The Apocryphal writings which, in particular, ahound in these tales of the childhood of Jesus, are the Gospel of pseildo- Matthew, the Protevatwelium of Jam^s, the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, and the Gospel of Thomas in its various forms. The Thomas Gospel is mainly answerable for the stories of vindictive miracles referred to above. The Syriao form of this Gospel is entitled in the MS (6th cent.) the 'Boyhood of Our Lord Jesus."
With every allowance for whatever scanty touches of beauty and elements of value may here and there be found, a survey of this Apocry- phal literature gives fresh force to Edersheim's remark (Jesus the ATessiah, bk. ii. ch. 10) : ' We dread gathering around our thoughts of Him the artificial flowers of legend.' In default, however, of authentic records there remains one expedient for meeting the deep silence of our Gospels which modern writers who essay the construction of a ' Life of Christ ' are full ready to make use of. All available knowledge regarding the times in \vhich our Lord lived, the surroundings and condi- tions in which He grew up, and the manner in which Jewish boys were educated (see artt. BOY- HOOD and Educ.\tion), can be emi>loyed to help
us to form a sober and reverent conception of Him in the days of His childhood. Perhaps, indeed, .such matters in their general treatment enter into some Lives of Christ even to prolixity. It is a true instinct, however, which bids us set aside early and mediaeval legends, with all their naivete, and frame a conception of Him as living the life of a normal Jewish boy of His own time and station, distinguished only by a rare personal charm of goodness and grace. The unfolding of a human life in growing beauty and nobility of character more truly proclaims ' God with us ' than could such miraculous accompaniments as would tend to make the Child an object of mingled wonder and fear. Painters who have represented the Holy Child in simple human grace, without tlie encircling nimbus, have not on that account fallen behind others in suggesting His true Divinity.
' He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up ' (Lk 4'") — how much that phrase covers ! The great factors entering into His education were home training, the synagogue both as a place of worship and as a school, the many - coloured life of the district in which He spent His youth, the natural features of the locality, and all the scenery round about Nazareth, so full of beauty and stirring historical associa- tions. Later on, after He had attained ' years of discretion,' in our phrase, becoming a bar-mizvah (nim 13 = son of commandment = one responsible for compliance with legal requirements), as the Jews express it. His repeated visits to Jerusalem to attend the feasts would also count for much. If we are to understand the visit mentioned in Lk 2 to be the first that Jesus paid to Jerusalem (though the narrative does not explicitly say it was), we may take it that at the age of twelve (Lk 2") He was regarded as having reached that important stage in a boy's life, although the usual age for such recognition was somewhat later.
Jesus belonged to a people unsurpassed for the care bestowed upon the education of children. His earliest teacher would be His mother ; and we cannot doubt that of all Jewish mothers none could excel Mary (' blessed among women') in all such work. Among other things He would prob- ably learn from her the Shema (Dt 6'')— that sacred formula which attends the devout Jew_ from his earliest years to his latest moment. This is quite consistent with the fact that education was one of the things for which the father was held respon- sible as regards his son. At an early age Jesus would be sent to school at the synagogue, there to be taught by the hazzan, or schoolmaster, to read and recite the Jewisli Scriptures. The instruction given did not go beyond this, with writing and possibly a little arithmetic as additional and sub- ordinate subjects. It was in a supreme degree a religious education, designed to fit children for the practical duties of life. The education of Jesus was just that of the great mass of the people : unlike Saul of Tarsus, no beth ha-MidrCtsh, or college of Scribes, received Him as a student {'Whence hath this man these things?' Mk 6= ; cf. Jn 7'^). As a schoolboy, too, Jesus would have His recreations. School hours were not excessive, amounting to no more than four or five hours a day. Truly Jewish games, however, were but few. They had little or nutliinu" corresponding to our school sports; and the o\ilt of athletics was looked upon as sometliin- nlini. Little children, like those of other times and varcs, found amuse- ment in playing at doing as grown-up people did : and the words of our Lord in Mt ll'"- "■ very likely contain not merely the result of His observation, bnt a memory of His own childhood. For the rest, as a boy He would find abundant means of re-
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creation in rambling round about Nazareth amidst tlie sights and sounds of nature. The open-air atmosphere of His preaching, with its abundant allusions to the life of the held and to the varied aspects of nature, betokens an earlj'-formed and loving familiarity.