The oldest record of Jesus' childhood found at German library

It was believed that the earliest example of the Gospels was created in the 11th century for a long time. However, researchers studying the papers of the Hamburg State and University Library found an ancient Egyptian manuscript describing a miracle that Jesus performed as a child that appeared long before that.

The 2,000-year-old papyrus contains a story about how the 5-year-old Messiah brought clay sparrows to life. Scientists suggest that the record was created in the 4th or 5th century, the Daily Mail reports.

A fragment of the manuscript, measuring 10 by 5 centimeters, contains a story from the Gospel of Thomas the Child. According to the story, the little Jesus, playing by a stream, made 12 sparrows out of clay. When his father noticed what he was doing, he admonished his son to stop working on the holy Sabbath, the day of rest and worship. In response, the 5-year-old Messiah ordered the clay figures to "fly away like living birds," which they did.

Researchers at Humboldt University initially identified the manuscript as a fragment of an everyday document, such as a private correspondence or a shopping list. However, after careful analysis, they came to the conclusion that this assumption was wrong.

"First, we noticed the word 'Jesus' in the text. Then, comparing it with many other digitized papyri, we deciphered it letter by letter and quickly realized that it could not be an everyday document," said Dr. Lajos Berkes, one of the scientists.

Later, a statement was released that, given the clumsy handwriting, crooked lines and incorrect formatting, the story was written as a school or monastic exercise.

According to scholars, the original story of Jesus' early years was described in the Gospel of the Infancy of Thomas. However, for unknown reasons, all records were excluded from the final text of the Bible.

Charles Dyer, a professor at the Bible Institute, believes that this was done to focus humanity's attention on the purpose of the Messiah's work on Earth: "In fact, we have very little information about the life of Jesus, even as an adult. But the part that we do have is what God thought was sufficient to truly understand who He is and why He came to Earth."

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