Notes from Session 3, ‘Lost Gospels’
Baby Jesus in the Bible
Thornhill United Church
December 14, 2008

We gathered 8 participants in 2 groups of 4 this week – regrets from various others engaged in holiday socializing, or finished with this topic now. We planned to read the infancy gospels of Thomas and James, and opening bits of a novel, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.

We reviewed the first couple of sessions, trying to get back inside the process of early communities trying to remember and rehearse their versions of what happened in Jesus’ life: what did he do, and say, and why did it matter? We also revisited the Jesus imagined by Mark’s gospel and John’s – versions which did not need infancy stories.

Comparing Matthew and Luke to today’s ‘lost’ gospels, these seemed more elaborated (except for their omission of genealogies). We speculated on whether this elaboration would happen after the shorter versions, adding explanatory bits to reconcile discrepancies between texts or images of Jesus – or whether the shorter versions might reflect ‘editing down’ or winnowing the best out of unnecessary chaff.

Bill suggested reading these 3 versions as ‘differential’ rather than ‘referential’ – elaborating contrasts to clarify a vision or version of Jesus, rather than presenting accurate transcripts of ancient audio or videotapes. Two early communities or traditions supported elaborations of Jesus’ childhood, and of his conception (and Mary’s). A recent novelist in California brings our cultural curiosities about subjectivity and sex to the Jesus story, with tongue firmly in cheek.

Opening questions or comments today included:
• When did Jesus’ divinity begin?
• Is ‘Infancy Thomas’ meant to be read literally, or as a comedy for fun?
• Were they written at the same time as bible gospels?
• So who decided which to include or exclude?
• What does CE mean again? (Common Era, not Anno Domini, ‘year of our Lord’, offending non Christians)
• How many versions didn’t make our bible?
• Were any written by women?
• What criteria were used to decide which were in or out – political? Or?
• What does ‘gnostic’ mean?
• Clarify ‘Q’ – a document, with what in it?
• When were ‘the 4’ finalized’?
• What about the other books in the NT: Acts, letters, etc. – who how when were decisions made to include or exclude those books?
• Why show Jesus as “a bad boy” in Infancy Thomas?
• Why was Joseph’s reaction to Mary’s pregnancy elaborated so long in Infancy James?
• Is there any significance to Jesus resurrecting the lizard 3 times?
• Thomas and James are “Ancient documents that are troubling…
• What is “undefiled” translating?

These were some of the questions around our tables – hints of what individuals were working on, and what shaped the conversation among them for this hour. They are all entirely on topic, matching the classic questions of academics – and also the questions of faithful communities – about the person and work of Jesus, and our appropriation of that good news.
Some of Bill’s comments in response included:

• John takes the incarnation of divine & human or spirit and flesh back to creation and forward to our choice, Mark forward to Jesus’ baptism – some of us think Jesus was ‘just a guy like us’, others that he was ‘more’ something – Bill claims our tradition respects those faiths that think Jesus was a great teacher or prophet, but that we claim a unique contribution to revealing humanity/divinity, spirit/flesh, and changing the choices available to us in relation to such things

• Bill denies ‘verbal inspiration’ of scripture, God dictating infallible words to individual writers, in favour of ‘plenary inspiration’ of a community of transmission where women & men offered show & tell about what they hear & see – each link in the chain inspired by the same Spirit – crucial centuries transforming the record into a ‘canon’, into Latin, into vernacular – and now into an explosion of versions in many media

• Bill’s language is that ‘we’, never alone, heard and told, saw and showed what was important about Jesus, and over time preferred some accounts and other interpretations, while dismissing or ignoring others, not simply in power grabs by ‘boys with books’ but also in good faith offers of experience that made us more fully human, more fully alive, with clearer purpose & meaning, healing & helping our ecumene

• Participants knew a lot, from reading and TV documentaries – and from our own experience of humanity and the divine, flesh and spirit…
What offends your sensibilities about Jesus?

If you think that Jesus was the smartest guy in the room, a great teacher – and/or the greatest of healers and miracle workers – then you’ve got to wonder what he was like before he delivers it all smoothly as a 30 year old. Infancy Thomas presents a willful child, whose speeches to teachers or elders and miracles among his peers all offended somebody in our group. How can you have an immature version of your ‘great teacher and healer’ version of Jesus?

If you think that Jesus was divine and pure, more divinity and spirit than human and flesh, you have different issues with baby Jesus. Ancients expressed it in purity codes and ritual to maintain boundaries concerning blood and sex – but we have our taboos, too, about imagining Jesus’ basic bodily functions! Does your Jesus have a belly button, come out of the virgin womb with a halo or speaking in full sentences to Mary? James pushes the regression of Mary’s virginity back to her own mother, forward to a postpartum vaginal exam.

If you wonder what Jesus would be like in our culture, amid obsessions with sex and subjective states of mind and opinion, you end up with Biff, the Christopher Moore version of Jesus, as seen by his peer. It’s not literal or referential, but differential – nobody thinks that children in our pageant this morning about the mouse telling a story of Bethlehem and the manger belongs in the bible, or is factually true!

Who is your Jesus? The group gathered today keyed on a Jesus who was kind and humble – not rude or proud – but not necessarily a genius. So what does he share with us or show to us about humanity, divinity, flesh, spirit? What is the ‘gospel according to you’? Does it have a baby Jesus?


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Intro to Session 3, 'Lost Gospels'

Get Ready for our 3rd & Last Session
2pm Sunday Dec 14
The ‘Lost’ Gospels of Baby Jesus

Infancy Gospel of Thomas
Our first ‘lost’ or ‘infancy’ gospel –
Iranaeus refers to it in 185CE –
Remained popular through the 200’s
Differs from Gospel of Thomas,
Another ‘lost’ gospel,
That one a ‘sayings’ or ‘gnostic’ gospel


Infancy Gospel of James
Our second ‘lost’ or ‘infancy’ gospel –
Probably written mid-2nd century (+/- 150CE)
Prequel of Mary’s holy origins and virginity
Efforts to reconcile ‘Luke’ & ‘Matthew’
Here’s a glimpse of another early Christianity


Biff
Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff,
Christ’s childhood Pal
Christopher Moore, 1st edition 2002


So – do you wish these 3 were in your bible?
Is it really all a conspiracy by the church to keep you ignorant?
Is it working?

What do each of these writers think is important to say about Jesus:
What happened, who he was, what he did, what he said –
And why it matters?

Why might the church tradition conclude that these versions of Jesus are either not necessary, or even unhelpful, in affirming the Christ we worship?



The rest of the article goes here. Read more...

Gospel According to Biff

BABY JESUS IN THE BIBLE

Rereading our 4 gospels,
And some ‘lost gospels’

Thornhill United Church,
Advent 2008

“BIFF”

Our ‘last’ gospel version of Baby Jesus -
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff,
Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
1st edition 2002,

Here is the opening of a current bestseller –
It assumes a level of biblical literacy,
And of postmodern sophistication,
Which we assume that you’ve got by now…

What questions about baby & boy Jesus does ‘Biff’ address – what does he add, or miss?
What do you think Moore believes?
What do you believe about baby or boy Jesus?

Questions? Answers?
Bill Bruce
905-889-2131
416-275-3547
bill@thornhillunitedchurch.ca


You think you know how this story is going to end,
but you don’t.
Trust me, I was there. I know.

The first time I saw the man who would save the world
he was sitting near the central well in Nazareth
with a lizard hanging out of his mouth.
Just the tail end and the hind legs
were visible on the outside;
the head and forelegs were halfway down the hatch.

He was six, like me,
and his beard had not come in fully,
so he didn’t look much like the pictures you’ve seen of him.
His eyes were like dark honey, and they smiled at me
out of a mop of blue-black curls that framed his face.
There was a light older than Moses in those eyes.


“Unclean! Unclean!” I screamed, pointing at the boy,
so my mother would see that I knew the Law,
but she ignored me, as did all the other mothers
who were filing their jars at the well.

The boy took the lizard from his mouth
and handed it to his younger brother,
who sat beside him in the sand.

The younger boy played with the lizard for a while,
teasing it until it reared its little head as if to bite,
then he picked up a rock and mashed the creature’s head.

Bewildered, he pushed the dead lizard around in the sand,
and once assured that it wasn’t going anywhere on its own,
he picked it up and handed it back to his older brother.

Into his mouth went the lizard,
and before I could accuse, out it came again,
squirming and alive and ready to bite once again.
He handed it back to his younger brother,
who smote it mightily with the rock,
starting or ending the whole process again.

I watched the lizard die three more times before I said,
“I want to do that too.”

The Saviour removed the lizard from his mouth and said, “Which part?”


By the way, his name was Joshua.
Jesus is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Yeshua,
which is Joshua.
Christ is not a last name.
It’s the Greek for messiah,
a Hebrew word meaning anointed.
It’s one of the things I should have asked him.


Me? I am Levi who is called Biff.
No middle initial.
Joshua was my best friend…..

I was born in Galilee, the town of Nazareth,
in the time of Herod the Great.
My father, Alphaeus, was a stonemason
and my mother, Naomi, was plagued by demons,
or at least that’s what I told everyone.
Joshua seemed to think she was just difficult.

My proper name, Levi, comes from the brother of Moses,
the progenitor of the tribe of priests;
my nickname, Biff, comes from our slang word
for a smack upside the head,
something that my mother said I required at least daily
from an early age.


I grew up under Roman rule,
although I didn’t see many Romans until I as ten.
The Romans mostly stayed in the fortress city of Sephoris,
an hour’s walk north of Nazareth.

That’s where Joshua and I saw a Roman soldier murdered,
but I’m getting ahead of myself.
For now, assume that the soldier is safe and sound
and happy wearing a broom on his head.


Most of the people of Nazareth were farmers,
growing grapes and olives on the rocky hills outside of town
and barley and wheat in the valleys below.

There were also herders of goats and sheep
whose families live in town
while the men and older boys
tend the flocks in the highlands.

Our houses were all made of stone,
and ours had a stone floor,
although many had floors of hard-packed dirt.



I was the oldest of the sons,
so even at the age of six I was being prepared
to learn my father’s trade.

My mother taught my spoken lessons,
the Law and stories from the Torah in Hebrew,
and my father took me to the synagogue
to hear the leaders read the bible.

Aramaic was my first language,
but by the time I was ten I could speak and read Hebrew
as well as most of the men.

My ability to learn Hebrew and the Torah
was spurred on by my friendship with Joshua,
for while the other boys would be playing
a round of tease the sheep or kick the Canaanite,
Joshua and I play at being rabbis, and he insisted
that we stick to the authentic Hebrew for our ceremonies.

It was more fun that it sounds,
or at least it was until my mother caught us
trying to circumcise my little brother Shem with a sharp rock.
What a fit she threw.
And my argument
that Shem needed to renew his covenant with the Lord
didn’t seem to convince her.

She beat me to stripes with an olive switch
and forbade me to play with Joshua for a month.
Did I mention she was besought with demons?

Overall, I think it was good for little Shem.
He was the only kid I ever knew
who could pee around corners.
You can make a pretty god living as a beggar
with that kind of talent.
And he never event thanked me.

Brothers.

Children see magic because they look for it.

When I first met Joshua, I didn’t know he was the Saviour,
and neither did he, for that matter.
What I knew was that he wasn’t afraid.
Amid a race of conquered warriors,
a people who tried to find pride
while cowering before God and Rome,
he shone like a bloom in the desert.
But maybe only I saw it,
because I was looking for it.
To everyone else
he seemed like just another child:
the same needs
and the same chance to die before he was grown.


When I told my mother of Joshua’s trick with the lizard
she checked me for fever and sent me to my sleeping mat
with only a bowl of broth for supper.

“I’ve heard stories about that boy’s mother”
she said to my father.
“She claims to have spoken to an angel of the Lord.
She told Esther that she had borne the son of God.”

“And what did you say to Esther?”

“That she should be careful
that the Pharisees not hear her ravings
or we’d be picking stones for her punishment.”

“Then you should not speak of it again.
I know her husband, he is a righteous man.”

“Cursed with an insane girl for a wife.”

“Poor thing” my father said,
tearing away a hunk of bread.

His hands were as hard as horn, as square as hammers,
and as gray as a leper’s from the limestone he worked with.

An embrace form him left scratches on my back
that sometimes wept blood,
yet my brothers and I fought to the be first in his arms
when he returned from work each evening.

The same injuries inflicted in anger
would have sent us crying to our mother’s skirts.
I fell asleep each night feeling his hand on my back
like a shield.

Fathers.

“Do you want to mash some lizards?”
I asked Joshua when I saw him again.

He was drawing in the dirt with a stick, ignoring me.
I put my foot in his drawing.
“Did you know that your mother is mad?”

“My father does that to her”,
he said sadly, without looking up.

I sat down next to him.
“Sometimes my mother makes yipping noises in the night
like the wild dogs.”

“Is she mad?” Joshua asked.

“She seems fine in the morning.
She sings while she makes breakfast.”

Joshua nodded, satisfied, I guess,
that madness could pass.


“We used to live in Egypt,” he said.

“No, you didn’t, that’s too far.
Farther than the temple, even.”

The Temple in Jerusalem was the farthest place
I had been as a child.
Every spring
my family took the five day walk to Jerusalem
for the feast of Passover.
It seemed to take forever.

“We lived here,
then we lived in Egypt,
now we live here again,”
Josheua said.
“It was a long way.”

“You lie, it takes forty years to get to Egypt.”

“Not anymore, it’s closer now.”

“It says in the Torah. My abba read it to me.
‘The Israelites traveled in the desert for forty years’”

“The Israelites were lost.”

“For forty years?” I laughed,
“the Israelites must be stupid.”

“We are the Israelites.”

“We are?”

“Yes.”


“I have to go find my mother.” I said

“When you come back, let’s play Moses and Pharaoh….”


“Let my people go,” said Joshua, as Moses.

“Okay.”

“You can’t just say ‘Okay.’”

“I can’t?”

“No, the Lord has hardened your heart against my demands.”

“Why’d he do that?”

“I don’t know, he just did. Now let my people go.”

“Nope”

I crossed my arms and turned away
like someone whose heart is hardened.

“Behold as I turn this stick into a snake.
Now, let my people go!”

“Okay.”

“You can’t just say ‘okay’!”

“Why? That was a pretty god trick with the stick.”

“But that’s not how it goes.”

“Okay. No way, Moses, your people have to stay.”

Joshua waved his staff in my face.
“Behold, I will plague you with frogs.
They will fill your house and your bedchamber
and get on your stuff.”

“So?”
“So that’s bad. Let my people go, Pharaoh.”

“I sorta like frogs.”

“Dead frogs,” Moses threatened.
“Piles of steaming, stinking dead frogs.”

“Oh, in that case, you’d better take your people and go.
I have some sphinxes and stuff to build anyway.”

“Dammit Biff, that’s not how it goes!
I have more plagues for you.”

“I want to be Moses.”

“You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I have the stick.”

“Oh.”

And so it went.



I’m not sure I took to playing the villains
as easily as Joshua took to being the heroes.

Sometimes we recruited our little brothers
to play the more loathsome parts.

Joshua’s little brothers Judah and James
played whole populations,
like the Sodomites outside of Lot’s door.

“Send out those two angels so we can know them”

Okay” said Judah.

I threw open the door
and led my imaginary daughters outside
so they could know the Sodomites…

“Pleased to meet you.”

“Charmed, I’m sure.”
“Nice to meet you.”

“THAT’S NOT HOW IT GOES!” Joshua shouted.
“You’re supposed to try to break the door down,
then I will smite you blind.”

“Then you destroy our city?” James said

“Yes.”

“We’d rather meet Lot’s daughters.”

“Let my people go,” said Judah,
who was only four and often got his stories confused.

He particularly liked the Exodus
because he and James got to throw jars of water on me
as I led my soldiers across the Red Sea after Moses.

“That’s it.” Joshua said.

“Judah, you’re Lot’s wife. Go stand over there.”

Sometimes Judah had to play Lot’s wife
no matter what story we were doing.
“I don’t want to be Lot’s wife.”

“Be quiet, pillars of salt can’t talk.”

“I don’t want to be a girl.”


Our brothers always played the female parts.
I had no sisters to torment,
and Joshua’s only sister a the time, Elisabeth,
was still a baby.

That was before we met the Magdalene.
The Magdalene changed everything….
After I overheard my parents
talking about Joshua’s mother’s madness,
I often watched her, looking for signs,
but she seemed to go about her duties
like all the other mothers,
tending to the little ones,
working in the garden,
fetching water,
and preparing food.

There was no sign of going about on all fours
or foaming at the mouth as I had expected.

She was younger than many of the mothers,
and much younger than her husband, Joseph,
who was an old man by the standards of our time.

Joshua said that Joseph wasn’t his real father,
but he wouldn’t say who his father was.
When the subject came up,
and Mary was in earshot,
she would call to Josh,
then put her finger to her lips
to signal silence.

“Now is not the time, Joshua.
Biff would not understand.”

Just hearing her say my name made my heart leap.
Early on I developed a little-boy love for Joshua’s mother
that sent me into fantasies of marriage and family and future.

“Your father is old, huh, Josh?”
“Not too old.”
“When he dies, will your mother marry his brother?”
“My father has no brothers. Why?”
“No reason.
What would you think if your father was shorter then you?”

“He isn’t.”

“But when your father dies,
your mother could marry someone shorter then you,
and he would be your father.
You would have to do what he says.”

“My father will never die.
He is eternal.”

“So you say.
But I think that when I’m a man,
and your father dies,
I will take your mother as my wife.”

Joshua made a face now
as if he had bitten into an unripe fig.
“Don’t say that, Biff.”

“I don’t mind that she’s mad.
I like her blue cloak.
And her smile.
I’ll be a good father,
I’ll teach you how to be a stonemason,
and I’ll only beat you when you are a snot.”

“I would rather play with lepers than listen to this.”
Joshua began to walk away.

“Wait. Be nice to your father, Joshua bar Biff”
– my own father used my full name like this
when he was trying to make a point -
“Is it not the word of Moses that you must honour me?”

Little Joshua spun on his heel.
“My name is not Joshua bar Biff,
and it is not Joshua bar Joseph either.
It’s Joshua bar Jehovah!”

I looked around,
hoping that no one had heard him.
I didn’t want my only son
(I planned to sell Judah and James into slavery)
to be stoned to death
for uttering the name of God in vain.

“Don’t say that again, Josh.
I won’t marry your mother.”
“No, you won’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you.”
“She will make an excellent concubine.”

Don’t let anyone tell you
that the Prince of Peace never struck anyone.
In those early days,
before he had become who he would be,
Joshua smote me in the nose more than once.
That was the first time.

Mary would stay my one true love
until I saw the Magdalene….

….[Joseph said] “Perhaps this year
I should give the Temple my first son, eh, Joshua?
Wouldn’t you like the clean the altar after the sacrifices?”

He grinned to himself without looking up from his work.
“I owe them a first son, you know.
We were in Egypt at the Firsts Feast when you were born.”

The idea of coming in contact with blood
clearly terrified Joshua, as it would any Jewish boy.
“Give them James, Abba, he is your first son.”

Joseph shot a glance my way,
to see if I had reacted.
I had, but it was because
I was considering my own status as a first son,
hoping that my father wasn’t thinking along the same lines.
“James is a second son.
The priests don’t want second sons.
It will have to be you.”

Joshua looked at me before he answered,
then back at his father.
Then he smiled.
“But Abba, if you should die,
who will take care of Mother
if I am at the Temple?”

“Someone will look after her,” I said.
“I’m sure of it.”

“I will not die for a long time.”
Joseph tugged at his gray beard.
“My beard goes white,
but there’s a lot of life in me yet.”

“Don’t be so sure, Abba,” Joshua said.

Joseph dropped the bowl he was working on
and stared into his hands.

“Run along and play, you two,”
he said, his voice little more than a whisper.

Joshua stood and walked away.

I wanted to thrown my arms around the old man,
for I had never seen a grown man afraid before
and it frightened me too.

“Can I help?” I said,
pointing to the half-finished bowl that lay in Joseph’s lap.

“You go with Joshua.
He heeds a friend to teach him to be human.
Then I can teach him to be a man.”
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Infancy Gospel of Thomas

BABY JESUS IN THE BIBLE

Rereading our 4 gospels,
And some ‘lost gospels’

Thornhill United Church,
Advent 2008

“Infancy THOMAS”

Our first ‘lost’ or ‘infancy’ gospel -
Irenaeus refers to it by 185CE
Remained popular through the 200’s
Differs from Gospel of Thomas, another ‘lost’ one

Here’s a glimpse of early popular Christianity,
‘filling in the blanks’ about baby and boy Jesus, mixing in oral legends still current today.

‘Infancy Gospel of Thomas’ didn’t make the cut…
It’s not in our bibles. Why not?

Questions? Answers?
Bill Bruce
905-889-2131
416-275-3547
bill@thornhillunitedchurch.ca

I, Thomas the Israelite,
am reporting to you,
all my non-Jewish brothers and sisters,
to make known the extraordinary childhood deeds
of our Lord Jesus Christ –
what he did after his birth in my region.
This is how it all started:

When this boy, Jesus, was five years old,
he was playing at the ford of a rushing stream.
He was collecting the flowing water into ponds
and made the water instantly pure.
He did this with a single command.
He then made soft clay
and shaped it into twelve sparrows.
He did this on the Sabbath day,
and many other boys were playing with him.

But when a Jew saw what Jesus was doing
while playing on the Sabbath day,
he immediately went off and told Joseph, Jesus’ father:
“See here, your boy is at the ford
and has taken mud and fashioned twelve birds with it,
and so has violated the Sabbath.”

Joseph went there,
and as soon as he spotted him he shouted,
“Why are you doing what’s not permitted on the Sabbath?”

But Jesus simply clapped his hands
and shouted to the sparrows:
“Be off, fly away, and remember me,
you who are now alive!”
And the sparrows took off and flew away noisily.
The Jews watched with amazement,
then left the scene to report to their leaders
what they had seen Jesus doing.

The son of Annas the scholar,
standing there with Jesus,
took a willow branch
and drained the water Jesus had collected.
Jesus, however, saw what had happened
and became angry, saying to him,
“Damn you, you irreverent fool!
What harm did the pools of sater do to you?
From this moment you, too, will dry up like a tree,
and you’ll never produce leaves or root or bear fruit.”

In an instant the boy had completely withered away.
Then Jesus departed and left for the house of Joseph.
The parents of the boy who had withered away
picked him up and were carrying him out,
sad because he was so young.
And they came to Joseph and accused him:
“It’s your fault – your boy did all this.”

Later he was going through the village again
when a boy ran by and bumped him on the shoulder.
Jesus got angry and said to him,
“You won’t continue your journey.”
And all of a sudden he fell down and died.

Some people saw what happened and said,
“Where has this boy come from?
Everything he says happens instantly!”



The parents of the dead boy came to Joseph
and blamed him, saying,
“Because you have such a boy,
you can’t live with us in the village,
or else teach him to bless and not curse.
He’s killing our children!”

So Joseph summoned his child
and admonished him in private, saying,
“Why are you doing all this?
These people are suffering
and so they hate and harass us.”

Jesus said,
“I know that the words I spoke are not my words.
Still, I’ll keep quiet for your sake.
But those people must take their punishment.”
There and then his accusers became blind.

Those who saw this became very fearful and at a loss.
All they could say was,
“Every word he says,
whether good or bad,
has become a deed –
a miracle, even!”

When Joseph saw that Jesus had done such a thing,
he got angry and grabbed his ear and pulled very hard.
The boy became infuriated with him and replied,
“It’s one thing for you to seek and not find;
it’s quite another for you to act this unwisely.
Don’t you know that I don’t really belong to you?
Don’t make me upset.”

A teacher by the name of Zacchaeus was listening
to everything Jesus was saying to Joseph,
and was astonished, saying to himself,
“He is just a child, and saying this!”

And so he summoned Joseph and said to him,
“You have a bright child, and he has a good mind.
Hand him over to me so he can learn his letters.
I’ll teach him everything he needs to know
so as not to be unruly.”

Joseph replied,
“No one is able to rule this child except God alone.
Don’t consider him to be a small cross, brother.”

When Jesus heard Joseph saying this
he laughed and said to Zacchaeus,
“Believe me, teacher, what my father told you is true.
I am the Lord of these people
and I’m present with you
and have been born among you
and am with you.

I know where you’ve come from
and how many years you’ll live.
I swear to you, teacher,
I existed when you were born.

If you wish to be a perfect teacher,
listen to me,
and I’ll teach you a wisdom
that no one else knows except for me
and the one who sent me to you.

It’s you who happen to be my student,
and I know how old you are
and how long you have to live.
When you see the cross
that my father mentioned,
then you’ll believe
that everything I’ve told you is true.”


The Jews who were standing by
and heard Jesus
marveled and said,
“How strange and paradoxical!
This child is barely five years old
and yet he says such things.
In fact, we’ve never heard anyone
say the kind of thing this child does.”


Jesus said to them in reply,
“Are you really so amazed?
Rather, consider what I’ve said to you.

The truth is that I also know
when you were born, and your parents,
and I announce this paradox to you:
when the world was created,
I existed
along with the one
who sent me to you.”



The Jews, once they heard
that the child was speaking like this,
became angry
but were unable to say anything in reply.


But the child skipped forward and said to them.
“I’ve made fun of you
because I know
that your tiny minds
marvel at trifles. “


When, therefore, they thought
that they were being comforted
by the child’s exhortation,
the teacher said to Jospeh,
“Bring him to the classroom
and I’ll teach him the alphabet.”



Joseph took him by the hand
and led him to the classroom.
The teacher wrote the alphabet for him
and began the instruction
by repeating the letter alpha many times.

But the child clammed up
and did not answer him for a long time.
No wonder, then,
that the teacher got angry
and struck him on the head.


The child took the blow calmly
and replied to him,
“I’m teaching you
rather than being taught by you:
I already know the letters you’re teaching me,
and your condemnation is great.

To you
these letters are like a bronze pitcher
or a clashing cymbal,
which can’t produce glory or wisdom
because it’s all just noise.
Nor does anyone understand
the extent of my wisdom.”


When he got over being angry
he recited the letters
from alpha to omega
very quickly.


Then he looked at the teacher
and told him,
“Since you don’t know
the real nature of the latter alpha,
how are you going to teach the letter beta?
You imposter,
if you know,
teach me first the letter alpha
and then I’ll trust you
with the letter beta.”


He began to quiz the teacher
about the first letter,
but he was unable to say anything.


Then while many were listening,
he said to Zacchaeus,
“Listen, teacher,
and observe the arrangement of the first letter:
How it has two straight lines of strokes
proceeding to a point in the middle,
gathered together, elevated, dancing,
three-cornered, two cornered,
not antagonistic, of the same family,
providing the alpha has lines of equal measure.


After Zacchaeus the teacher had heard the child
expressing such intricate allegories regarding the first letter,
he despaired of defending his teaching.
He spoke to those who were present:


“Poor me, I’m utterly bewildered, wretch that I am.
I’ve heaped shame on myself because I took on this child.
So take him away, I beg you, brother Joseph.
I can’t endure the severity of his look or his lucid speech. This child is no ordinary mortal; he can even tame fire! Perhaps he was born before the creation of the world.
What sort of womb bore him,
what sort of mother nourished him? –


I don’t know.
Poor me, friend,
I’ve lost my mind.
I’ve deceived myself,
I who am wholly wretched.

I strove to get a student,
and I’ve been found to have a teacher.

Friends, I am thinking of the shame,
because, although I’m an old man,
I’ve been defeated by a mere child.
And so I can only despair and die
on account of this child.



Right now I can’t look him in the face.
When everybody says
that I’ve been defeated by a small child,
what can I say?

And what can I report
about the lines of the first letter which he told me about?
I just don’t know, friends.
For I don’t know its beginning or its end.
Therefore, I ask you, brother Joseph,
take him back to your house.


What great things he is –
god or angel or whatever else I might call him –
I don’t know.

While the Jews were advising Zacchaeus,
the child laughed loudly and said,
“Now let their infertile bear fruit
and the blind see
and the deaf in the understanding of their heart hear:
I’ve come from above
so that I might save those who are below
and summon them to higher things,
just as the one who sent me to you commanded me.”


When the child stopped speaking,
all those who had fallen under the curse
were instantly saved.

And from then on no one dared to anger him
for fear of being cursed and maimed for life.


A few days later Jesus was playing on the roof of a house
when one of the children playing with him
fell off the roof and died.
When the other children saw what had happened,
they fled, leaving Jesus standing all by himself.

The parents of the dead child came and accused Jesus:
“You troublemaker you,
you’re the one who threw him down.”

Jesus responded,
“I didn’t throw him down – he threw himself down.
He just wasn’t being careful
and leaped down from the roof and died.”

Then Jesus himself leaped down from the roof
and stood by the body of the child
and shouted in a loud voice: “Zeno!”
– that was his name –
“Get up and tell me: Did I push you?”


He got up immediately and said,
“No, Lord, you didn’t push me, you raised me up.”


Those who saw this were astonished,
and the child’s parents praised God
for the miracle that had happened
and worshiped Jesus.


A few days later
a young man was splitting wood in the neighbourhood
when his axe slipped and cut off the bottom of his foot.
He was dying from the loss of blood.

The crowd rushed there in an uproar,
and boy Jesus ran up, too.
He forced his way through the crowd
and grabbed hold of the young man’s wounded foot.
It was instantly healed.

He said to the youth,
“Get up now, split your wood, and remember me”

The crowd saw what had happened
and worshiped the child, saying
‘Truly the spirit of God dwells in this child.”
When he was six years old,
his mother sent him to draw water
and bring it back to the house.

But he lost his grip on the pitcher
in the jostling of the crowd,
and it fell and broke.
So Jesus spread out the cloak he was wearing
and filled it with water
and carried it back to his mother.

His mother,
once she saw the miracle that had occurred,
kissed him;
but she kept to herself
the mysteries that she had seen him do.



Again, during the sowing season,
the child went out with his father
to sow their field with grain.

While his father was sowing,
the child Jesus sowed one measure of grain.
When he had harvested and threshed it,
it yielded one hundred measures.
Then he summoned all the poor in the village
to the threshing floor and gave them grain.
Joseph carried back what was left of the grain.
Jesus was eight years old
when he did this miracle.


Now Jesus’ father was a carpenter,
making ploughs and yokes at that time.

He received an order from a rich man
to make a bed for him.


When one board
of what is called the crossbeam
turned out shorter than the other,
and Joseph didn’t know what to do,
the child Jesus said to his father,

“Cut the two boards down
and line them up at one end. “

Joseph did as the child told him.




Jesus stood at the other end
and grabbed hold of the shorter board,
and, by stretching it,
made it the same length as the other.




His father Joseph looked on and marveled,
and he hugged and kissed the child, saying,
“How fortunate I am
that God had given this child to me.”

When Joseph saw the child’s aptitude,
and his great intelligence for his age,
he again resolved
that Jesus should not remain illiterate.

So he took him
and handed him over
to another teacher.


The teacher said to Joseph,,
“First I‘ll teach him Greek, then Hebrew.”

This teacher, of course,
knew of the child’s previous experience with a teacher –
and was afraid of him.

Still, he wrote out the alphabet
and instructed him for quite a while,
though Jesus was unresponsive.


Then Jesus spoke:
“If you’re really a teacher,
and if you know the letters well,
tell me the meaning of the letter alpha,
and I’ll tell you the meaning of beta.”


The teacher became exasperated
and hit him on the head.
Jesus got angry and cursed him,
and the teacher immediately lost consciousness
and fell face down on the ground.

The child returned to Joseph’s house.
But Joseph was upset
and gave this instruction to his mother
“Don’t let him go outside,
because those who annoy him
end up dead.”

After some time another teacher,
a close friend of Joseph, said to him,
“Send the child to my schoolroom.
Perhaps with some flattery
I can teach him his letters.”

Joseph replied,
“If you can muster the courage, brother,
Take him with you.”

And so he took him along
with much fear and trepidation,
but the child was happy to go.

Jesus strode boldly into the schoolroom
and found the book lying on the desk.
He took the book but did not read the letters in it.

Rather, the opened his mouth
and spoke by (the power of) the holy spirit
and taught the law to those standing there.

A large crowd gathered and stood listening to him,
and they marveled at the maturity of his teaching and his readiness of speech – a mere child able to say such things.

When Joseph heard about this
he feared the worst and ran to the schoolroom,
imagining that his teacher was having trouble with Jesus.

But the teacher said to Joseph,
“Brother, please know that I accepted this child as a student, but already he’s full of grace and wisdom.
So I’m asking you, brother,
to take him back home.”

Wh
en the child heard this,
he immediately smiled at him and said,
“Because you have spoken and testified rightly,
that other teacher who was struck down will be healed.”

And right away he was.
Joseph took his child and went home.



Joseph sent his son James to tie up some wood
and carry it back to the house,
and the child Jesus followed.

While James was gathering the firewood,
a viper bit his hand.
And as he lay sprawled out on the ground, dying,
Jesus came and blew on the bite.
Immediately the pain stopped,
the animal burst apart,
and James got better on the spot.


After this incident
an infant in Joseph’s neighbourhood
became sick and died,
and his mother grieved terribly.
Jesus heard the loud wailing
and the uproar that was going on
and quickly ran there.


When he found the child dead,
he touched its chest and said,
“I say to you, infant, don’t die but live,
and be with your mother.”


And immediately the infant looked up and laughed.
Jesus then said to the woman,
“Take it, give it your breast, and remember me.”



The crowd of onlookers marveled at this:
“Truly this child was a god
or a heavenly messenger of God –
whatever he says instantly happens.”


But Jesus left
and went on playing
with the other children.



A year later, while a building was under construction,
a man fell from the top of it and died.

There was quite a commotion,
so Jesus got up and went there.

When he saw the man lying dead,
he took his hand and said,
“I say to you sir,
get up and go back to work “
and he immediately got up
and worshiped him.


The crowd saw this and marveled:
“This child’s from heaven –
he must be,
because he has saved many souls from death,
and he can go on saving all his life.”



When he was twelve years old
his parents went to Jerusalem, as usual,
for the Passover festival, along with their fellow travelers.

After Passover they began the journey home.
But while on their way,
the child Jesus went back op to Jerusalem.

His parents, of course,
assumed that he was in the traveling party.


After they had traveled one day,
they began to look for him
among their relatives.


When they did not find him,
they were worried
and returned again to the city
to search for him.


After three days
they found him in the temple area,
sitting among the teachers,
listening to the law
and asking them questions.


All eyes were on him,
and everyone was astounded
that he, a mere child,
could interrogate the elders and teachers of the people
and explain the main points of the law
and the parables of the prophets.


His mother Mary came up and said to him,
‘Child, why have you done this to us?
Don’t you see, we’ve been worried sick looking for you.”


“Why are you looking for me?”
Jesus said to them.
“Don’t you know that I have to be in my father’s house?”
Then the scholars and the Pharisees said,
“Are you the mother of this child””

She said,
“I am.’


And they said to her,
“You more than any woman
are to be congratulated,

for God has blessed the fruit of your womb!
For we’ve never seen nor heard
such glory and such virtue and wisdom.



Jesus got up and went with his mother,
and was obedient to his parents.

His mother took careful note
of all that had happened,

And Jesus continued
to excel in learning
and gain respect.


To him be glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.




My notes on Baby Jesus in “John”:
Read more...

Infancy Gospel of James

BABY JESUS IN THE BIBLE

Rereading our 4 gospels,
And some ‘lost gospels’

Thornhill United Church,
Advent 2008

“Infancy JAMES”

Our second ‘lost’ or ‘infancy’ gospel -
Irenaeus refers to it by 185CE
Remained popular through the 200’s
Differs from Gospel of Thomas, another ‘lost’ one

Here’s a glimpse of early popular Christianity,
‘filling in the blanks’ about baby and boy Jesus, mixing in oral legends still current today.

‘Infancy Gospel of Thomas’ didn’t make the cut…
It’s not in our bibles. Why not?

Questions? Answers?
Bill Bruce
905-889-2131
416-275-3547
bill@thornhillunitedchurch.ca

According to the records of the twelve tribes of Israel,
there once was a very rich man named Joachim.

He always doubled the gifts he offered to the Lord,
and would say to himself,

“One gift, representing my prosperity
will be for all the people;
the other, offered for forgiveness,
will be my sin-offering to the Lord God.”

Now the great day of the Lord was approaching,
and the people of Israel were offering their gifts.
And Reubel confronted Joachim and said,

“You’re not allowed to offer your gifts first
because you haven’t produced an Israelite child.”

And Joachim became very upset
and went to the book of the twelve tribes of Israel,
saying to himself,

“I’m going to check the book of the twelve tribes of Israel
to see whether I’m the only one in Israel
who hasn’t produced a child.”

And he searched [the records]
and found that all the righteous people in Israel
did indeed have children.
And he remembered the patriarch Abraham
because in his last days
the Lord God had given a son, Isaac.


And so he continued to be very upset
and did not see his wife but banished himself to the wilderness and pitched his tent there.
And Joachim fasted ‘forty days and forty nights.’

He would say to himself,
“I will not go back for food or drink
until the Lord my God visits me.
Prayer will be my food and drink.”

Now his wife Anna was mourning
and lamenting on two counts:
“I lament my widowhood
and I lament my childlessness.”


The great day of the Lord approached, however,
and Juthine her slave said to her,
“How long are you going to humble yourself?
Look, the great day of the Lord has arrived,
and you’re not supposed to mourn.
Rather, take this headband
which the mistress of the workshop gave to me,
but which I’m not allowed to wear
because I’m your slave
and because it bears a royal insignia.”


And Anna said,
“Get away from me! I won’t take it.
The Lord God has greatly shamed me.
Maybe a trickster has given you this,
and you’ve come to make me share in your sin.”

And Juthine the slave replied,
“Should I curse you
just because you haven’t paid any attention to me?
The Lord God has made your womb sterile
so you won’t bear any children for Israel.”

Anna, too, became very upset.
She took off her mourning clothes,
washed her face,
and put on her wedding dress.

Then in the middle of the afternoon,
she went down to her garden to take a walk.

She spied a laurel tree and sat down under it.
After resting, she prayed to the Lord:
“O God of my ancestors,
bless me and hear my prayer,
just as you blessed our mother Sarah
and gave her a son, Isaac.”

And Anna looked up toward the sky
and saw a nest of sparrows in the laurel tree.

And immediately Anna began to lament,
saying to herself:

“Poor me! Who gave birth to me?
What sort of womb bore me?
For I was born under a curse
in the eyes of the people of Israel.
And I’ve been reviled and mocked
and banished from the temple of the Lord my God.

“Poor me! What am I like?
I am not like the birds of the sky,
because even the birds of the sky
reproduce in your presence, O Lord”.

“Poor me! What am I like?
I am not like the domestic animals,
because even the domestic animals
bear young in your presence, O Lord.”

“Poor me! What am I like?
I am not like the wild animals of the earth,
because even the animals of the earth
reproduce in your presence, O Lord.”

“Poor me! What am I like?
I am not like these waters,
because even these waters
are productive in your presence, O Lord.”

“Poor me! What am I like?
I am not like this earth,
because even the earth
produces its crops in season
and blesses you, O Lord.”

Suddenly a messenger of the Lord
appeared to her and said:

“Anna, Anna,
the Lord God has heard your prayer.
You will conceive and give birth,
and your child will be talked about
all over the world.”
And Anna said,
“As the Lord God lives,
whether I give birth to a boy or a girl,
I’ll offer it as a gift to the Lord my God,
and it will serve him its whole life.”

And right then two messengers reported to her:
“Look, your husband Joachim is coming with his flocks.”

You see, a messenger of the Lord
had come down to Joachim and said,

“Joachim, Joachim,
the Lord God has hear your prayer.
Get down from there.
Look, your wife Anna is pregnant.”

And Joachim went down right away
and summoned his shepherds with these instructions:

“Bring me ten lambs without spot or blemish,
and the ten lambs will be for the Lord God.
Also, bring me twelve tender calves,
and the twelve calves will be for the priests
and the council of elders.
Also, one hundred goats,
and the one hundred goats
will be for the whole people.”

And so Joachim came with his flocks,
while Anna stood at the gate.
Then she spotted Joachim approaching with his flocks
and rushed out and threw her arms around his neck:

“Now I know that the Lord God has blessed me greatly.
This widow is no longer a widow,
and I, once childless, am now pregnant!”

And Joachim rested the first day at home.

But on the next day, as he was presenting his gifts,
he thought to himself,
“If the Lord God has really been merciful to me,
the polished disc on the priest’s headband
will make it clear to me.”

And so Joachim was presenting his gifts
and paying attention to the priest’s headband
until he went up to the altar of the Lord.
And he saw no sin in it.

And Joachim said,
“Now I know that the Lord God has been merciful to me
and has forgiven me all my sins.”

And he came down from the temple of the Lord acquitted and went back home.

And so her pregnancy came to term,
and in the ninth month Anna gave birth.

And she said to the midwife,
“Is it a boy or a girl?”

And her midwife said,
“A girl.”


And Anna said,
“I have been greatly honoured this day.”
Then the midwife put the child to bed.

When, however, the prescribed days were completed,
Anna cleansed herself of the flow of blood.
And she offered her breast to the infant
and gave her the name Mary.

Day by day the infant grew stronger.
When she was six months old,
her mother put her on the ground
to see if she could stand.
She picked her up and said,

“As the Lord my God lives,
you will never walk on this ground again
until I take you into the temple of the Lord.”

And so she turned her bedroom into a sanctuary
and did not permit anything profane or unclean
to pass the child’s lips.
She sent for the undefiled daughters of the Hebrews,
and they kept her amused.

Now the child had her first birthday,
and Joachim gave a great banquet
and invited the high priests, priests, scholars,
council of elders, and all the people of Israel.
Joachim presented the child to the priests,
and they blessed her:
“God of our fathers, bless this child
and give her a name
which will be on the lips of future generations forever.”
And everyone said, “So be it. Amen.”

He presented her to the high priests,
and they blessed her:
“Most high God, look in this child
and bless her with the ultimate blessing,
one which cannot be surpassed.”

Her mother then took her up to the sanctuary
– the bedroom –
and gave her breast to the child.
And Anna composed a song for the Lord God:

“I will sing a sacred song to the Lord my God
because he has visited me
and taken away the disgrace
attributed to me by my enemies.
The Lord my God has given me
the fruit of his righteousness,
single yet manifold before him.
Who will announce to the sons of Reubel
that Anna has a child at her breast?

‘Listen, listen, you twelve tribes of Israel:
Anna has a child at her breast!’”

Anna made her rest in the bedroom
– the sanctuary –
and then went out
and began servicing her guests.
When the banquet was over,
they left in good spirits
and praised the God of Israel.

Many months passed,
but when the child reached two years of age,
Joachim said,
“Let’s take her up to the temple of the Lord,
so that we can keep the promise we made,
or else the Lord will be angry with us
and our gift will be unacceptable.”

And Anna said,
“Let’s wait until she is three,
so she won’t miss her father or mother.”

And Joachim agreed: “Let’s wait.”

When the child turned three years of age,
Joachim said,
“Let’s send for the undefiled Hebrew daughters.
Let them each take a lamp and light it,
so the child won’t turn back
and have her heart captivated
by things outside the Lord’s temple.”
And this is what they did
until the time they ascended
to the Lord’s temple.

The priest welcomed her,
kissed her, and blessed her:
“The Lord God has exalted your name
among all generations.
In you the Lord will disclose
his redemption
to the people of Israel
during the last days.”

And he sat her down on the third step of the altar,
and the Lord showered favour on her.
And she danced,
and the whole house of Israel loved her.

Her parents left for home
marveling and praising and glorifying the Lord God
because the child did not look back at them.

And Mary lived in the temple of the Lord.
She was fed there like a dove,
receiving her food
from the hand of the heavenly messenger.

When she turned twelve, however,
there was a meeting of the priests.

“Look,” they said,
“Mary has turned twelve
in the temple of the Lord.
What should we do with her
so she won’t pollute the sanctuary
of the Lord our God.”

And they said to the high priest,
“You stand at the altar of the Lord.
Enter and pray about her,
and we’ll do whatever
the Lord God discloses to you.”

And so the high priest
took the vestment with the twelve bells,
entered the Holy of Holies,
and began to pray about her.
And suddenly a messenger of the Lord appeared: “Zechariah, Zechariah,
go out and assemble the widowers of the people
and have them each bring a staff.
She will become the wife
of the one to whom the Lord God
shows a sign.”

And so heralds covered the surrounding territory of Judea. The trumpet of the Lord sounded
and all the widowers came running.

And Joseph, too,
threw down his carpenter’s axe
and left for the meeting.
When they had all gathered,
they went to the high priest with their staffs.

After the high priest had collected everyone’s staff,
he entered the temple and began to pray.
When he had finished his prayer,
he took the staffs and went out
and began to give them back to each man.
But there was no sign on any of them.

Joseph got the last staff.
Suddenly a dove came out of this staff
and perched on Joseph’s head.

“Joseph, Joseph,”
the high priest said,
“You’ve been chosen by lot
to take the virgin of the Lord
into your care and protection”
But Joseph objected:
“I already have sons
and I’m an old man;
she’s only a young woman.
I’m afraid that I’ll become the butt of jokes
among the people of Israel.”

And the high priest responded,
“Joseph, fear the Lord your God
and remember what God did
to Dathan, Abiron, and Kore:
the earth was split open
and they were all swallowed up
because of their objection.
So no, Joseph, you ought to take heed
so that the same thing won’t happen to your family.”

And so out of fear
Joseph took her into his care and protection.
He said to her,
“Mary, I’ve gotten you from the temple of the Lord,
but now I’m leaving you at home.
I’m going away to build houses,
but I’ll come back to you.
The Lord will protect you.”

Meanwhile, there was a council of the priests, who agreed: “Let’s make a veil for the temple of the Lord.”

And the high priest said,
“Summon the true virgins from the tribe of David.”
And so the temple assistants left
and searched everywhere
and found seven.
And the high priest then remembered the girl Mary,
that she, too, was from the tribe of David
and was pure in God’s eyes.
And so the temple assistants went out and got her.

And they took the maidens into the temple of the Lord.
Then the high priest said,
“Cast lots for me
to decide who’ll spin which threads for the veil:
the gold, the white,
the linen, the silk,
the violet, the scarlet,
and the true purple.”

And the true purple and scarlet threads fell to Mary.
And she took them and returned home.
Now it was at this time that Zechariah became mute,
and Samuel took his place
until Zechariah regained his speech.
Meanwhile, Mary had taken up the scarlet thread
and was spinning it.

And she took her water jar and went out to fill it with water. Suddenly there was a voice saying to her,
“Greetings, favoured one!
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women.”

Mary began looking around, both right and left,
to see where the voice was coming from.
She became terrified and went home.
After putting the water jar down
and taking up the purple thread,
she sat down on her chair and began to spin.
A heavenly messenger suddenly stood before her:
“Don’t be afraid, Mary.
You see, you’ve found favour
in the sight of the Lord of all.
You will conceive
by means of his word.”

But as she listened, Mary was doubtful and said,
“If I actually conceive by the Lord, the living God,
will I also give birth the way women usually do?

And the messenger of the Lord replied,
“No, Mary, because the power of God will overshadow you.
Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy,
son of the Most High.
And you will name him Jesus –
the name means “he will save his people from their sins.’”

And Mary said, “Here I am, the Lord’s slave before him.
I pray that all you’ve told me comes true.”

And she finished [spinning] the purple and the scarlet thread
and took her work up to the high priest.
The high priest accepted them and praised her and said, “Mary, the Lord God has extolled your name
and so you will be blessed
by all the generations of the earth.”

Mary rejoiced and left to visit her relative Elizabeth.
She knocked at the door.
Elizabeth heard her,
tossed aside the scarlet thread,
ran to the door,
and opened it for her.
And she blessed her and said,
“Who am I that the mother of my Lord should visit me?
You see, the baby inside me has jumped for joy
and blessed you.”

But Mary forgot the mysteries
which the heavenly messenger Gabriel had spoken,
and she looked up to the sky and said,
“Who am I
that every generation on earth
will congratulate me?”

She spent three months with Elizabeth.
Day by day her womb kept swelling.
And so Mary became frightened,
returned home,
and hid from the people of Israel.
She was just sixteen years old
when these mysterious things happened to her.


She was in her sixth month
when one day Joseph came home
from his building projects,
entered his house,
and found her pregnant.

He struck himself in the face,
threw himself to the ground on sackcloth,
and began to cry bitterly:

“What sort of case should I present
to the Lord God?

“What prayer can I say on her behalf
since I received her as a virgin
from the temple of the Lord God
and didn’t protect her?

“Who has set this trap for me?
Who has done this evil deed in my house?
Who has lured this virgin away from me and violated her?

“The story of Adam has been repeated in my case, hasn’t it?
For just as Adam was praying
when the serpent came and found Eve alone,
deceived her, and corrupted, her,
so the same thing has happened to me.”

So Joseph got up from the sackcloth
and summoned Mary and said to her,
“God has taken a special interest in you –
how could you have done this?
Have you forgotten the Lord your God?
Why have you brought shame on yourself,
you who were raised in the Holy of Holies and
fed by a heavenly messenger?”

But she began to cry bitter tears:
“I’m innocent.
I haven’t had sex with any man.”

And Joseph said to her,
“Then where did the child you’re carrying come from?”

And she replied,
“As the Lord my God lives,
I don’t know here it came from.”
And Joseph became very frightened
and no longer spoke with her
as he pondered what he was going to do with her.
And Joseph said to himself,

“If I try to cover up her sin,
I’ll end up going against the law of the Lord.

“And if I disclose her condition to the people of Israel,
I’m afraid that the child inside her might be heaven-sent
and I’ll end up handing innocent blood
over to a death sentence.

“So what should I do with her?
[I know], I’ll divorce her quietly.”

But when night came
a messenger of the Lord
suddenly appeared to him in a dream and said:
“Don’t be afraid of this girl,
because the child in her
is the holy spirit’s doing.”

“She will have a son
and you will name him Jesus –
the name means
‘he will save his people from their sins.’”

And Joseph got up from his sleep
and praised the God of Israel,
who had given him this favor.
And so he began to protect the girl.

Then Annas the scholar came to him and said to him, “Joseph, why haven’t you attended our assembly?”

And he replied to him,
“Because I was worn out from the trip
and rested my first day home.”

Then Anna turned and saw that Mary was pregnant.

He left in a hurry for the high priest and said to him,
“You remember Joseph, don’t you –
the man you yourself vouched for?
Well, he has committed a serious offence.”

And the high priest asked, “In what way?”

“Joseph has violated the virgin
he received from the temple of the Lord,” he replied.
“He had his way with her,
and hasn’t disclosed his action to the people of Israel.”

And the high priest asked him,
“Has Joseph really done this?”

And he replied, “Send temple assistants
and you’ll find the virgin pregnant”

And so the temple assistants went
and found her just as Annas had reported,
and then they brought her,
along with Joseph,
to the court.


“Mary, why have you done this?”
the high priest asked her.
“Why have you humiliated yourself?
Have you forgotten the Lord your God,
you who were raised in the Holy of the Holies
and were fed by heavenly messengers?
You of all people,
who heard their hymns and danced for them
– why have you done this?”

And she wept bitterly,
“As the Lord God lives,
I stand innocent before him.
Believe me,
I’ve not had sex with any man.”

And Joseph said,
“As the Lord lives,
I am innocent where she is concerned.”

And the high priest said,
“Don’t perjure yourself,
but tell the truth.
You’ve had your way with her
and haven’t disclosed this action
to the people of Israel.
And you haven’t humbled yourself
under God’s mighty hand,
so that your offspring might be blessed.

Then the high priest said,
“Return the virgin you received from the temple of the Lord.”

And Joseph, bursting into tears…
And the high priest said
“I’m going to give you the Lord’s drink test,
and it will disclose your sin clearly to both of you.”

And the high priest took the water
and made Joseph drink it
and sent him into the wilderness,
but he returned unharmed.

And he made the girl drink it too,
and sent her into the wilderness.
She also came back unharmed.

And everybody was surprised
because their sin had not been revealed.

And so the high priest said,
“If the Lord God has not exposed your sin,
then neither do I condemn you.”
And he dismissed them.

Joseph took Mary and returned home
celebrating and praising the God of Israel.


Now an order came
from the Emperor Augustus
that everybody
in Bethlehem of Judea
be enrolled in the census.

And Joseph wondered,
“I’ll enroll my sons,
but what am I going to do with this girl?
How will I enroll her?
As my wife?
I’m ashamed to do that.

As my daughter?
The people of Israel know
she’s not my daughter.

How’s this is to be decided
depends on the Lord.”

And so he saddled his donkey
and had her get on it.
His son led it
and Samuel brought up the rear.
As they neared the three mile marker,
Joseph turned around
and saw that she was sulking.
And he said to himself,
“Perhaps the baby she is carrying
is causing her discomfort.”

Joseph turned around again
and saw her laughing
and said to her,
“Mary, what’s going on with you?
One minute I see you laughing
and the next minute you’re sulking.”

And she replied,
“Joseph, it’s because
I imagine two peoples in front of me,
one weeping and mourning
and the other celebrating and jumping for joy.”
Halfway through trip, Mary said to him,
”Joseph, help me down from the donkey –
the child inside me is about to be born .”

And he helped her down
and said to her,
“Where will I take you
to give you some privacy,
since this place is out in the open?

He found a cave nearby
and took her inside.
He stationed his sons to guard her
and went to look for a Hebrew midwife
in the country around Bethlehem.

Now I, Joseph, was walking along
and yet not going anywhere.
I looked up at the vault of the sky
and saw it standing still,
then at the clouds and saw them
paused in amazement,
and at the birds of the sky
suspended in midair.

As I looked on the earth,
I saw a bowl lying there
and workers reclining around it
with their hands in the bowl;
some were chewing and yet did not chew;
some were picking up something to eat
and yet did not pick it up.
And some were putting food in their mouths
and yet did not do so.
Instead, they were all looking upward.
I saw sheep being driven along
and yet the sheep stood still;
the shepherd was lifting his hand to strike them,
and yet his hand remained raised
And I observed the current of the river
and saw goats with their mouths in the water
and yet they were not drinking.

Then all of a sudden
everything and everybody
went on with what they had been doing.

Then I saw a woman coming down from the hill country,
and she asked, “Where are you going, sir?”
I replied, “I am looking for a Hebrew midwife.”
She inquired, “Are you an Israelite?”
I told her, “Yes”
And she said, “And who’s the one
having a baby in the cave?”
I replied, “My fiancée”
And she continued, “She isn’t your wife?”
I said to her, “She is Mary,
who was raised in the temple of the Lord;
I obtained her by lot as my wife.
But she’s not really my wife;
she’s pregnant by the holy spirit.”

The midwife said, “Really?”
Joseph responded, “Come and see.”

And the midwife went with him.
As they stood in front of the cave,
a dark cloud overshadowed it.

The midwife said, “I’ve really been privileged,
because today my eyes have seen a miracle
in that salvation has come to Israel.”

Suddenly the cloud withdrew from the cave
and an intense light appeared inside the cave,
so that their eyes could not bear to look.

And a little later that light receded
until an infant became visible;
he took the breast of his mother Mary.

Then the midwife shouted:
“What a great day this is for me
because I’ve seen this new miracle!”

And the midwife left the cave
and met Salome and said to her,
“Salome, Salome, let me tell you about a new marvel:
a virgin has given birth, and you know that’s impossible!”

And Salome replied, “As the Lord my God lives,
unless I insert my finger and examine her,
I will never believe that a virgin has given birth.”

The midwife entered and said,
“Mary, position yourself for an examination.
You are facing a serious test.”

And so Mary,
when she heard these instructions,
positioned herself,
and Salome inserted her finger into Mary.

And then Salome cried aloud and said,
“I’ll be damned
because of my transgression and my disbelief;
I have put the living God on trial.
Look! My hand is disappearing!
It’s being consumed by the flames!”

Then Salome fell on her knees
in the presence of the Lord,
with these words:
“God of my ancestors, remember me
because I am a descendant
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Do not make an example of me
for the people of Israel,
but give me a place among the poor again.

You yourself know, Lord,
that I’ve been healing people
in your name
and have been receiving my payment from you.”

Ad suddenly a messenger of the Lord appeared,
saying to her, “Salome, Salome,
the Lord of all has heard your prayer.
Hold our your hand to the child
and pick him up,
and then you’ll have salvation and joy.”

Salome approached the child
and picked him up with these words:
“I’ll worship him
because he’s been born
to be King of Israel.
And Salome was instantly healed
and left the cave vindicated.

Then a voice said abruptly
“Salome, Salome,
don’t report the marvels you’ve seen
until the child goes to Jerusalem.”

Joseph was about ready to depart for Judea,
but a great uproar was about to take place
in Bethlehem in Judea.

It all started when astrologers came inquiring,
“Where is the newborn kind of the Judeans?
We’re here because we saw his star in the East
and have come to pay him homage.”

When Herod heard about their visit,
he was terrified
and sent agents to the astrologers.
He also sent for the high priests
and questioned them in his palace:
“What has been written about the Anointed?
Where is he supposed to be born?”

They said to him,
“In Bethlehem, Judea,
that’s’ what the scriptures say.”
And he dismissed them.

Then he questioned the astrologers:
“What sign have you seen
regarding the one which was been born king?”

And the astrologers said,
“We saw a star of exceptional brilliance in the sky,
and it so dimmed the other stars that they disappeared. Consequently, we know that a king was born of Israel.
And we have come to pay him homage.”

Herod instructed them:
“Go and begin your search,
and if you find him, report back to me,
so I can also go and pay him homage.”

The astrologers departed.
And there it was:
the star they had seen in the East led them on
until they came to the cave,
then the star stopped directly above the head of the child.

After the astrologers saw him with his mother Mary,
they took gifts out of their pouches –
gold, pure incense, and myrrh.

Since they had been advised
by the heavenly messenger
not to go into Judea,
they returned to their country
by another route.

When Herod realized
that he had been duped by the astrologers,
he flew into a rage
and dispatched his executioners
with instructions to kill
all the infants two years old and younger.

When Mary heard
that the infants were being killed,
she was frightened,
and took her child,
wrapped him in strips of cloth,
and put him in a feeding trough
used by cattle.

As for Elizabeth,
when she heard that they were looking for John,
she took him and went up into the hill country.
She kept searching for a place to hide him,
but there was none to be had.

Then she groaned and said out loud,
“Mountain of God,
please take in a mother
with her child.”

You see, Elizabeth was unable to keep on climbing
because her nerve failed her.

But suddenly the mountain was split open
and let them in.

This mountain allowed the light
to shine through to her,
since a messenger of the Lord
was with them for protection.

Herod, though, kept looking for John
and sent his agents to Zechariah
serving at the altar
with this message for him:
“Tell me the truth. Where is your son?
Don’t you know that I have your life in my power?”
And the agents went
and reported this message to him.

Zechariah answered
“I am a martyr for God.
Take my life.
The Lord, though, will receive my spirit
because you are shedding innocent blood
at the entrance to the temple of the Lord.”

And so at daybreak Zechariah was murdered,
but the people of Israel and did not know
that he had been murdered.

At the hour of formal greetings the priests departed,
but Zechariah did not meet and bless them
as was customary.
And so the priests waited around for Zechariah,
to greet him with prayer and to praise the Most High God.

But when he did not show up, they all became fearful.
One of them, however, summoned up his courage,
entered the sanctuary, and saw dried blood
next to the Lord’s altar.
And a voice said,
“Zechariah has been murdered!
His blood will not be cleaned up
until his avenger appears

When he heard this utterance he was afraid
and went out and reported to the priests
what he had seen and heard.
And they summoned up their courage,
entered, and saw what had happened.
The panels of the temple cried out,
and the priests ripped their robes from top to bottom.
They didn’t find a corpse, but they did find his blood,
now turned to stone.
They were afraid
and went out and reported to the people
that Zechariah had been murdered.
When all the tribes of the people heard this,
they began to mourn; and they beat their breasts
for three days and three nights.

After three days, however,
the priests deliberated about whom they should appoint
to the position of Zechariah.
The lot fell to Simeon.
This man, you see,
is the one who was informed by the holy spirit
that he would not see death
until he had laid eyes on the Anointed in the flesh.

Now I, James, am the one who wrote this account
at the time when an uproar arose in Jerusalem
at the death of Herod.

I took myself off to the wilderness
until the uproar in Jerusalem died down.

There I praised the Lord God,
who gave me the wisdom to write this account.

Grace will be with all those who fear the Lord.
Amen.
Read more...

Session 2 Notes: 'Bible Gospels'

Notes from Session 2, ‘Bible Gospels’
Baby Jesus in the Bible
Thornhill United Church
December 7, 2008

We gathered 18 participants in 3 groups of 6 again this week – though we missed 5 from the first session, and added 5 new folks. People jotted down some questions and comments starting out, about last week, and about the 4 ‘bible’ gospels as circulated in 4 different booklet flyers:
• Where’s the geneology of Mary?
• Were the writings of Matt and Luke written as ‘introductions’?
• What’s with the parallels between ‘Herod’ vs ‘Pharaoh’?
• What’s ‘Q’? (for ‘Quelle’ or ‘source’ in German’)
• Why the geneology of Joseph, if Mary’s a virgin?
• Why does Jesus being divine matter?
• Does it matter what order the 4 come?
• Why are 2 so thin?
• Why does Luke’s geneology go backward to Adam, Matthew forward from Abraham?
• ‘Christ’s birth story’ but different versions of events raise questions about the truth in stories, like Egypt
• Were there other stories similar to this in other literature/cultures, e.g. Egyptian?

These were only some of the good questions we began with. Reading texts out of bible bindings, without chapter and verse, invited people to challenge, jot notes, and mark them up, and see the texts missing from the texts we read in routine Christmas ‘lessons & carols’ or ‘pageants’.

We all spent time on genealogies today, as a result.

Matthew is telling us how Jesus culminates a story of the ‘toledot’ or ‘generations’ of a chosen people, 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to exile or deportation to Babylon, and 14 from exile to Jesus. Jesus fulfills, rather than replaces, the promises God made to this people. If you want to understand Jesus, learn the shape of the Hebrew scripture, and recognize the patterns!

Luke is telling us that among the sources he is summarizing for Theophilus, he prefers the story of humanity reaching all the way back to Adam. If you want to understand what ‘Son of God’ means, you look all the way back to our universal common ancestor, Adam the son of God. This is not about DNA paternity tests or racial exclusivity, but the opposite – if you want to ‘get’ Jesus, you need the biggest frame, that includes everybody as family!

In both cases, participants challenged these ‘begatitudes’ as the root of patriarchy, excluding women. Actually reading Matthew, we find key women’s names subverting the pattern of fathers and sons. More deeply, the recitals express more than misogyny, including names of places and events, like preachers’ notes reminding readers or related stories, to find a pattern and shape to human history, to frame baby Jesus.

Yes, these geneologies follow and change conventional patterns – just as the birth narratives follow and change cultural patterns of divine sons and kings, supermen or great teachers – ‘theos aner’ being a close Greek parallel. Think of it like cartoon superheroes: Superman vs Spiderman vs the Incredibles. What do they affirm or lampoon?

We also talked about ‘Christology’, this week:

What’s important to tell about the person and work of Christ?
What happened? Who was Jesus? What did he do? What did he say? What difference did it make?

Bill proposed that Mark has a ‘low’ Christology. Mark’s Jesus figures it out along the way, can’t do miracles in his own home town like he did in Galilee, and gets no resurrection in the original, after getting mad at his stupid disciples a lot. This version of Jesus doesn’t need baby Jesus, assuming a normal kid getting a message and baptism and flaming out.

Bill proposed that John has a ‘high’ Christology. This Jesus is ‘Word made Flesh’, incarnation of ‘Logos’, at one with a fundamental nature of divinity which was from creation, and was shown again in Jesus life and teaching in a particularly clear way, for anybody with eyes to see the patterns of signs trumping the old temple traditions. Baby Jesus isn’t a key!

Whether you buy those suggestions of why Mark and John didn’t need baby Jesus stories to tell their version of what mattered about Jesus, you can see that Matthew and Luke both think that baby Jesus stories are important to round out their ‘Christology’ and ours. People noticed lots of good clues as they began to run parallel columns of the 2 versions not to harmonize, but to hear the distinctive ‘voices’.

We looked at an edition of ‘Gospel Parallels’, a presentation of the ‘synoptic’ gospels that illustrates more graphically what we had attempted in table groups for the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke. For most of us, this was an interesting resource as we begin to reread our gospels as adults, trying to hear their voices, not just echoes of our own.
‘Bible Gospels’ we visited this week:

“Mark” hardly says anything about baby Jesus or his family, and a single sheet reminded us that Jesus preferred his disciples to his biological family, and that people in his home town dismissed him as ‘just that carpenter’s kid’, so he couldn’t even heal anybody.

“Matthew” opens with ‘3 sets of 14’ shaping salvation history of the people of God, culminating with Jesus, fulfilling the promise, not replacing it – alluding to Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary in the string of men. Joseph gets angelic guidance, not Mary. Bethlehem fulfils the ‘least’ but weeping in Ramah echoes the prophets too. Magi bring gifts fit for king, prophet, messiah, and Herod responds as Pharaoh did to Moses in Torah….

“Luke” has orthodox piety reward by recognizing Jesus, for old and young parents, who respond with poetry. Not coincidentally, this ‘cousin’ idea reconciles ‘John the Baptist movement’ traditions with ‘Jesus people movement’ ones. Lots of people get direct angelic visits, including shepherds, the most ordinary of illiterates. Then we return to rewarding orthodox piety in Simeon and Anna, also reconciling remnant traditions from the temple cult shattered after 70AD.

“John” is another single page excerpt – but what a dense piece of literature, echoing Genesis and claiming deep metaphysical revelation about Word, Flesh, Light, Logos - little wonder that this kid grows up to say ‘I am…’ instead of ‘the kingdom of heaven is…’

Our tradition decided that each and all four of these gospels offered something important to our ‘Christology’, which can be harmonized or reconciled or at least coexist. Get it yet?

Read more...

Invitation to Sunday December 7 Session 2

GET READY FOR THE SECOND SESSION -
2pm Sunday Dec 7


Read the last half-dozen posts,
and come ready to talk about:


2pm Sunday Dec 7

“Mark”
Our first ‘narrative’ gospel,
1st edition 70CE, bible version 100CE
Not much baby Jesus here….


“Matthew”
Adding ‘sayings’ gospel ‘Q’ (50CE) to ‘Mark’
1st edition of “Matthew” 80CE
Half our ‘Christmas Pageant’ sourced here….


“Luke”
Another take on merging ‘Q’+’Mark=?
1st edition about 90CE, volume 1 of 2
Most of the rest of our ‘Christmas’ version is here….


“John”
Building on a ‘Signs’ gospel ca 60-80CE
1st edition 90CE, bible version 150CE
Not much, like Mark – but what an opening!

We'll post notes after the session -
then we'll post the 'lost gospels'
that didn't make the cut!


The rest of the article goes here. Read more...

Baby Jesus in John

BABY JESUS IN THE BIBLE

Rereading our 4 gospels,
And some ‘lost gospels’

Thornhill United Church,
Advent 2008

“JOHN”

Our fourth ‘bible’ gospel –
Incorporating a ‘signs’ gospel ca.60-80AD
First edition of John about 90CE
3rd edition of John as late as 150CE

Inside this cover are all of
Mark’s references to Jesus’ family.

Mark does not give us ‘Christmas’ stuff…
Why not?


Questions? Answers?
Bill Bruce
905-889-2131
416-275-3547
bill@thornhillunitedchurch.ca

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.


He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.


What has come into being in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.


There was a man sent from God,
whose name was John.
He came as a witness
to testify to the light,
that all might believe through him.
He himself was not the light,
but he came to testify to the light.
The true light,
which enlightens everyone,
was coming into the world.


He was in the world,
and the world came into being through him;
yet the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who received him,
who believed in his name,
he gave power to become
children of God,
who were born,
not of blood
or of the will of the flesh
or of the will of man,
but of God.

And the Word became flesh
and lived among us,
and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.

(John testified to him and cried out,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘He who comes after me
ranks ahead of me
because he was
before me.’)

From his fullness
we have all received,
grace upon grace.

The law indeed was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God.
It is God the only Son,
who is close to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.

My notes on Baby Jesus in “John”:


Read more...

Baby Jesus in Luke

BABY JESUS IN THE BIBLE

Rereading our 4 gospels,
And some ‘lost gospels’

Thornhill United Church,
Advent 2008

“LUKE”

Our third bible gospel –
Another take on ‘Q’ + ‘Mark’ =
First edition about 90CE, vol 1 of 2

Inside are all ‘Luke’s’ references
to baby Jesus and his family.

‘Luke’ gives us most of the rest of our
‘Christmas Pageant’ version
What’s added, what’s missing, and so what?


Questions? Answers?
Bill Bruce
905-889-2131
416-275-3547
bill@thornhillunitedchurch.ca


Since many have undertaken
to set down an orderly account
of the events that have been fulfilled among us,
just as they were handed on to us
by those who from the beginning
were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,
I too decided,
after investigating everything carefully from the very first,
to write an orderly account for you,
most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may know the truth
concerning the things
about which you have been instructed.





In the days of King Herod of Judea,
there was a priest named Zechariah,
who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah.
His wife was a descendant of Aaron,
and her name was Elizabeth.
Both of them were righteous before God,
living blamelessly according to all the commandments
and regulations of the Lord.
But they had no children,
because Elizabeth was barren,
and both were getting on in years.





Once when he was serving as priest before God
and his section was on duty,
he was chosen by lot,
according to the custom of the priesthood,
to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.
Now at the time of the incense offering,
the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord,
standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
When Zechariah saw him,
he was terrified;
and fear overwhelmed him.
But the angel said to him,



“Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
for your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,
and you will name him John.
You will have joy and gladness
and many will rejoice at his birth,
for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.
He must never drink wine or strong drink;
even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.
He will turn many of the people of Israel
to the Lord their God.
With the spirit and power of Elijah
he will go before him,
to turn the hearts of parents to their children,
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous,
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”



Zechariah said to the angel,
“How will I know that this is so?
For I am an old man,
and my wife is getting on in years.”




The angel replied,
“I am Gabriel.
I stand in the presence of God,
and I have been sent to speak to you
and to bring this good news.
But now, because you did not believe my words,
which will be fulfilled in their time,
you will become mute,
unable to speak,
until the day these things occur.”




Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah,
and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary.
When he did come out,
he could not speak to them,
and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary.
He kept motioning to them
and remained unable to speak.
When his time of service was ended,
he went to his home.


After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived,
and for five months she remained in seclusion.
She said,
“This is what the Lord has done for me
when he looked favorably on me
and took away the disgrace I have endured
among my people.”




In the sixth month
the angel Gabriel was sent by God
to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin engaged to a man
whose name was Joseph,
of the house of David.
The virgin’s name was Mary.
And he came to her and said,




“Greetings, favoured one!
The Lord is with you.”




But she was much perplexed by his words
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
The angel said to her,


“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favour with God.
And now, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son,
and you will name him Jesus.
He will be great,
and will be called the son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give to him
the throne of his ancestor David.
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.”





Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
The angel said to her,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most high will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be holy;
he will be called son of God.
And now,
your relative Elizabeth in her old age
has also conceived a son;
and this is the sixth month
for her who was said to be barren.
For nothing will be impossible with God.”





Then Mary said,
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.




In those days
Mary set out and went with haste
to a Judean town in the hill country,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the child leaped in her womb.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
and exclaimed with a loud cry,




“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And why has this happened to me,
that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting,
the child in my womb leaped for joy.
And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment
of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”




And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor
on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on
all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud
in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”





And Mary remained with her
about three months
and then returned
to her home.


Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth,
and she bore a son.
Her neighbours and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her,
and they rejoiced with her.




On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child,
and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father.
But his mother said,
“No; he is to be called John.”
They said to her,
“None of your relatives has this name.”
Then they began motioning to his father
to find out what name he wanted to give him.
He asked for a writing tablet and wrote,
“His name is John.”
And all of them were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened
and his tongue freed,
and he began to speak,
praising God.



Fear came over all their neighbours,
and all these things were talked about
throughout the entire hill country of Judea.
All who heard them pondered them and said,
“What then will this child become?”
For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

Then his father Zechariah
was filled with the Holy Spirit
and spoke this prophecy;





“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably
on his people
and redeemed them.
He has raised up
a mighty savior for us
in the house
of his servant David,
as he spoke
through the mouth
of his holy prophets
from of old,
that we would be saved
from our enemies
and from the hand
of all who hate us.
Thus he has shown the mercy
promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we,
being rescued
from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
“And you, child,
will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord
to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation
to his people
by the forgiveness
of their sins.
By the tender mercy
of our God,
the dawn from on high
will break upon us,
to give light
to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet
into the way of peace.”




The child grew
and became strong in spirit,
and he was in the wilderness
until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.



In those days a decree went out
from Emperor Augustus
that all the world should be registered.
This was the first registration
and was taken while Quirinius
was governor of Syria.
All went to their own towns to be registered.
Joseph also went
from the town of Nazareth in Galilee
to the city of David called Bethlehem,
because he was descended
from the house and family of David.



He went to be registered with Mary,
to whom he was engaged
and who was expecting a child.
While they were there,
the time came for her
to deliver her child.
And she gave birth
to her firstborn son
and wrapped him
in bands of cloth,
and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them
in the inn.



In that region there were shepherds
living in the fields,
keeping watch over their flock by night.
Then an angel of the Lord
stood before them,
and the glory of the lord
shone around them,
and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them,


“Do not be afraid;
for see –
I am bringing you good news
of great joy
for all the people:
to you is born this day
in the city of David
a Saviour,
who is the Messiah,
the Lord.
This will be a sign for you:
you will find a child
wrapped in bands of cloth
and lying in a manger.”



And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying,




“Glory to God
in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace
among those
whom he favours!”



When the angels had left them
and gone into heaven,
the shepherds said to one another,




“Let us go now to Bethlehem
and see these things
that have taken place,
which the Lord has made known to us.”




So they went with haste
and found Mary and Joseph,
and the child lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known
what had been told them
about this child;
and all who heard it were amazed
at what the shepherds told them.




But Mary treasured all these words
and pondered them in her heart.




The shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
as it had been told them.





After eight days had passed,
it was time to circumcise the child;
and he was called Jesus,
the name given by the angel
before he was conceived
in the womb.





When the time came
for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
they brought him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord
(as it is written in the law of the Lord,
“Every firstborn male
shall be designated
as holy to the Lord”),
and they offered a sacrifice
according to what is stated
in the law of the Lord,
“a pair of turtledoves
or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon;
this man was righteous and devout,
looking forward
to the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit rested on him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death
before he had seen the Lord’s messiah.
Guided by the Spirit,
Simeon came into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus,
to do for him what was customary under the law,
Simeon took him in his arms
and praised God, saying,





“Master,
now you are dismissing your servant
in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen
your salvation,
which you have prepared
in the presence
of all peoples,
and for glory
to your people Israel.“



And the child’s father and mother
were amazed
at what was being said
about him.




Then Simeon blessed them
and said to his mother Mary,





“This child is destined
for the falling and the rising of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be opposed.
So that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed, -
and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”




There was also a prophet,
Anna the daughter of Phanuel, if the tribe of Asher.
She was of a great age, having lived
with her husband seven years after her marriage,
then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.





She never left the temple
but worshiped there
with fasting and prayer
night and day.
At that moment she came,
and began to praise God
and to speak about the child
to all who were looking
for the redemption of Jerusalem.






When they had finished everything
required by the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee,
to their own town of Nazareth.






The child grew
and became strong,
filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God
was upon him.




Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem
for the festival of the Passover.
And when he was twelve years old,
they went up as usual for the festival.
When the festival was ended
and they started to return,
the boy Jesus
stayed behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Assuming that he was in the group of travelers,
they went a day’s journey.
Then they started to look for him
among their relatives and friends.
When they did not find him,
they returned to Jerusalem
to search for him.
After three days
they found him in the temple,
sitting among the teachers,
listening to them
and asking them questions.
And all who heard him
were amazed at his understanding
and his answers.




When his parents saw him
they were astonished;
and his mother said to him,



“Child,
why have you treated us like this?
Look, your father and I
have been searching for you
in great anxiety.”





He said to them,
“Why were you searching for me?
Did you not know
that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand
what he said to them.



Then he went down
with them
to Nazareth,
and was obedient
to them.
His mother
treasured all these things
in her heart.




And Jesus increased
in wisdom and years,
and in divine and human favour....


Jesus was about thirty years old
when he began his work.

He was the son
(as was thought)
of Joseph

son of Heli,
son of Matthat,
son of Levi,
son of Melchi,
son of Jannai,
son of Joseph,
son of Mattathias,
son of Amos,
son of Nahum,
son of Esli,
son of Naggai,
son of Maath,
son of Mattathias,
son of Semein,
son of Josech,
son of Joda,
son of Joanan,
son of Rhesa,
son of Zerubbabel,
son of Shealtiel,
son of Neri,
son of Melchi,
son of Addi,
son of Cosam,
son of Ellmadam,
son of Er,
son of Joshua,
son of Eliezer,
son of Jorim,
son of Matthat,
son of Levi,
son of Simeon,
son of Judah,
son of Joseph,
son of Jonam,
son of Eliakim,
son of Melea,
son of Menna,
son of Mattatha,
son of Nathan,
son of David,
son of Jesse,
son of Obed,
son of Boaz,
son of Sala,
son of Nahshon,
son of Amminadab,
son of Admin,
son of Arni,
son of Hezron,
son of Perez,
son of Judah,
son of Jacob,
son of Isaac,
son of Abraham,
son of Terah,
son of Nahor,
son of Serug,
son of Reu,
son of Peleg,
son of Eber,
son of Shelah,
son of Cainan,
son of Arphaxad,
son of Shem,
son of Noah,
son of Alamech,
son of Methuselah,
son of Enoch,
son of Jared,
son of Mahalaleel,
son of Cainan,
son of Enos,
son of Seth,
son of Adam,
son of God.


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