2008-11-052008-11-052005Van Aarde, AG 2005, 'The infancy Gospel of Thomas : allegory or myth - Gnostic or Ebionite?', Verbum et Ecclesia, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 826-850. [http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_verbum.html]1609-9982http://hdl.handle.net/2263/7772The aim of this article is to show that scholars assess the Infancy Gospel of Thomas disparagingly as "illogical", "un-Christian" and "banal". A more positive judgment is that it is either "Gnostic" or "purified of Gnosticism", or merely one of many ancient tales in the form of a historical allegory about Jesus as a child. The article argues that the author of the Greek version of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas in Codex Sinaiticus (Gr 453) describes the miracles of Jesus in a positive and negative light as if he were an adult. This phenomenon should be understood against the background that this second-century gospel is presented not so much in the genre of a Gnostic redeemer myth, but rather as a god-child myth that has neither an Orthodox nor a Gnostic orientation. Its context is rather early Ebionite Christianity.enFaculty of Theology, University of PretoriaGospel of ThomasGnosticismAllegoryEbionismJesus Christ -- Childhood -- MythologyJesus Christ -- Biography -- Apocryphal and legendary literatureApocryphal infancy GospelsArticle