The Arabic Infancy Gospel Overview

• “Lady Mary”, as this text often refers to her, begins to perform miracles that Jesus performs, and those healed by her go around telling people about the healing and power of Jesus so that they too are healed

pgs. 102-107 & http://www.gnosis.org/library/infarab.htm

Chapters 1-10 Summarized (Based on The Protoevangelium of James—Differences Noted)

1. When Jesus was lying in his cradle, he told Mary, “I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Logos, whom you brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel announced to you; and my Father has sent me for the salvation of the world.” Jesus miraculously speaks as a baby and clearly identifies himself as the divine Son of God. Mary also now knows since Jesus’ birth, who he really is.

2. There is no story about Anna or Mary’s parents or the annunciation; rather, it begins with Augustus’ edict. Compare with the Protoevangelium of James.

3. When Joseph comes back with the handmaiden for Mary, she sees Mary and says she is not like any daughter of Eve; Mary says, “As my son has no equal among children, so his mother has no equal among women.” Mary is exalted in a similar way as Jesus and is a new Eve, “as she should have been”.

4. When the shepherds come to visit, the cave becomes “a temple of the upper world” as angels and humans praise God. Jesus’ birth is the reuniting of heaven and earth.

5. After circumcising Jesus, they put his foreskin (some say his umbilical cord) into a jar of oil nard and gave it to a oil dealer, telling him not to sell it for any amount of money. This is explained as being the jar that Mary the sinner breaks on Jesus’ feet and wipes with her hair. Jesus’ birth and circumcision are connected by this story to his anointing before his death. Perhaps this is also connected to Zipporah touching Moses’ feet with him/his son’s (?) foreskin?

7. After the Magi come and give Jesus gifts, the angel (that is in the form of the star) leads them back to their country. Apparently, the star that led the Magi was an angel, like the angels that told the shepherds to see Jesus.

Chapters 9-12 Summarized (Based on The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew—Differences Noted)

10. There is some idol in Egypt that Satan used to speak from; when Mary and Joseph arrive, they ask the idol what has happened, and it answers, “A God has come here in secret, who is God indeed; nor is any god besides Him worthy of divine worship, because He is truly the Son of God.” The idol then shakes and falls down and breaks. Even an idol that represents Satan acknowledges Jesus to be God.

Chapters 13-15 Translated

14. There is a woman possessed by Satan who could not put on clothes or live in a house; when people put chains on her, she broke them; she often went naked into the wilderness. Mary sees her one time and pities her, and Satan leaves, and the woman says that Mary healed her. Mary heals people just like Jesus does in the canonical Gospels.

Chapters 18-22 Summarized

20-21. Some sisters have a brother who had been hexed and turned into a mule; when they tell Mary about it, Mary tells Jesus to heal the mule, lifts up Jesus, and kisses him, and they are healed. It is almost as if Mary uses Jesus as some token to heal others.

Chapter 23 Translated

23. Mary and Joseph go through a desert at night and are taken by 2 robbers, Titus and Dumachus, while the other robbers are all asleep. Titus tells Dumachus that they should let them go before the others awake; when Dumachus refuses, Titus gives him 40 drachmas and his belt, and he lets them go. Mary says that the Lord will sustain the robber who let them go and give him remission of his sins; Jesus says that 30 years later, he will be crucified at Jerusalem with Titus on his right hand and Dumachus on his left, and Titus will go into Paradise. The thief on the cross is not just saved for speaking up for Jesus and confessing him on the cross, but for repenting and saving him earlier on.

Chapters 24-26 Summarized

25. Jesus does many other miracles not found in ‘The Gospel of the Infancy’ nor ‘The Perfect Gospel’. This gospel refers to other gospels otherwise unknown.

Chapters 28-36 Translated (Chapter 36 is Based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas—Differences Noted)

29. There are 2 wives of one man with their own child with a fever: one such woman was Mary mother of Cleopas. Cleopas goes to Mary to ask her to make her mantle heal her son, and it does. The other mother’s son dies, and she tries to kill Cleopas twice: one time by trying to throw the child into a well, which the baby ends up floating in. Mary, the mother of Cleopas, goes to Mary to tell her, and the Lady Mary says God will avenge her; the other woman accidentally gets her feet caught in a well when she goes to it, falls in, breaks her skull, and dies; this fulfills Psalm 9:15. Mary and Cleopas knew the Lady Mary from asking her to help her (apparently in Egypt).

30. A lady has her son die from a disease and entreats Mary to pray for her to God. Mary prays to God and then tells her to put her baby next to Jesus as he sleeps, and the baby comes to life. The mother then thanks Mary, saying that “I know that the power of God dwells in you, so that your son heals those that partake of the same nature as himself.” This is all apparently from the Gospel called Bartholomew. The lady asks Mary to pray, perhaps as a reflection of common Christian practice at the time of the composition of the text? The lady also claims that the power of God is in Mary. This apparently comes from some gospel we do not even know.

33-34. Some lady is afflicted by Satan, who continues to come to her as a dragon and attack her and suck out all her blood. One lady who had been healed by Jesus sees her and gets Mary to help her. Mary gives her some of the water that Jesus had bathed in (which had been used to heal the previous lady who recommended Mary and many others) to heal her, and one of Jesus swaddling clothes (also frequently given away for others to use) to show the dragon when it comes to her. The dragon comes to attack her later, she puts the swaddling cloth over her eyes as she was earlier instructed, and shoots out flaming coals at the dragon. The dragon falls and cries out, “What do I have to do with you, O Jesus, son of Mary?” Jesus is powerful, but Mary is so quickly recognized as being with him—it is almost as if his power goes with Mary’s.

35. Judas Iscariot is tormented by Satan as a boy and bites everyone around him. His mother hears about Mary and Jesus and brings her son over to them; when Judas tries to bite Jesus, he can’t, but strikes Jesus on the right side. He weeps (Judas or Jesus?—we don’t know), and Satan flees from him; the place where he strikes Jesus is the same place where Jesus will be stabbed with a spear when he is crucified. Something as simple as the little boy Judas biting everyone is associated with demon-possession. We also see that Judas was tormented by Satan from his youth and attacked Jesus in a way that prefigures the death of Jesus.

36. After he turns 7, Jesus is playing with clay and creating all types of creatures with other little boys. While all the boys praise their works, Jesus says he will make his walk, and the boys ask if he is the son of the Creator. Jesus makes his clay creatures walk, leap, and eat. He makes birds fly, eat, and drink. The children tell their parents, and their parents tell them to stay away from Jesus because he is a wizard. 7-year-old Jesus demonstrates power similar to that of the Creator God.

Chapters 38-55 (Only Chapter 40 is Translated; Inspired by The Infancy Gospel of Thomas—Differences Noted)

38. Joseph worked as a carpenter, but “was not very skilful in carpentry”. But Jesus continues to stretch out, widen, or change wood as needed so that Joseph does not need to do anything. For some reason, Joseph is pathetic at his job, and Jesus practically provides for his family and does all the work, even as a small boy.

40. Jesus goes out to play with boys one time. The boys hide from Jesus, and so Jesus goes to a door and sees a woman standing there. Jesus asks the woman where the boys went, and she says there are none; Jesus asks who she sees in the furnace, and she says 3-year-old goats. Jesus commands them to come out to their shepherd, and the kids come out as kids and dance around him; the woman is afraid and praises Jesus as the good shepherd of Israel. Jesus says that the sons of Israel were like the Ethiopians among the nations, and then makes all the kid goats into human kids. There is an odd reference to the sons of Israel being like Ethiopians. Jesus is also explained as the good shepherd after bringing boys out of the furnace and turning them into people (people are also likened to goats in this way). There is also a possibility that the 3-year-old goats that the lady sees in the furnace are like the 3 young men thrown into the furnace that King Nebuchadnezzar sees as 4 with Jesus?

41. In Adar, some boys come together and put a crown of flowers on Jesus’ head, putting their clothes on the ground before him, and standing at his sides like servants. They drag other boys by force to go before him and tell them to adore him as king, and then leave. Jesus allows these kids to treat him as king even though he does not allow people to treat him as a proper king throughout the Canonical Gospels. He is also given a crown of flowers here as a youth, in contrast to the crown of thorns that he will be given before his death. The kids lay down their clothes before Jesus, as many will do before him as he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey (when Jesus quotes Psalm 8, saying that babes will be a stronghold).

42. A boy went and got bitten by a snake and was dragged by Jesus’ “servants” to come before him. Jesus decides that they will go and kill the serpent; Jesus goes to where the serpent is, the serpent immediately comes out, submits to Jesus, sucks all the venom out of the boy as Jesus commanded, and goes back to explode after Jesus curses it. Jesus then heals the boy, who is Simon the Canaanite. Jesus is like God, who curses the serpent by cursing and destroying it himself; he also commands it to take out all its venom and resurrects Simon, perhaps as a reference to his taking away the sting of death and resurrecting his people.

50-53. When Jesus is twelve and stays behind at the feast in Jerusalem, he asks the teachers and elders questions and explains things they don’t know: he asks who the Messiah is. When they respond that he is the son of David, he asks why the Spirit inspired David to say, “The Lord said to my lord, sit at my right hand, that I may put your enemies under your feet?” The teachers ask if he has read the books, and Jesus says he has read all of them and explains the books, laws, the mystery, and things no one has understood; the teachers say they have never heard of such knowledge. A philosopher and astronomer asks if he had studied astronomy, and Jesus begins to explain spheres and heavenly bodies. One natural scientist asks him if he studied medicine, and Jesus explains physics, metaphysics, and so on, and the scientist says he will become his disciple and slave. Then Mary finds him and takes him back. Similar to in the canonical Gospels, Jesus asks the religious leaders about the meaning of Psalm 110 before they were his enemies, and they are amazed. Here, Jesus not only knows the Scriptures, but their laws and mysteries—he also knows the sciences and everything else better than everyone else as a child.

54. After Jesus goes home from saying long at the feast in Jerusalem, Jesus hides his miracles and mysteries until he turned 30 and was baptized. The reason the gospels—canonical and non-canonical—do not tell stories of what Jesus did between being 12 and 30 is that he hid himself after asking the priests and religious leaders questions and showing himself.