Jesus as a Child: What Can We Actually Know?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

Have you ever wondered what Jesus was like as a child? Whether you’re a practicing believer or simply someone with a keen interest in the intricate history of Christian origins, this question has likely crossed your mind. 

The image of Jesus is often shaped by his adult ministry — his teachings, miracles, and ultimately, his crucifixion. But what about Jesus as a child, in the years before he became a public figure? What glimpses do we have of Jesus’ childhood, and how do these early years contribute to the person he became?

In this exploration, we’ll set aside theological interpretations and approach the subject from a purely historical perspective. Our journey will begin with the scant references in the New Testament that offer a brief (and not so revealing) window into Jesus’ early life.

We’ll then turn our attention to other ancient writings that claim to shed light on the childhood story of Jesus, examining their historical reliability and what they can tell us, if anything, about this enigmatic period of his life. 

By delving into both canonical and non-canonical sources, we aim to piece together a composite narrative of what (if anything!) we can know about Jesus as a child.

But before we begin, I invite you to check out the excellent course “Jesus the Secret Messiah” by Dr. Bart D. Ehrman. In it, Dr. Ehrman provides a scholarly analysis of our earliest Gospel, delving into its historical and cultural context. 

Jesus as a Child: What Does the New Testament Reveal?

Our primary sources for understanding the life of Jesus are the New Testament Gospels,  composed between 35 and 65 years after his death. It’s crucial to keep in mind that the authors of these Gospels had no inkling that their writings would eventually become part of a collection known as the New Testament. 

Take the Gospel of Matthew, for instance. The author likely intended to create a narrative about Jesus tailored to his own community’s needs and probably never imagined his account would be enshrined as scripture centuries after its creation. It wasn’t until later that Christians began to treat these texts as authoritative accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Moreover, contrary to what many might assume, the Gospels were almost certainly not penned by eyewitnesses. The authors were well-educated, Greek-speaking Christians writing several decades after the events they describe.

Their narratives, as Richard Burridge has shown, are best understood as ancient biographies, but it’s important to remember that ancient biographies are a different breed from the ones we’re familiar with today. (Affiliate Disclaimer: We may earn commissions on products you purchase through this page at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site!)

Unfortunately for those of us curious about Jesus as a child, one of the key differences is that ancient biographers typically didn’t dwell much on the early years of their subjects. They were far more interested in the adult achievements of their protagonists. This omission is evident in the Gospels we have today. The earliest Gospel (Mark) and the latest (John) don’t spend any time on Jesus’ early years. 

The only information we get comes from Matthew and Luke, and even then, it’s quite sparse. Matthew and Luke provide birth narratives, and Luke adds a single story about a 12-year-old Jesus impressing the teachers in the Jerusalem Temple with his wisdom (Luke 2:41-51).

From a historical standpoint, this story is quite dubious. It doesn’t appear in any other Gospel, which means it lacks what historians call “multiple attestation” — an important factor in assessing historical reliability. 

Additionally, in her book The Historical Jesus, Helen Bond notes: “The similarity of this story to other tales of precocious lads who went on to become great leaders (including one told by Josephus of himself, Life 9!) suggests that here, too, the story owes its origins to Christian piety rather than historical recollection.”

Given these constraints, it’s clear that the New Testament Gospels don’t offer us much reliable information about Jesus’ childhood. What we do know, based on all the Gospels, is that Jesus grew up in Nazareth. 

In Jesus’ time, Nazareth was a small, unremarkable village with a population of perhaps 400 people. It was so insignificant that neither the historian Josephus nor the Talmud — both of which mention various Galilean towns — bother to discuss it.

Most of the inhabitants likely worked in agriculture or small-scale industries. Jesus and his family were probably part of this economic landscape, with Jesus himself engaging in physical labor.

The Gospels’ silence on Jesus' childhood left an intriguing gap that early Christians were eager to fill. It's almost as if the early church collectively thought: "Surely the Son of God didn’t spend his childhood just doing chores!"

This curiosity led to the creation of numerous stories that didn’t make it into the Bible but circulated in early Christian communities. Before we delve into these extra-biblical tales, however, it’s worth summarizing what historians generally agree on about Jesus’ life. 

Historical Jesus: What Can We Know?

In exploring the life of Jesus, scholars generally agree on several key facts that have been widely accepted in acclaimed studies such as The Historical Figure of Jesus by E. P. Sanders and Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman. 

What follows is a brief snapshot of these historical facts, thus providing a foundation upon which more detailed explorations can be built. For those interested in a deeper dive into this subject, I highly recommend an excellent article by my colleague Josh. His work not only provides additional context but also draws on a wealth of secondary sources to substantiate these claims.

Here are the agreed-upon facts about the life of Jesus:

While these facts form the bedrock of what historians broadly agree upon, they also serve as a prelude to the less certain, more mysterious aspects of Jesus' life — particularly his early years. 

Unfortunately, the New Testament provides scant information about Jesus as a child, which left early Christians with a curiosity that would later give rise to various non-canonical stories.

As we turn now to explore the most famous of these accounts, we delve into the rich, though not historically verified, traditions that attempt to fill in the gaps of Jesus' childhood.

The Story of Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas! Wait, What?

For those curious about Jesus as a child, there is one early Christian text that takes us on quite an unexpected journey: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. 

This apocryphal gospel, brimming with vivid and often surprising stories, develops an intriguing picture of Jesus between the ages of 5 and 12. I distinctly remember coming across it during my graduate studies, and let me tell you — it’s a wild ride!

If you haven’t had the chance to read it yet, I highly recommend it, especially in the excellent compilation The Other Gospels, edited by Bart D. Ehrman and my compatriot Zlatko Pleše. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in early Christian literature.

An Introduction to the Account of Jesus’ Childhood

The earliest manuscripts we have of this gospel date back to the 5th and 6th centuries in Latin and Syriac, although scholars are quite confident that the original was written in Greek. Our oldest Greek manuscript, however, only surfaces in the 11th century.

What complicates matters even further is that not all the manuscripts contain the same stories, and, sometimes, the stories appear in different sequences. This variability makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint the earliest version of the gospel.

Most scholars, though, agree that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was likely composed in the 2nd century. As Ehrman and Pleše note: 

This suggests that tales of Jesus' childhood circulated quite early in Christian communities, being reshaped and retold both orally and in written form for centuries.

A Mischievous Miracle Worker: Jesus as a Child in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas presents a captivating, if somewhat jarring, portrait of young Jesus as both a divine miracle worker and, frankly, a bit of a troublemaker. 

Some stories showcase his compassionate side, such as when he molds sparrows out of clay and brings them to life — a depiction of Jesus as a child still wielding incredible power. In another episode, he resurrects a boy who had fallen to his death and even heals his brother James after a poisonous snake bite. It certainly pays to have a divine sibling!

However, not all the stories are so heartwarming. In fact, some present Jesus as a rather terrifying figure for those who crossed him. For instance, when a boy uses a branch to disrupt pools of water that Jesus had made, Jesus curses him, and the boy withers up like a tree.

If that’s not enough, another story has Jesus cursing a child who accidentally bumps into him — causing the boy to immediately drop dead. And when one of his teachers grows frustrated and strikes Jesus, he retaliates by cursing the man into a coma!

These stories even lead Joseph to warn Mary to keep Jesus inside, because, as he grimly remarks, “people who make him angry die.” As amusing as these anecdotes might seem from a modern perspective, they may not have been so funny to early readers who believed them.

Interpreting the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

So, how should we understand these stories, especially the more unsettling ones? Why would someone even write such an account? The sheer number of manuscripts in various languages attests to the Infancy Gospel of Thomas’ popularity, but its purpose has been the subject of much debate.

One interesting interpretation comes from Reidar Aasgaard in his book The Childhood of Jesus, where he suggests that this text might represent one of the earliest examples of Christian literature for children.

He writes: 

While it’s an intriguing theory, there’s no other example of children's literature from the ancient world, Christian or otherwise, that we can use for comparison. This doesn’t mean parents didn’t tell their children stories — there’s evidence that they did — but we simply lack other literary examples that fit into this supposed genre.

What we do have are other ancient accounts of famous figures’ childhoods, such as Hercules and Alexander the Great. In these stories, the young heroes aren’t depicted as realistic children. Instead, they already display the virtues and powers they’ll later show as adults.

Similarly, the young Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas isn’t portrayed as a “childish” or immature version of the man he would become, but as a fully formed divine figure, capable of extraordinary feats — even if some of them cross into dangerous territory.

But, wait! How can a young boy (or a child) have the same character traits throughout his life? Again, Bart D. Ehrman and Zlatko Pleše provide the necessary explanation: 

This could suggest that the gospel wasn’t meant for children, but rather for adults seeking to understand the nature of Jesus as a child. 

Jesus’ Childhood: A Theological Statement, Not a Psychological Portrait

How, then, do we account for the stories of Jesus being something of a terror? These accounts don’t necessarily imply that the author wasn’t a devout Christian. Quite the contrary!

Early Christians didn’t only emphasize Jesus’ compassion; they also took seriously his warnings about sin and judgment.

Just as Jesus’ adult teachings included stark warnings of divine punishment for those who rejected his message, perhaps these stories of a dangerous young Jesus served a similar purpose — reminding believers of the consequences of straying from the path of faith.

In this sense, the “problematic” stories might function as cautionary tales, warning against disobedience or faithlessness.

In fact, early Christian literature was rife with accounts of divine judgment and punishment for sinners, including descriptions of hell’s torments, such as in the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter. Ramsay MacMullen even called it "sadistic," highlighting that Christianity’s early spread wasn’t driven solely by the promise of grace but also by the vivid threat of divine retribution.

Perhaps we can read the troubling episodes in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas in a similar light  — as theological warnings wrapped in the tales of a precocious, and sometimes dangerous, young Jesus.

The Power of Jesus’ Word

Despite the wide variety of stories in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, one theme runs through them all: the sheer power of Jesus’ word. Whether he is raising the dead, cursing disobedient children, or healing the afflicted, everything happens through his command.

More than once, astonished onlookers declare: “His every word is a work that happens!” In this way, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas can be seen as a powerful statement of early Christian belief in the incarnation of God’s Word in the form of a human being – even a child.

While most children learn to speak, read, and write, this child doesn’t have to. Jesus as a child, according to this gospel, is already the Word of God, and his words carry both the promise of life and the potential for death.

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: History or Legend?

While the Infancy Gospel of Thomas offers a colorful and intriguing portrayal of Jesus as a child, it’s important to recognize that this narrative isn’t rooted in historical fact. Composed in the 2nd century C.E., well over a hundred years after the period of Jesus’ childhood, the gospel is a product of early Christian theological imagination.

It fills the gaps left by the New Testament Gospels, which, as we've seen, provide little information about Jesus' childhood. Early Christians, much like readers today, were naturally curious about what Jesus might have been like as a child, and this text reflects their attempts to answer that question. 

As a result, no scholars that I know of would argue that any of the stories in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas go back to the historical Jesus. There’s simply no evidence that these tales were part of an early tradition somehow rooted in the world of Palestinian Judaism.

Instead, people should understand them as fictional creations, crafted to provide insight into the young Jesus by projecting the miraculous powers and divine authority of the adult Jesus back into his childhood.

Conclusion

In exploring the limited references to Jesus as a child within the New Testament and the more elaborate accounts found in apocryphal texts such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, we gain a deeper understanding of how early Christians grappled with the mystery of his early years. 

While the canonical Gospels provide only a few fleeting glimpses, the vivid — and at times unsettling — stories of Jesus’ childhood found in non-canonical writings reveal a creative effort to fill in the narrative gaps left by the New Testament texts.

These stories, though not historically reliable, reflect the theological concerns and imaginations of early Christian communities, who sought to understand their Savior's divine nature, even in his childhood.

Ultimately, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and other such writings don’t offer us a factual account of Jesus’ early life, but they do serve as a fascinating window into how his followers in the second century and beyond perceived him.

The depiction of Jesus as a child in these texts highlights his power, divinity, and authority, even at a young age – traits that would, according to Jesus’ followers, later define his public ministry and cement his place as a central figure in the Christian religion.