2010-02-082010-02-082005Van Aarde, AG 2005, 'Die Kindheidsevangelie van Tomas - historiese allegorie of mite in die vorm van 'n biografiese diskursiewe evangelie? : The infancy Gospel of Thomas - historical allegory or myth in the format of a biographical discursive gospel?', HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies, vol. 61, no. 1&2, pp. 461-489.[http://www.hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/issue/archive]0259-9422 (print)http://hdl.handle.net/2263/12879Spine cut of Journal binding and pages scanned on flatbed EPSON Expression 10000 XL; 400dpi; text/lineart - black and white - stored to Tiff Derivation: Abbyy Fine Reader v.9 work with PNG-format (black and white); Photoshop CS3; Adobe Acrobat v.9 Web display format PDFThe article argues that the Greek version of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas in Codex Sinaiticus (Gr 453) represents the genre of a discursive-biographical gospel type and as a result, the narrative and argumentative structure of this infancy gospel is of importance. So too is the phenomenon that the narrative argument of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas is cast in the form of the ancient god-child myth. This article theorizes about myth by exploring it as folklorist art and its function as model for behaviour. In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas as a myth of a child-god the child Jesus acts as if he were an adult. This adult-like behaviour of the child Jesus is not interpreted in an allegorical way. Rather, as myth, the message is interpreted in a tautegoric manner and explained in a social scientific way.AfrikaansReformed Theological College, Faculty of Theology, University of PretoriaGospel of ThomasCodex Sinaiticus (Gr 453)GnosticismAllegoryJesus Christ -- Childhood -- MythologyJesus Christ -- Biography -- Apocryphal and legendary literatureApocryphal infancy GospelsArticle