The infancy gospel of Thomas is dated to about the second century and depicts a story of prepubescent Jesus. It is unclear who the author is or what the origin of the story is. It is considered heretical by most churches. In early versions of the tale, no author is given, but in some found later on an author introduces himself as 'Thomas' but there's no further clues as to who exactly it is. Some believe that it could be Judas Thomas (Thomas the apostle).

There are a few manuscripts of this and most are in Greek or Syriac. There is a Latin manuscript that hasn't been fully translated (it is currently sitting in Vienna, Austria).

This story was likely very popular during the Middle Ages as there are many texts of it dated to around that time.

The first published version has nineteen chapters. Another version published later on only had about 11 chapters.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infancy_Gospel_of_Thomas

Anyways, onto a summarized version of the events in the childhood of Jesus.

When Jesus was five years old he was playing with some other children and making clay birds. He brings those clay birds to life by speaking. (This story is even mentioned in the Quran!) One of the boys angers him, so Jesus speaks and pretty much turns the kid into a raisin. He also curses anyone who didn't like him for it, making them blind.

In another story Jesus is in school and refuses to do as the teacher says, so the teacher hits him. Jesus is angry and yells at the teacher, then recited the alphabet for the class, then continues to lecture angrily. It is unclear how old Jesus is at the time (he is described as being a small boy). The teacher is shocked and proclaims that the child is not of this world and demands he be taken away. Jesus laughs at his teacher and then restores those who he previously cursed. It's a little scary!

At another point Jesus revives a boy who had fallen from a roof and died. Later on another teacher tried to instruct Jesus and Jesus cursed him, and the man fell and died.

Those are just a few, but the ones I found very interesting. These stories depict a very different Jesus than what we are used to. When people think of Jesus, they think love and kindness. But in these stories, he is an immature, jealous, vengeful little boy. I don't think he's evil, he is simply a child with the power of God.

So, why isn't this story considered canonical?

Some think that the church simply didn't want a depiction of Jesus like this in their religious book.

It was likely written very late compared to the other gospels, with the earliest version being dated to the second or third century. The authenticity remains in question for this reason.

It is well known that there are so so many texts left out of the Bible. A bunch of old guys got together at some point and decided which would be canon and which wouldn't. I would be interested in learning more about how they decided this so I'll probably do a chapter on it later.