Abstract
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) is perhaps one of the most entertaining, and yet one of the most bewildering of writings classified as an apocryphal gospel. The stories are easy enough to understand, they relate events from the life of the boy Jesus between the ages of five and twelve. What is baffling is why anybody would wish to present an image of Jesus as a maverick and malevolent child, cursing and killing playmates, tormenting and mocking teachers. However, these are not the only issues that surround this writing. The IGT also occurs in multiple recensions or text-forms. Each form of the story results in a different emphasis being presented to readers. Yet little sustained and serious work has been undertaken on establishing the relationship between these text-forms, especially in light of manuscript discoveries made in the twentieth century. It is the complex task of sifting the various forms of the text to which Tony Burke turns his attention in this major and magisterial study, which will stand as a significant reference work for generations to come.
This volume began life as Burke’s doctoral thesis, completed in 2001 at the University of Toronto. As it is now presented the book is arranged in two major sections. The first, entitled ‘Introduction and Analysis’ first catalogues the surviving ancient testimony to the existence of this text. Burke breaks this evidence into two sections – references or evidence pointing to a written text, and testimonies without a written text. In the first category one finds evidence such as Irenaeus’ knowledge of the alpha-beta logion which is a prominent story in IGT. Whereas Irenaeus mentions this story in connection with the writings of his opponents, the Epistula Apostolorum cites a version of the same story without declaring the source of the pericope to be from a written text. Hence this falls into the second category on Burke’s taxonomy.
After this survey of ancient testimony to IGT, Burke provides a wonderful overview of the history of modern scholarship since the text’s ‘rediscovery’ in 1675. Peter Lambeck is presented as the first modern scholar to work on a mutilated Greek text of IGT dating to the fifteenth century. Burke notes that Lambeck’s assessment of the text was far from favourable, due to what he saw as a contradiction with the canonical gospels where Jesus performs no miracles prior to his baptism. The close of the first phase of scholarly research is seen as being the publication of Tischendorf’s Evangelia Apocrypha, which was superior to previous printed editions of the text, with Tischendorf himself having discovered one of the manuscripts of IGT during his extensive travels. The second phase of research (1865-1903) relates to the discovery of the Syriac tradition for IGT, which is generally a shorter form of the text. The third phase of research (1904-1926) is characterized by ‘several important and influential studies on IGT, as well as a number of new manuscript discoveries’ (p. 68). This period opens with the publication of Henneke’s Neutestamentliche Apokryphen and closes with the publication by M.R. James of his The Apocryphal New Testament. Both these compendia of Apocryphal texts drew largely on Tischendorf’s work, and did not integrate many of the new discoveries pertinent to the study of IGT. The fourth phase of research (1927-1971) was marked by the discovery of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas among the Nag Hammadi codices. Hence scholars were no longer likely ‘to associate the text [of the IGT] with the “Gospel of Thomas” known to the ancient heresiologists’ (p. 81). This however, according to Burke, led to an abandonment of interest in IGT by scholars interested in Gnosticism. Also during this period a new Greek manuscript was discovered (Gd). This period is seen as ending with Gero’s article critiquing acceptance of a longer Greek form (Ga) as the earliest form of the text. Building upon Gero’s work the next phase (1972-1998) is documented by Burke as one in which an impetus builds towards establishing a new critical text. In this period Jacques Noret announced plans for a new critical edition. While this was never realized, his request for information on additional unpublished manuscripts led to the first mention of two further manuscripts of IGT. During this period Voicu’s research affirmed the priority of the shorter Greek recension, although his use of Ethiopic versional evidence to support this did not help to present the case as strongly as possible. The final phase covers the period from 1999 until the appearance of Burke’s critical edition of the text in 2010.
The next chapter provides a detailed and highly informative description of the fourteen extant manuscripts for IGT and for the versional evidence. As is now typical, the Greek manuscripts are split into four major recensions (Gs, Ga, Gb, Gd). However, according to Burke, what the versions provide is evidence for the antiquity of some of the Greek recensions. Burke comes to the important conclusion that, ‘[t]hough certainly interpolated, Gs is extremely close to the form and readings of the shorter recension. This makes it a valuable base for a new critical edition of the text’ (p. 174).
In many ways, chapter four is the conceptual centre of this study. Here Burke presents the case that the versional witnesses ‘bring the form of the text back to a time long before that of the Greek manuscripts’ (p. 173). He notes that there are sufficient reasons to see the text as written in the second or perhaps third century in Greek. Importantly he notes that ‘[a]s shocking as IGT’s Jesus may seem to readers today, he fits comfortably into the thoughtworld of the average early Christian reader’ (p. 173). Bringing together these insights with the close analysis of manuscripts, and consideration of the transmission process, results in the presentation of a ‘manuscript transmission stemma’ (p. 222). This stemma encapsulates Burke’s argument for a Greek archetype, expanded in subsequent later Greek recensions, yet more faithfully preserved in the short recension of the earlier versions. Moreover, among the Greek manuscripts Gs, the shortest form, is closest to the archetype. The final chapter in section one wrestles with the vexed question of the meaning of IGT. Here Burke brings together a wealth of illuminating material concerning the role of children in antiquity and the portrait of the idealized child. This chapter is likely to generate further research on the purpose of IGT (pp. 223-289).
The second part of the volume is entitled ‘texts and translations’. This modest title veils the fact that it contains everything a serious student of IGT would want in order to undertake further detailed work of a textual nature. Burke presents a diplomatic text for each of the four Greek recensions with text-critical notes showing variations between manuscripts in each recension (pp. 293-463). However, with the Gs recension where the only Greek witness is manuscript H, the early versions are also taken into account to establish this text-form. Next follows a synopsis of the four Greek recensions, with the synopsis also presented in an English translation (pp. 466-539). The data contained in these sections is a major research tool.
Burke has produced a monumental and magisterial volume on the text of IGT, which was a scholarly problem that had been long recognized but little addressed. The research that is presented here exemplifies the highest levels of scholarship, and presents a compelling explanation for the relationship between the Greek recensions and versional witnesses of the IGT. Not only are all who are interested in this text indebted to Tony Burke for this superlative piece of work, they are also now able to carry out further research with the textual issues placed on a firm footing.