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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2011
There is a saying of Jesus, found in Mark x. 15 and Luke xviii. 17, which seems to have exercised considerable influence on the imaginations of early Christians. “Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God as a child shall not enter into it.” Another form of the same saying apparently interprets it in relation to conversion and regeneration. “Unless you turn and become like children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew xviii. 3). A further development of the same thought is to be found in John iii. 3: “Verily, verily, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And in John iii. 5, after Nicodemus' misunderstanding, the saying is finally clarified: “Unless a man is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Justin thinks of the two sayings as closely related, for in Apol. i. 61. 4 he conflates them: ἂν μὴ ἀναγεννηθῆτε, οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.
1 See Dornseiff, F., Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie (ΣΤΟΙΧΕΙΑ VII) ed. 2 (Leipzig-Berlin, 1925), 14–17Google Scholar; Lightfoot, J. B., Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians ed. 10 (London, 1890), 167Google Scholar; Burton, E. D., The Epistle to the Galatians (New York, 1920), 510–18Google Scholar; G. A. Deissmann in Encyclopedia Biblica II 1258–62.
2 Knox, W. L., St. Paul and the Church of the Gentiles (Cambridge, 1939), 109Google Scholar.
3 Irenaeus, Adv. haer. i. 20. 1 (I, 177 f. Harvey) sharply questions the authenticity of the story (κἀκεῖνο τὸ ῥαδιούργημα), which the Marcosians are using. It is found in various versions of the Gospel of Thomas (Greek text A vi. 3, p. 145 Tischendorf; xiv. 2 p. 153; B vii. 1 p. 160; Latin vi. 6 p. 171 f. See James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford, 1924, 53Google Scholar, 56, 61) and in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy (48 f., p. 122–25 Thilo, p. 206 f. Tischendorf). Probably it is intended to explain John vii. 15 (πῶς οὗτος γράμματα οἶδεν μὴ μεμαθηκώς;) understood literally (see Goodspeed, E. J., Problems of New Testament Translation [Chicago 1945] 102–4Google Scholar) of Jesus as ἀγράμματος. Bauer, W. (Das Johannesevangelium, ed. 2 [Tübingen, 1925] 105Google Scholar) refers to seven Oxyrhynchus papyri to show that this means “Analphabet.” See Bultmann, R., Das Johannes-Evangelium (Göttingen, 1937–), 2Google Scholar05. Similarly the story in John vii. 53–viii. 11 is inserted to prove that Jesus could write. Another point which the creative imagination of early Christians worked over is to be found in Luke ii. 46. What did Jesus teach the teachers of Israel? On this see Temple, P. J., The Boyhood Consciousness of Christ: a Critical Examination of Luke ii. 49 (New York, 1922Google Scholar), especially 3–26. The question of the alphabet and the teaching in the temple are associated in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy 48–53. Note c. 50, p. 126 f. Thilo: “Have you read books?” The Lord Jesus replies, “I have read books and those things which are contained in books.” Professor S. E. Johnson observes that “the Alpha and Beta story is found in chap. 4 of the Epistle of the Apostles (James p. 486). This is no doubt earlier than the Gospel of Thomas which we now have.”
4 Matthew xxvi. 42, Luke xxii. 42, Mark xiv. 36.
5 Romans (London, 1932), 129.
6 I Corinthians iii. 1–3, I Thessalonians ii. 7. See also I Peter ii. 2, Hebrews v. 12–vi. 8.