1. The earliest of these lives is extant in two manuscripts which compile the Protevangelium of James, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and the Assumption of the Virgin. The first publication of the IGT material from one of these manuscripts (London, British Library, Add. 14484 of the sixth century) came in 1865 by William Wright (Contributions to the Apocryphal Literature of the New Testament.London: Williams & Norgate, 1865, pp. 11-16 [text], 6-11 [translation]). The second manuscript (Göttingen, Universitätsbibliothek, Syr. 10 of the fifth or sixth century) was collated against Wright’s manuscript by W. Baars and J. Heldermann (“Neue Materielen zum Text und zur Interpretation des Kindheitsevangeliums des Pseudo-Thomas.” Oriens Christianus 77 [1993]: 191-226; 78 [1994]: 1-32). A third witness of this type is found in Vatican, Syr. 159 (dated1622/1623) of which chs. 5-8 were published (but only in French) by P. Peeters (Évangiles apocryphes, vol. 2 [Textes et documents pour l’étude historique du Christianisme 18], Paris 1914, p. 304-308). IGT is here appended to (but not incorporated into) Nestorian Life of Mary material in Garshuni. This manuscript is more complete than the previous two and seems to be our best source for the gospel in Syriac.

2. The Jacobite Life of Mary: this compilation features the Protevangelium of James, the Vision of Theophilus, IGT, and the Assumption of the Virgin. Only the Vision section of this text has been published to date. Some manuscripts of this type, and of the Nestorian type, are listed by Anton Baumstark (Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluss der christlich-palästinensischen Texte. Bonn: A. Marcus & E. Webers Verlag, 1922, p. 69 n. 12 and 99 n. 4) and by S. C. Mimouni (“Les Vies de la Vierge; État de la question,” Apocrypha 5 [1994]: 239-243). These two lists are reproduced and discussed by Cornelia Horn in a paper she delivered at the Ottawa Apocrypha Conference in 2006 (“From Model Virgin to Maternal Intercessor: Mary, Children, and Family Problems in Late Antique Infancy Gospel Traditions”). Several additional manuscripts have not been noted by previous scholars. The sources include: Mingana Syr. 48 (1906, but copied in part from a manuscript of 1757); Mingana Syr. 5 (1790); Vatican, Borgia Syr. 128 (1720), Vatican, Syr. 537 (16th cent.); Vatican, Syr. 561 (1683; fragmentary); and Paris, Bib. nat. 377 (1854/1855). It is not always clear from the catalogue descriptions whether a given manuscript contains this text or the Nestorian text. The following likely contain the Jacobite text (but have yet to be evaluated): Cambridge, Add. 2001 (1480-1481); London, Brit. Libr. Or 4526 (1726-1727); the Harvard manuscripts (Houghton Library, Syr. 168 [18th cent], Syr. 35 [16/17th cent.], Syr. 36 [16/17th cent.], Syr. 59 [19th cent.], Syr. 82 [17/18th cent.], Syr. 129 [17th cent.], and Syr. 39 [19^th cent.]); and Columbia University, Butler Library X893.4 B47. The Jacobite text is also extant in two Garshuni manuscripts (Syr. 39 [from 1773] and the more recent Syr. 114).

3. The Nestorian Life of Mary: this compilation includes the Protevangelium of James, material incorporated also in the Arabic Infancy Gospel, IGT, episodes from the canonical gospels, the Assumption of the Virgin, and other miracles. The entire text was published from two manuscripts by E. A. Wallis Budge in 1899, though the IGT material was extant in only one of the manuscripts (a personal copy commissioned by Budge but based on a 13/14th century original). The IGT material has been shuffled around in the text; it consists of chs. 4, 6, 7, 11-16. The following manuscripts are believed to contain the Nestorian text: Berlin, OrOct 1130 (1814/1815); Cambridge, Add. 2020 (1697); Union Theological Seminary, Syr. 32 (18th cent.); Vatican, Syr. 587 (1917); Vatican, Syr. 597 (17th cent.); Notre-Dame de Sémances 97 (1689/90); Mardin 80 (1728-1731); Diyarbakir 99 (undated); Séert 82 (16th cent.); Teheran, Issayi 18 (1741/42 based on an original from 1243/44), and three manuscripts (probably now lost) from Urmia (43 [1813] perhaps identical to Cambridge, Or 1341 [1863] and a manuscript at Princeton’s Speer Library [Clemons 346]; 38 [1885]; and 47 [1885].The Syriac tradition also spawned several offsrpring: the forementioned Arabic Infancy Gospel, the Armenian Infancy Gospel (both likely related to the Nestorian Life of Mary), the Georgian version of IGT, and a rarely-discussed Arabic version of IGT (published from an undated Ms in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan [G 11 sup] by Sergio Noja, “À propos du texte arabe d’un évangile apocryphe de Thomas de la Ambrosiana de Milan,” in YAD-NAMA: im memoria di Alessandro Bausani. Biancamana Scarcia Amoretti and Lucia Rostagno, eds.; 2 vols.; Roma: Bardi Editore, 1991, 1:335-41).

The following provisionary translation of the Syriac IGT is based on the four previously published Mss (from Wright, Baars-Heldermann, Budge, and Peeters’ partial translation). No single Ms features the entire text. For the most part the translation follows Wright’s Ms but several chapters (6:9-10; 7:1-3; 8:2; and 15) are drawn from the other Mss. Chapter and verse divisions follow the standard numbering of Tischendorf’s Greek A text except chapter six which is significantly longer in the Syriac and other versions.        

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The Childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ

  2 1 Now the boy Jesus the Messiah, when he was five years old, was playing near a crossing of streams of waters, and was receiving and confining the waters, and directing them and making them enter into pools, and making them pure and virtuous.
  2 And taking the soft moist clay, he formed twelve birds. Now it was the Sabbath, and many boys were with him.
  3 But a man of the Jews saw him with the boys when he made these things, and told Joseph his father, and irritated against Jesus and said to him, “On the Sabbath he has formed clay and made birds, something that is not lawful on the Sabbath.”
  4 And Joseph went and rebuked him, and said to him, “Why do you make these on the Sabbath?” Then Jesus clapped his hands and made the birds fly away. And he said, “Go, fly, and be mindful of me, you who are alive.” And these birds went away twittering.
  5 But when a certain Pharisee saw, he was much astonished, and he went (and) told his friends.

  3 1 Now the son of Hannān the scribe was also with Jesus. And he took a branch of willow and destroyed and broke down the pool, and let escape the waters Jesus had gathered together, and dried up his pools.
  2 And when Jesus saw what he did, he said to him, “Without root shall be your growth; and your fruit shall dry up like a branch which is torn apart by the wind and ceases to be.”
  3 And the boy withered suddenly.

  4 1 And again Jesus was going with his father, and a certain boy, running, struck him on the shoulder. Jesus said to him, “You shall not go your way.” And suddenly he fell down and died. And all who saw him cried out and said, “Whence was this boy born, that all his words become deeds?”
  2 And the family of he who was dead approached Joseph and said to him, “Because you have this boy, you cannot dwell with us in this village unless you teach him so that he might bless.”

  5 1 And Joseph approached the boy Jesus and he was teaching him and said to him, “Why do you do these things? And why do you say these things? These people suffer and hate us.” The boy Jesus said, “If the words of my Father were not wise, he would not know (how) to instruct children.” And again he said, “For if these were children of the bridalchamber, they would not receive curses. These shall not see torment.” And immediately those who were accusing him were blinded.
  2 But Joseph was angry, and seized him by the ear and pulled it hard. Then Jesus answered and said to him, “It is enough for you, that you should be seeking me and finding me; for you have not acted with knowledge.”

  6 1 And a teacher named Zacchaeus heard him speaking with his father and said, “O wicked boy!”
  2 And he said to Joseph, “Till when will you not choose to hand over this boy to learn to be fond of children of his years and to honour old age so that the love of children might be with him and again so that he can teach them?”
  3 Joseph answered and said, “Who is able to teach a boy like this? Does he think that he is equal to a small cross?”
  4 The boy Jesus answered and said to the teacher, “These words which you have just spoken and these names which you name, I am strange to them; for I am outside of you, and I am inside among you. Honour of the flesh I have not. You are by the law and in that you remain. For when you were born, I was. But you think that you are my father. You shall learn from me an instruction which another man knows not and is not able to learn. And that cross of which you spoke, he shall bear it, whose it is. For when I am greatly exalted I shall lay aside that which is mixed of your race. For you do not know where you are from; for I alone know truly when you were born and how much time you have to remain here.”
  5 And when they heard, they were astonished and cried out and said, “O wonderful sight and hearing! Words like these we have never heard a man speak—neither the priests, nor the scribes, nor the Pharisees. Whence was this one born, who is five years old, and speaks such words? We have never seen a person like this.”
  6 Jesus answered and said to them, “You wonder at what I have said to you, that I know when you were born; and yet I have something more to say to you.” But they, when they heard, were silent, and were not able to speak. And he came near to them again and said to them, “I must laugh at you because you are amazed at complete feebleness and your feebleness in your minds.”
  7 And after they were comforted a little,  Zacchaeus the teacher said to Joseph his father, “Bring him to me and I will teach him what is proper for him to learn.” And coaxing him, he made him go into the school. And when he was going in, he was silent. But Zacchaeus the scribe began to tell him of Aleph, and was repeating many times the whole alphabet. And he said to him that he should answer and say after him; but he was silent.
  8 Then the scribe became angry and struck him with his hand upon his head. And the boy Jesus said to him, “When a smith’s anvil is struck it can learn and it has no feeling; but I am able to say those things which are spoken by you in the manner of a bronze which resonates or of a cymbal which rings out. Those one never responds a word, and it is missing to them the ability to know and comprehend.”
  9 Then Jesus recited all the letters from Aleph to Tau with much intelligence. And starting the speech up again he said, “Those who do not know the Aleph teach not the Beth. Hypocrites! Teach me first which is the Aleph and then we will believe you on the Beth.”
  10 Then Jesus began to question the teacher on the form of each of the letters. And he began with the first of the alphabet asking why the first letter had angles and why the sides (of the others) were close together and were pointed and were gathered in over each other, and were extended, and were ornamented; and why the tops of them were spread out, and square, and hiding themselves, and why their sides were doubled, bending over, and were fixed in the form of the trinity.

  7 1 And the scribe Zacchaeus was umbfounded and stupefied with all this nomenclature and this abnundance of words. And he cried and said, “Have mercy on me. I am dead. My soul is straight out before my eyes. Look: I have brought trouble to myself.
  2 “I pray you take him from me. Oh, Oh! It is not right for this one to be on the Earth. Truly this one deserves a great cross and is able even to light fire to fire. And I think that he was born before the flood of Noah. What womb received this one? Or what mother reared him? I am in a profound stupor from it. And I reach not to regain my self-control. Wretched am I who believed to have found a disciple; in this disciple I have found a teacher.
  3 “Oh my friends, I cannot bear it. I must flee from this village. I cannot look at the little boy. I, who am an old man, have been defeated by a small child. How, even at the beginning I did not know anything he said. But now my mind has become foolish by reason of the ordering of his speech and from the beauty of his words.
  4 “This one is something great. He is either a god or an angel, or what I should say I know not.

  8 1 Then the boy Jesus laughed and said, “Let those produce fruit who in them there is no fruit; and let the blind see the fruit of life of the judgement.”
  2 And they were living and stood those who had fallen under his curse. And no-one again was quick to make him angry.

  9 1 And again, one time on the Sabbath, Jesus was playing on a rooftop with boys. And one of the boys fell and died. And when the other boys saw these things, they fled. And Jesus remained alone.
  2 And the family of he who was dead seized him and said to him, “You have thrown the boy down.” And Jesus said, “I did not throw him down.” But they were accusing him.
  3 Then he came down beside the dead and said to him, “Zeno,” (for thus was his name) “did I throw you down?” And he sprang up and arose immediately and said to him, “No, my Lord.”
  4 And all of them were amazed, and the family of that boy praised God for all these wonders.

  11 1 And again, another time, after Jesus was seven years of age, his mother sent him to fill water. And in the press of the great crowd, his pitcher struck and was broken.
  2 And Jesus spread out the cloak with which he was covered, and collected in it and carried it to his mother. And his mother Mary was amazed and kept in her heart all that she was seeing.

  12 1 And again, one time Jesus was playing and he sowed one measure of wheat.
  2 And he reaped a hundred cors and he gave them to the people of the village.

  13 1 And Jesus was eight years old. And Joseph was a carpenter and made nothing else but ploughs and yokes. And a man had ordered of him a bed of six cubits. And there was not the measure in one plank of one side, but it was shorter than its companion.
  2 And the boy Jesus took the measure of the wood, and laid hold and stretched it, and made it equal to its companion. And he said to Joseph his father, “Do all that you wish.”

  14 1 And Joseph, when he saw that he was clever, wished to teach him letters. And he brought him to the house of a scribe. And the scribe said to him, “Say Aleph.” And Jesus said (it). And again the scribe wanted him to say Beth.
  2 And Jesus said to him, “Tell me first what is Aleph, and then I will tell you about the Beth.” And the scribe was angry and struck him. And immediately that scribe fell down and died.
  3 And Jesus went to his family. And Joseph called Mary his mother, and spoke to her, and ordered her not to permit him to go out of the house, that those might not die who struck him.

  15 1 And another scribe said to Joseph, “Deliver him to me, and I will teach him.”
  2 And Jesus entered the scribe’s house, and took a scroll, and was reading not those things that were written, but he opened his mouth and spoke by the spirit. And when the scribe heard he went down and sat on the ground. And wonder and astonishment took hold of him and on account of the thing which he heard from the boy. And great crowds were gathered there and he opened his mouth and spoke so that they might wonder and be astonished.
  3 And Joseph ran and came because he feared lest that this scribe also would strike Jesus and also die. And the scribe said to Joseph, “You delivered to me not a disciple but a master and a teacher.” And Joseph took him and brought him to his home.

  16 1 And again, Joseph sent his son Jacob to gather wood, and Jesus went with him. And when they were gathering the wood, a viper bit Jacob on his hand.
  2 And when Jesus came near him, he did to him nothing more but stretched out his hand and blow upon the bite, and it was healed. And the viper dried up.

  19 1 When Jesus was twelve years old, they were going to Jerusalem, as it was the custom for Joseph and Mary to go to their festival. And when they made Passover, they returned to their house. And when they turned to come (home), Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and neither Joseph nor Mary his mother knew, but they thought that he was with the people of their company.
  2 And when they came to a lodging of that day, they were seeking him among their kinsfolk and among those whom he knew. And when they did not find Jesus, they returned to Jerusalem, and were seeking him. And after three days, they found him because he was sitting among the teachers, and hearing from them, and asking them (questions). And all who were hearing were astonished because he was bringing these teachers to silence, for he was expounding to them the parables of the prophets and the mysteries and allegories which are in the law.
  3 And his mother said to him, “My son, why have you done these things to us, who were grieving and were anxious, and seeking you.” Jesus answered and said, “Why did you seek me? Do you not know that it is right for me to be in my Father’s house?”
  4 The scribes and Pharisees said to Mary, “Are you the mother of this boy? The Lord has blessed you; for the like of this glory of wisdom in children we have not seen nor heard anyone speak.”
  5 And he rose (and) went with his mother, and was obedient to them. And his mother was preserving all these words. And Jesus was excelling and advancing in wisdom and stature and in grace before God and before men. Amen.

(Here) ends the Childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ.