Childhood of Jesus (INFANZIA DI GESÙ) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VI, p. 1117

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

INFANCY OF JESUS. - I. THE GOSPEL OF THE

I. OF J

The first two chapters of Matthew and Luke constitute the canonical Gospel of the I. of J., to be distinguished from the name (v.).

The authenticity and especially the historicity of these chapters are challenged by the various rationalistic currents, chiefly on account of the miracles they contain.

The authenticity, however, is not in doubt, since the chapters are found in all the Greek codices and in all the versions. Only Marcion, for his heretical purposes, excised them from the sole Gospel (Luke) that he admitted. Critics, including Catholic ones, point out traces of Matthean style in Mt. 1–2 (J. C. Hawkins, F. C. Burkitt) and of Lucan style in Lk. 1–2 (A. Harnack; cf. L. Fonck [V. BIBLICA.], p. 394).

The genuine origin of the Gospel of the I. is confirmed by the fact that, even in these two chapters, the Evangelists have in view the purposes of their respective Gospels. Matthew, who wishes to prove through the prophecies the messiahship of Jesus, demonstrates in chap. 1 that he is descended from Abraham and David and that he was born of a virgin, as Isaiah foretold (7:14). In chap. 2, through the account of the Magi, he proves that the birth at Bethlehem fulfills a prophecy of Micah (5:2), that the flight into Egypt accords with Hosea (11:1), that the massacre of the innocents was foretold by Jeremiah (31:13), and that the settling in Nazareth was announced beforehand by the prophets.

Luke, who declares in the prologue that he obtained his information from those who «saw from the beginning» (from the Virgin? cf. 2:19, 51) and who wishes to write «in an orderly manner», goes back to the origins, recounting in chap. 1 the annunciation to Zechariah and to the Virgin, and the latter’s visit to Elizabeth, together with the Magnificat (v.) and the Benedictus (v.). Following his method of omission (cf. 3:20), he anticipates the remainder of the Baptist’s story (1:80), returning in chap. 2 to narrate the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, the circumcision, the presentation in the Temple, and the return to Nazareth. He then concludes with the episode of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple.

The historicity of these events is confirmed by the agreement of Matthew and Luke on the essential points: the conception of Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit, by a virgin named Mary, wife of Joseph, a descendant of David; and his birth at Bethlehem in the time of Herod. St. Paul too (Rom. 1:2–2) knows that Jesus is descended from David according to human nature (flesh) and is the Son of God according to divine nature (spirit of sanctification), and that the Son of God was «born of a woman» (Gal. 4:4).

The episodes narrated by Matthew and Luke can easily be reconciled by assuming that St. Joseph’s anxiety (Mt. 2:18–25) took place after the Virgin’s return from Elizabeth’s house (Lk. 1:50) and that the return to Nazareth after the presentation in the Temple, mentioned by Lk. 2:39, may have been either a temporary return of the Holy Family for the purpose of taking the household furnishings with which to settle in Bethlehem (where the Magi find them), or the definitive return, coinciding with the return from Egypt to Nazareth, mentioned by Mt. 2:23.

The presence of miracles in these accounts poses no difficulty for anyone who admits that God may perform them for higher purposes. Comparison with the apocrypha speaks in favor of the sober historicity of Matthew and Luke.

This historicity is also confirmed by their agreement with the historical, political, and religious circumstances of Palestine in the time of Herod. The words of the angel Gabriel, of Zechariah, and of Simeon reflect pre-Christian Jewish customs. The canticles Magnificat, Benedictus, Nunc dimittis, retransposed into Aramaic, correspond to the norms of biblical Hebrew poetry. The silence of Mark, John, Paul, and Peter concerning the details of the mysteries of the hidden life (which illustrate Christ’s twofold nature, also acknowledged by them) is explained by taking into account the purposes of their writings, which intended to base the proofs on public facts (v. Life; LUKE; MATTHEW).

BIBL.: L. Fonck, De veritate historica narrationis sacrae de infantia Christi, in Verbum Domini, 7 (1927), pp. 589–95 (with bibl.); H. Simon-G. Dorado, Praelect. Biblicae Novi Test., I, 6th ed., Turin 1944, no. 242 (with recent bibl.).

Pietro De Ambroggi

II. APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS OF THE

I. OF J

A special group of Apocryphal Gospels (v.) deals with the I. of J. and with the preceding life of the Madonna and of St. Joseph. In general, they are not heretical in character, but they seek to fill the gaps in the canonical Gospels and to satisfy, through fanciful accounts that sometimes grew up around authentic traditions, the credulous curiosity of the faithful.

Because of their popular character, which at times becomes crude, they enjoyed popular favor, first in the East from the second century onward, and then in the West, where people were more cautious about admitting them. Despite the designation «apocryphal» attributed to them by Innocent I in 405 (Denz-U, 96), they left traces thirty years later in Rome in the mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore, commissioned by Sixtus III. Gregory of Tours (d. 594) and Pseudo-Chrysostom (ca. 600) gleaned material from them. Their influence on medieval art is illustrated by D. Rops, I Vangeli della Vergine (Italian ed. edited by P. De Ambroggi, Turin 1949).

BIBL.: Edition and translation: G. Bonaccorsi, I Vangeli apocrifi, I, Florence 1948, pp. XXI–XXVII, 60–289 (with bibl.). They are as follows (v. for the content and criticism the individual entries): Protonangelo di Giacomo; Vangelo di Tommaso, or Fatti dell'infanzia del Signore; Pseudo-Matteo, that is, the Libro sulla nascita della B. Maria e sull'i. del Signore (a Latin reworking of the preceding works); La natività di Maria; another Vangelo dell'Infanzia (ed. M. R. James, Cambridge 1927). - Two heretical writings, perhaps identical, on the Generazione di Maria, cited by St. Epiphanius (Haer., 26, 2) and by St. Augustine (C. Faustum, 23, 9; PL. 42, 47), have not survived. There exists, instead, Il Vangelo dell'i. del Signore, preserved in a Syriac-Arabic recension; a Liber de nativitate Christi et obstricibus; Narrationes de vita et convertaione B. Virgini et de pueritia et adolescentia Salvatoris (ed. Schade, Halle 1876); and another Liber de infantia Salvatoris in various compilations. G. Bonaccorsi lists the Transito della B. Vergine as an appendix to this cycle.