Stephen J. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300149456
- eISBN:
- 9780300206609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300149456.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Chapter 7 focuses on the interpretation of infancy stories about Jesus in the Arabic-speaking world among both Muslims and Christians. Topics for investigation include the inclusion of the story ...
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Chapter 7 focuses on the interpretation of infancy stories about Jesus in the Arabic-speaking world among both Muslims and Christians. Topics for investigation include the inclusion of the story about Jesus and the birds in the Qur’ān and Qur’ānic commentary, the transmission of the teacher stories in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy (contextualized by the Graeco-Arabic translation movement), and the development of a “science of letters” in medieval Sufi asceticism. The chapter shows how Muslims and Christians in these different contexts shared a certain sensibility rooted in four areas of practice: scriptural interpretation and commentary, storytelling about prophetic miracles, the production of scientific knowledge, and ascetic discipline.Less
Chapter 7 focuses on the interpretation of infancy stories about Jesus in the Arabic-speaking world among both Muslims and Christians. Topics for investigation include the inclusion of the story about Jesus and the birds in the Qur’ān and Qur’ānic commentary, the transmission of the teacher stories in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy (contextualized by the Graeco-Arabic translation movement), and the development of a “science of letters” in medieval Sufi asceticism. The chapter shows how Muslims and Christians in these different contexts shared a certain sensibility rooted in four areas of practice: scriptural interpretation and commentary, storytelling about prophetic miracles, the production of scientific knowledge, and ascetic discipline.
Stephen J. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300149456
- eISBN:
- 9780300206609
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300149456.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Christ Child is a book about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim memories of Jesus’ childhood. Its focus is the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a collection of stories originally entitled “The ...
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Christ Child is a book about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim memories of Jesus’ childhood. Its focus is the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a collection of stories originally entitled “The Childhood Deeds of Jesus.” In these stories, Jesus turns clay birds into live ones, curses people to death, and displays preternatural knowledge in school. Drawing on sociologies of cultural memory, the book explores how such infancy tales were transmitted and transformed by different generations of readers, how the figure of a young Jesus was “constantly reimagined … to conform to the eye and image of the beholder” (p. 197). The book is organized in three parts. Part 1 (chapters 1–2) provides an introduction to studies on memory and childhood, and documents the infancy stories’ controversial history of interpretation from antiquity to the present day. Part 2 (chapters 3–5) investigates “sites of memory” in the Graeco-Roman world—texts and material artifacts connected with birds, cursing, and elementary education—in order to understand how ancient readers would have tried to make sense of this enigmatic young Jesus. Part 3 (chapters 6–7) focuses on the way these stories were contested and reshaped in the context of Jewish-Christian and Christian-Muslim religious encounters. An epilogue and three appendixes include discussions of visual art connected with Jesus’ childhood and English translations of important primary sources. The end result is a fascinating book that traces how the Christ child occupied “a unique but ever-shifting place in late ancient and early medieval cultural memory” (p. 44).Less
Christ Child is a book about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim memories of Jesus’ childhood. Its focus is the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a collection of stories originally entitled “The Childhood Deeds of Jesus.” In these stories, Jesus turns clay birds into live ones, curses people to death, and displays preternatural knowledge in school. Drawing on sociologies of cultural memory, the book explores how such infancy tales were transmitted and transformed by different generations of readers, how the figure of a young Jesus was “constantly reimagined … to conform to the eye and image of the beholder” (p. 197). The book is organized in three parts. Part 1 (chapters 1–2) provides an introduction to studies on memory and childhood, and documents the infancy stories’ controversial history of interpretation from antiquity to the present day. Part 2 (chapters 3–5) investigates “sites of memory” in the Graeco-Roman world—texts and material artifacts connected with birds, cursing, and elementary education—in order to understand how ancient readers would have tried to make sense of this enigmatic young Jesus. Part 3 (chapters 6–7) focuses on the way these stories were contested and reshaped in the context of Jewish-Christian and Christian-Muslim religious encounters. An epilogue and three appendixes include discussions of visual art connected with Jesus’ childhood and English translations of important primary sources. The end result is a fascinating book that traces how the Christ child occupied “a unique but ever-shifting place in late ancient and early medieval cultural memory” (p. 44).
David A. deSilva
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780195329001
- eISBN:
- 9780199979073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329001.003.0000
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas attests to a reluctance among early Christians to regard Jesus as learning from his senior contemporaries, a tendency that has persisted throughout the centuries, ...
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The Infancy Gospel of Thomas attests to a reluctance among early Christians to regard Jesus as learning from his senior contemporaries, a tendency that has persisted throughout the centuries, contributing to an image of Jesus standing apart from Judaism and addressing it from outside. This image is reinforced by reading practices that include the Hebrew Bible or Protestant Old Testament, but not the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals, such that the reader brings an anachronistic portrait of Judaism to the study of the early church. Familiarity with post-prophetic Jewish literature, however, leads to a much greater appreciation of how much Jewish sources contributed to the formation of Jesus and his brothers. Criteria for assessing influence are discussed.Less
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas attests to a reluctance among early Christians to regard Jesus as learning from his senior contemporaries, a tendency that has persisted throughout the centuries, contributing to an image of Jesus standing apart from Judaism and addressing it from outside. This image is reinforced by reading practices that include the Hebrew Bible or Protestant Old Testament, but not the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals, such that the reader brings an anachronistic portrait of Judaism to the study of the early church. Familiarity with post-prophetic Jewish literature, however, leads to a much greater appreciation of how much Jewish sources contributed to the formation of Jesus and his brothers. Criteria for assessing influence are discussed.
