Ancient papyrus found by Berlin scientists sheds light on the early years of Jesus

Back in mid-2023, researchers at the University of Hamburg discovered a fragment of ancient papyrus during a digitization project. For 18 months, scientists have been studying the valuable find and now say that the Christian artifact sheds light on the early years of Jesus, who was already able to perform miracles.

Scientists Gabriel Nocci Macedo and his colleague Lajos Berkes discovered a papyrus that is considered the oldest surviving Greek copy of the Gospel of Thomas about the childhood of the Son of God. This fragment offers insights into episodes from the life of Jesus Christ between the ages of five and twelve that are not found in the canonical Bible, The Jerusalem Post reports.

"Over the past 18 months, we have been closely studying these papyrus documents," said Berlin-based scholar Gabriel Nocci Macedo.

The 11-by-5-centimeter fragment, dated to the fourth to fifth century, contains the remains of 13 lines of ancient Greek text. The oldest known Greek textual version of the Gospel of Thomas dates back to the 11th century, experts say.

Initially, the papyrus was not noticed in the library's vast collection because of its nondescript appearance and clumsy handwriting. "People thought it was part of an ordinary document, such as a private letter or a shopping list because the writing seemed very clumsy," Macedo added.

The researchers suspect that the copy of the Gospel was created as a writing exercise in a monastery or school, possibly by a monk who was training to be a scribe. "In the case of our papyrus, it is not calligraphic, not beautiful, and not well made. This was not a professional, a scribe. I think that is why the fragment did not attract the attention of scientists earlier," the researcher noted.

According to scientists, the found papyrus offers insight into episodes of Jesus' childhood that are not in the canonical Bible. One story describes Jesus at the age of five playing on the bank of a stream.

Another passage describes how Christ formed twelve sparrows out of soft clay on the Sabbath while many other children played with him. When Joseph, his father, saw this, he rebuked Jesus, saying, "Why are you doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath?" In response, Jesus clapped his hands and commanded the clay birds: "Get out," and they flew away, chirping.

The fragment was identified through access to a database of ancient Greek literature. "We deciphered it letter by letter, comparing it with many other digitized papyri, and quickly realized that it could not be a secular document. When we searched for Paleo-Christian texts, we recognized that it was a copy of the Gospel of Thomas," the researchers summarized.

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