Infancy Narratives

يعالج القسم الأول من المقال المسائل الخاصة بالمكان والزمان وهوية كاتب الإنجيل؛ أما القسم الثاني، فيحلل بعض النماذج بناءً على مقارنة النصوص القانونية والتقاليد المسيحية الرسمية. في لائحة المراجع تجدون ذكرًا لأهم ما نُشر من الدراسات الحديثة حول هذا المخطوط.

A World of Babies provides a wide variety of answers to these and countless other child-rearing questions, precisely because diverse communities around the world hold such different beliefs about parenting and engage in remarkably different child-rearing practices. While celebrating that diversity, the book also explores the challenges that poverty, globalization, and violence pose for parents.
Fully updated for the twenty-first century, this edition features a new introduction and eight new or revised chapters that directly address contemporary parenting challenges, from China and Peru to Israel and the West Bank.
Written as imagined advice manuals to parents, the creative format of the book brings alive a rich body of knowledge that highlights many models of baby-rearing–each shaped by deeply held values and widely varying contexts
Parenthood may never again seem a matter of “common sense.”

The identity of the κατάλυμα in Luke 2.7 has been debated among Western scholars for over five hundred years. Proposals have ranged from an inn to a guest room. This article argues that the term κατάλυμα has a generic sense of ‘place to stay’ and that the final clause of Luke 2.7 should be rendered ‘because they had no space in their place to stay’. Moreover, three clues in the context—Joseph’s compliance with the census order, the betrothal of Mary, and the manger—suggest that the accommodations presupposed by Luke are a marital chamber too small for giving birth.

In Luke 2:22 Luke attributes parturient impurity to both Mary and Jesus (and/or Joseph). Interpreters have often concluded that this verse demonstrates that Luke misunderstands the levitical legislation pertaining to childbirth impurity (Leviticus 12), which discusses only the impurity of the new mother. This article argues that, despite the apparent contradiction between Leviticus 12 and Luke 2, Luke has not misunderstood Jewish conceptions of impurity after birth. Not only is it possible to conclude that Leviticus 12 implicitly ascribes impurity to the newborn child, but some Second Temple Jewish writers, such as the authors of Jubilees and 4Q265, also believed that the newborn child suffered the same manner of impurity as the new mother. Luke's gospel, therefore, demonstrates familiarity with contemporary Jewish purity beliefs and practices.

When a new baby arrives among the Beng people of West Africa, they see it not as being born, but as being reincarnated after a rich life in a previous world. Far from being a tabula rasa, a Beng infant is thought to begin its life filled with spiritual knowledge. But how do these beliefs affect the ways the Beng raise their children?
In this unique and engaging ethnography of babies, Alma Gottlieb explores how Beng religious ideology affects every aspect of their childrearing practices, from bathing infants to protecting them from disease to teaching them how to crawl and walk. She shows too how widespread poverty among the Beng sets practical limits on these practices. A mother of two, Gottlieb includes moving discussions of how her experiences among the Beng changed the way she saw her own parenting. Throughout the book she also draws telling comparisons between Beng and Euro-American parenting, bringing home just how deeply culture matters to the ways we all raise our children.
Anyone interested in the culture of infancy, and vice versa, will enjoy The Afterlife Is Where We Come From.

In his “Structure et théologie de Luc I-II” from 1957, René Laurentin advanced the view that the figure of Mary is to be interpreted as a new Ark of the Covenant in the scene of the Visitation (Luke 1:39-56). This interpretation is based primarily on an intertextual reference to 2 Sam 6:1-11. Still, Laurentin’s thesis did not resonate with New Testament scholars. In the present paper, it is shown that recent observations according to which the embryo in Mary’s womb is to be identified as YHWH Himself offer new evidence for Laurentin’s thesis.

The bulk of Basil of Caesarea’s neglected Homilia in sanctam Christi generationem is a commentary on select verses of Matthew 1:18-2:11. He explicitly approves or rejects other interpretations, though without ever naming their authors. This study does not merely identify his sources and interlocutors, but more importantly examines how he engaged with previous and contemporary theologians and exegetes in a critical, selective, and creative manner. It shows that while Basil may have borrowed from Eusebius of Caesarea and refuted Eunomius, his primary conversation partner was Origen. Basil’s use of Origen is by no means uniform, but ranges from wholesale adoption to outright rejection. Hence it is in his appropriation of Origen that Basil’s critical, selective, and creative engagement with exegetical traditions is most clearly seen. This study concludes with a typology of seven ways in which Basil engaged with Origen in this homily.

In Getting into the Text: New Testament Essays in Honor of David Alan Black, ed. Daniel L. Akin and Thomas W. Hudgins (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2017), 192–211.

Although the Two Document hypothesis seems to still represent the consensus solution to the Synoptic problem several minority positions exist. These include the Two Gospel hypothesis (including Orchard’s variant Fourfold-Gospel hypothesis), the Farrer-Goulder hypothesis (Mark-without-Q hypothesis), the Augustinian hypothesis, and most recently the Matthew Conflator hypothesis. All of these minority positions hold that either Luke used Matthew or Matthew used Luke while the dominant Two Document hypothesis insists that Matthew and Luke both wrote independently with access to Mark and some other source (Q).

The striking differences between the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke seem to provide strong evidence that Matthew and Luke wrote independently. This paper reassess the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke in light of the four minority positions on the Synoptic problem and argues that the differences between the infancy narratives do not preclude the possibility that Matthew could have used Luke or Luke could have used Matthew.

The iconographical program of wall paintings in the Quarry Church of Saint John the Baptist in Dayr Abū H. innis focuses on its patron saint. A frieze of Infancy scenes in the narthex of the church, seemingly centering on the early life of Christ, was thought to be an exception. In this paper, I argue that the unusual beginning of the frieze (Massacre of the Innocents) shows that the guiding element of this series of paintings is the Infancy of Saint John the Baptist. Thus, this frieze, in which generally known images were combined in an original and creative way, fits perfectly in the carefully designed overall iconographical program honoring the titular saint of the church, the model par excellence of monastic life.

Two canonical gospels, Matthew and Luke, contain infancy narratives. The Infancy Narrative of St Matthew's Gospel is contained in its first two chapters and it includes a genealogy and ‘five stories, each with a marked unity of structure...woven around a testimonium from the Old Testament’.  Scholarship on the infancy narrative in Matthew has passed through two stages. Matthew’s birth narrative has intrigued scholars and the first stage was concerned about identifying the origin of the birth material. The second stage focused on the historicity of the infancy stories. Scholarship has now entered a third, stage and is concerned about investigating the meaning and significance of this narrative.  What role does infancy narrative play in the gospel of this specific Christian community? In the following pages an attempt had been made to discuss the origin, historicity, Purpose, and theology of Matthew’s infancy narrative.

This is my preview of my talk at the Rochester preaching conference (May 21, 2015) on what Matthew 1-2 is doing with its series of quotations from the Old Testament. By reading the OT quotes in context a pattern becomes clear, resulting in a reading of the Infancy narratives as a critique of Israel's leadership, proposing Jesus as an alternative "son of David."

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As Luke closes the narrative of Jesus' birth, before opening up the details of the public course of John's and Jesus' adult ministries, he provides a vignette of Jesus' youth. In one respect, Luke's frontispiece is typical; it portrays Jesus and his family living out their customary routines as a devout Jewish household. 1 In another respect, we see Jesus contending with his divine calling, albeit conditionally, and we are apprised of God's unremitting χάρις (joy, liberality, pleasure) for the sake of the child as he reaches adulthood. We will hear Jesus speak for the first time as identity and mission meet in his adolescent voice, and he will shoulder the responsibility foretold for him. 2 With this disclosure, we are rehearsed for the forestalled resumption of John's story (cf. 1:80), who will ἑτοιμάζω (provide) a way for Jesus' public ministry (1:76-77). 3

[Bethlehem: At the Intersection of Theology, History and Archaeology]

The paper deals with one of the crucial places on the map of salvation geography (Heilsgeographie), namely Bethlehem. Starting with a discussion of the etymology of the city’s name, both in Biblical Hebrew (house of bread) and in ancient Akkadian cuneiform script (house of [the goddess] Lahmu/Lakhamu), the study then analyses all of the Old Testament references (with a special focus on the oracle of Micah 5:1) and New Testament  references to Bethlehem. An overview of the economic and demographic situation of the Judean small towns and villages like Bethlehem during the Herodian era supplements the analysis. There is also an attempt to dispel the false conflict regarding a proper understanding of the locus of Jesus’ birth: stable presumed from the biblical data (cf. manger) versus cave attested in patristic writings and suggested by archeological survey of the area. The exact meaning of the Lucan term katalyma, meaning living space/room and not inn (as widely followed by modern translations of the NT), is also discussed, along with a brief overview of scholarly explanations as to reasons for the lack of room in the katalyma. The study ends with a note on the history of Bethlehem in the Roman and Byzantine periods, focusing on the traditional spot of Jesus’ birth as it was transformed into a pagan, and later Christian, place of cult."

Recent analysis has attempted to locate the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) in a context of developing Christian thought about Jesus’ childhood, and has suggested that the author(s) imitated a popular children’s stories genre of late antiquity. The function of this genre, when applied to the infancy of Jesus, is to embellish the status of Jesus in terms of his power, wisdom, and authority. What appears to be an earlier strand of tradition in IGT, however, suggests an ideological stance that is much less complimentary of Jesus and raises a number of questions about its original context and purpose.

This chapter focuses on the Script of the Lord’s Infancy (LI), whose nucleus, an early apocryphal text about the birth and the infancy of Jesus, was introduced into Armenia in 588 by missionaries of the Syriac Church of the East. Although after the Œcumenical Council of Ephesus (431) the Armenian Church had officially condemned the strict dyophysite doctrine of the Church of the East and later even embraced strict Cyrilline Christology, this new theological orientation could not be implemented overnight across the entire territory of  Armenia. The reception and translation of that early apocryphon in Armenia  witness to the enduring influence that East-Syriac tradition could still exercise there a century and a half after the schism occasioned by the Council of Ephesus. The complex history of its transmission reflects the great popularity that a Syriac apocryphon about the birth and the childhood of Christ enjoyed in  Armenia over centuries.
Echoes of various religious traditions that had coexisted in the Near East during the first centuries of Christianity reached Armenia through the LI. Some accounts of this apocryphon have parallels in the eighth-century Syriac Chronicle of Zuqnın and in the Arabic Gospel of Infancy, which also derives from Syriac originals. In its actual recensions the LI  bears traces of original theological reflection outside a formal ecclesiastical framework; no details survive of the circumstances or the process of its composition. It was never officially accepted by the Armenian Church, yet its esoteric motives may be found in hymnography, book illumination and hagiography. This text, which contains carefully elaborated narratives with numerous learned references, represents a junction between ancient Christological ideas – rejected, abandoned or overlooked by official Churches – and the actual forms of Christian devotion in the Syriac world and, subsequently, in Armenia, first under Zoroastrian and, later, Islamic rule.

The episode of the losing and finding of Jesus in the Temple can be understood as an appeal to delete family ties, or an antecipation of Jesus's passion, but it may signify the icon of submission to God's will. The paper discuss also its historicity and the Sitz im Leben of the tradition that lie behind.

The concept of christian family is rarely linked with the historical Jesus family. The "Holy Family" has three major points where it can be scandalous as a model for christian families to behave: the divorce pretended by Joseph, the virginity purpose within marriage by Mary, and the  unruly child that was Jesus when he remained in the Temple. This paper deals with the first problem: the divorce.

This paper analyses the impact of sanctity in exegetical achievement. Starting from the problem of conciliating the narratives of Matthew and Luke on the historical details of the conception of Jesus, particularly the secret of Mary towards her husband, we find little support among scholars on the historicity, because the texts seem to be mutually discordant. A saint like Josemaria that taught to millions of people the way to introduce oneself in the scenes of the Gospels, can be useful in finding a solution to such a problem.

This article deals with the possible sources of two related pericopae: the announce to Mary and her visit to her kin Elisabeth. It is argued that there are traces of being penned by Joseph, her husband. On the Appendix is given a proposal for the original text by Joseph.

One of America’s foremost poet-critics, Robert Pinsky has written two relatively unexamined poems about Jesus: “Icicles” and “From the Childhood of Jesus.” These works present three distinct senses of the paradox of the powerlessness of the Nativity through the unruly and destructive actions of an unnamed youth and the child Jesus, respectively. I compare the second poem in detail to the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas to show Pinsky’s transformation of it. In rejecting both a reductionistic God and a boy Jesus who imposes divine will violently, the two poems point via negativa to the paradox of powerlessness affirmed by historical Christianity.

A detailed intertextual analysis of the links between Mt 2:13-15 and the Lucan text Acts 3 leads to the conclusion that the fragment Mt 2:13-15 is an outcome of strictly sequential, but on the other hand highly creative reworking of the ideas, motifs, and key words which occur in Acts 3. Therefore, it can be argued that the quotation from Hos 11:1 LXX, which concludes the fragment Mt 2:13-15, was used and consciously modified by Matthew in order to illustrate intertextually the Lucan ideas which are contained in the concluding part of the section Acts 3: the fulfilment in Jesus of that which God foretold by the prophets (Acts 3:18.21), Jesus as the new Prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22-24), and Jesus being in a particular relationship with God (Acts 3:25-26).

Bart D. Ehrman is of the opinion that the concept of the Messiah’s preexistence is absent from the Gospel of Matthew. However, a careful analysis of the intertextual reference in Matt 2:6 to Micah 5:1-2 shows that the American scholar is wrong.

A detailed intertextual analysis of the links between Mt 2:13-15 and the Lucan text of Acts 3 leads to the conclusion that the text of Mt 2:13-15 is an outcome of a strictly sequential, but on the other hand a highly creative reworking of the ideas, motifs, and key words which occur in Acts 3. Therefore, it can be argued that the quotation from LXX Hos 11:1, which concludes the text of Mt 2:13-15, was used and consciously modified by Matthew in order to illustrate intertextually the Lucan ideas which are contained in the concluding part of Acts 3: the fulfilment in Jesus of that which God foretold by the prophets (Acts 3:18,21), Jesus as the new Prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22-24), and Jesus being in a particular relationship with God (Acts 3:25-26).

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a second-century apocryphal Christian story, which describes the childhood of Jesus Christ from his age of five until he was twelve. It consists of a number of episodes that sequence the miraculous and supernatural, but also the “terrible” actions of the boy Jesus. The Latin version of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which is the subject of this talk, was widespread in the medieval West, possibly appearing in over 200 manuscripts from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. As an accessible read, this text tackled medieval minds, influenced the way people see Jesus, and had an impact on a large number of his medieval visual representations. Its popularity shows that Christian Apocrypha directly influenced the Christian piety in the West during the high and late Middle Ages. Particularly the later Latin version of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which was a translation from Greek, influenced the development of new modes of piety in the medieval West, which fostered the expansion of the more human and child-like side of Jesus.

Crossway, 2015. Coauthered with Andreas J. Köstenberger.

The birth of Jesus stands as a pivotal moment in the history of the world, marking a dramatic turning point in God's plan to redeem creation from sin and death. Much to the world's surprise, redemption has arrived . . . in the form of a lowly baby.

Aimed at stirring your affections for Jesus, this meditative book will lead you on a step-by-step journey through the Gospels' birth narratives, clearing away common misconceptions, making messianic connections, and setting the stage for Jesus's later life and ministry.

Sung Cho addresses the seeming contradiction of Herod the Great's massacre in Matthew 2:16-18, questioning why such a tragedy had to occur, why it was included in the good news of Jesus, and what connection it has to ancient prophecies. In creating a reception history of the Massacre of the Innocents, Cho progresses through two millennia worth of interpretation and depiction to highlight key works for discussion.

Beginning with a close reading of Matthew 2:16-18, Cho moves to analyse depictions of the tragedy in the Early Patristic Tradition, from the sixth century to the early modern period, and thus to the present day; complete with an examination of visual interpretations of the massacre. Cho's examination provides a positive step to understanding the depths of human suffering with the help of many diverse perspectives.