Infancy gospel
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Several surviving infancy gospels give an idea of the miracle literature that was created in the early Christian church to satisfy the hunger of early Christians for more detail about the early life of their Savior. In Greek an infancy gospel was termed a protevangelion, a 'pre-Gospel' narrating events of Jesus' life before those recorded in the four canonical gospels.
None of the miraculous Infancy gospels were accepted into the Biblical canon, but the very number of their surviving manuscripts attest to their continued popularity.
They include the following literature:
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The Infancy Gospel of James
See under Gospel of James
- Text of the Infancy Gospel of James (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancyjames.html)
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
The miraculous deeds performed by Jesus as a child include the fashioning of sparrows from clay, which took wing and flew away.
- Text of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancythomas.html)
The Infancy Gospel of Matthew
See under Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
The Infancy Gospel of Mark
The Arabic Infancy Gospel
- Arabic Infancy gospel (http://www.webcom.com/~gnosis/library/infarab.htm)
See also
- (Gnosticism: By definition, Gnostic texts are generally more concerned with the pre-existence and generation of Jesus than in narrative details of his life. Christian laypeople tend to label as "gnostic" most non-canonical texts.