The Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

        The existence of two different gospels ascribed to Thomas has led to considerable confusion. The older of the two is a collection of Jesus' sayings apparently edited by some Gnostic teacher and found in Coptic at Nag Hammadi in Egypt (see p. 61). This was mentioned by Origen (Homily 1 on Luke) and quoted by his Roman contemporary Hippolytus (Refutation v. 7. 20). The infancy gospel contains a story about Jesus' boyhood, which was also told by Marcosian Gnostics. “When the Lord was a boy learning his letters and his teacher said, as they do, `Say Alpha,' he answered, `Alpha.' But when the teacher told him to say `Beta,' the Lord answered, `First tell me what Alpha is and then I will tell you what Beta is.' According to Irenaeus (Against Heresies 1. 20. 1), this story was supposed to imply that Jesus alone knew the secret he revealed under the form of Alpha. We cannot be sure, however, that the infancy gospel of Thomas was the Marcosians' source, since the story occurs in several places, including the Epistle of the Apostles. The later form of this gospel contains many stories about Jesus' childhood wonders-shaping clay sparrows and making them come to life, striking dead those who annoyed him, covering his teachers with confusion, raising the dead, curing people of injuries, even making Joseph's mismeasurements in the carpenter shop come out right. As it stands, the crude little gospel reflects an ancient impulse to push Jesus' miracleworking power back into his boyhood.