Historian explains ‘scary’ child Jesus in window
Story behind portrait depicted in stained glass window is explained as “holy terror”
The stained glass series recently showcased Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs, where one window depicts Jesus as a preschooler helping Joseph, looking devastated, burying a child’s coffin. There is nothing in the New Testament with those story elements.
Fortunately, Guilderland reader Karl Felsen is a historian and writer who studied theolog y at Santa Clara University, a school founded by Jesuits in 1851. He earned his doctorate in English at the University at Albany and has written about Christian iconography for the Milton Quarterly, a scholarly journal devoted to the poet who wrote the epic “Paradise Lost.”
Here’s what Karl Felsen wrote to the Times Union: “The mystery in Lynda Edwards’ lovely piece on the stained glass windows in Bethesda Episcopal Church is easily solved. If we go to the apocryphal works not included in the authorized New Testament, and specifically to the ‘Infancy Gospel of Thomas’ (a 2nd or very early 3rd century gospel from Syria), we find the stor y depicted.”
“The Bethesda window tells the story of how the lad Jesus killed a playmate for bumping into him, hence the child’s coffin,” Felsen’s letter continued. “When Joseph corrected him, Jesus made it clear that Joseph was not his true father and had better not vex him, thus the sorrowful look on Joseph’s face. The three equal
planks and the ruler in the boy Jesus’ hand refer to an error Joseph made in his measurements so little Jesus supernaturally stretched a plank to be of equal size.”
“When I first read the ‘Infancy Gospel of Thomas’ as a boy, it gave me nightmares,” Felsen added. “Biblical scholar Joseph F. Kelly has referred to the depiction of Jesus in this gospel as ‘detestable little brat.’ I like to say he is depicted as literally a ‘holy terror.’ The stained glass window was meant to make the theological points of the gospel of Thomas while softening the image of the boy Jesus in
beautiful colored glass.”
The story of Jesus killing a playmate by glaring at him is, as Felsen notes, just one eerie tale the Gnostics tell. Another passage of Thomas tells how preschooler Jesus turns neighbor children who annoy him into pigs. When the distraught parents complain, he strikes them blind. Eventually, Jesus relents and returns the children to human form and restores their parents’ sight.
New Testament scholar and Barnard College professor Elaine Pagels has written that the Gnostic version of the Christ child includes elements and plot lines from folk tales of the time. Jesus portrayed by Thomas resembles the trickster who often appears in myths and folklore.
The trickster is impulsive, sometimes cruel, but often displaying a soft spot for humans and a love of life’s f leeting beauty. One charming Gnostic story about Jesus making clay bird sculptures come to life and sing also appears in the Quran.
Felsen has an explanation for why the four New Testament Gospels, three of which were written before Thomas, don’t describe Christ ’s childhood.
“Early Christians were an apocaly ptic group focused on the end of times and Christ ’s imminent return,” Felsen explained. “For that reason, the nativity of Christ was not that important and only two of the four evangelists even brief ly mention it. As years went by, and the apocaly pse did not take place, Christian believers wanted to know the back story on Jesus.”
“Several nativity gospels popped up, and some of what we think we know of Christmas and Jesus’ youth came from these,” he said. “They remained very popular through the Middle Ages despite not being included in the New Testament.”
Felsen’s interest in the early years of Jesus encompasses how the celebration of the Nativity evolved into Christmas, especially in the Hudson Valley. Currently, he’s researching a book on how Hudson Valley legends of St. Nicholas and Sinterklas meshed into the modern version of Santa Claus.
He’s been playing Sinterklaas for the Albany County Historical Association at the Ten Broeck Mansion for more than 15 years.