычными фольклорными мотивами, надеждой на чудо в повседневной жизни, верой в беспредельное могущество божества.

Евангелие детства отражает ту эволюцию, которую претерпел в умах верующих образ основателя христианства: от бедного и добродетельного человека иудео–христиан до грозного божества, карающего и милующего по своему произволу в апокрифах поздней античности и раннего средневековья. Евангелие детства интересно также и тем, что оно свидетельствует о развитии различных жанров христианской литературы и после создания новозаветных книг, о том, что в этой литературе отражались и объединялись разные, порой враждебные друг другу религиозные течения: то, к чему непримиримо относились теологи и руководители церкви, уживалось в представлениях рядовых верующих.