Thomas II

What is the deal with "baby Jesus"? :huh:
Why is there a "baby Jesus" and not a teenager Jesus?
Why is there a baby Jesus at all?

Berthold

In RC regions, he used to bring the Christmas presents.

Amaleq13

IIUC, Marcion didn't believe in a baby Jesus but believed that the Incarnation appeared as a fully-grown human sometime in the latter part of the first half of the 1st century.

We do have a brief appearance of a young Jesus in the Gospel Attributed To Luke where he is depicted, quite like Josephus depicts himself, as astounding the adult Jews with his knowledge of Scripture.

rakyeltzen

Baby Jesus is in the bible because a lot of things about him being born, place etc. were predicted in the Old Testament. It prooves their predictions right and also it was a really special day as they believed he was their saviour so it was a big thing him being born but if it's not relevant to see the teenager Jesus why put it in?

Julian

We do have the infancy gospels. Just because they are not in the current canon doesn't make them any less christian.

Julian

Thomas II

Also, this baby Jesus appears with Mary, usually sitting on Mary's lap or in her arms...Was this an effort to bring Mary into the picture or did it have some other meaning, a monarchic meaning, sort of like Mary introducing the new heir to the subjects...
At what point was Mary and baby Jesus introduced together?
And since we are in the subject,what is the deal with the black madonnas?

Julian

Well, I know of one black Madonna in Switzerland (or thereabouts) which turned black from the smoke from all the incense and candles. Eventually they washed it clean but the population had gotten so used to it being black that they painted black right away. This is an anecdote from a tour guide, so no link.

No real mystery there, however, the case may be different for other black Madonnas, provided there are any others.

Julian

Toto

The depictions of Mary with baby Jesus are very similar to those of Isis with the infant Horus. There is a lot of fake Egyptology on the internet that does not stand up to scrutiny, but I think most researchers agree that the cult of Isis was an important religion in Imperial Rome in the early Christian era, and a bit of cross fertilization of images seems like a reasonable supposition.

jackrabbit

I can see why the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was not included. It portrays baby jeebus as a murdering little psycho. Just in the first few verses, he kills people left and right just for the fun of it, and blinds others. But as you say, it is just as likely to be "true" as any of the books that made it into the bible. Some group of ordinary bozos arbitrarily decided which writings were "true" and which were not.

Amaleq13

IIRC, those were originally from fertility cults but held over by converts to Christianity.