an interesting study

I belong to a Women's Bible Study group at my church and over the last several months we've been studying the different ways that Jesus is portrayed in the Bible. It has been very interesting to realize how some writings emohasize his humanity while others stress his Godness. Tomorrow we will continue the discussion by looking at passages about Jesus in the gospels that didn't make the cut and were not included in either the Catholic or Protestant versions of the Bible. Our leader gave us copies of four of these non-canonical writings to read and they are fascinating. The Stories of the Childhood of the Lord by Thomas and the Gospel of Thomas which purports to contain the "secret sayings" of Jesus are both very interesting. Here's a saying I wonder about. According to Thomas, Jesus said "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are going to attack. {They} can get going, collect their imperial resources, and be prepared before the rebels arrive." It sounds like a line from Star Wars to me. My favorite non-gospel though is "The Infancy Gospel of James." This writing adds a whole lot of details to the Christmas story as found in Matthew and Luke including explanations of how Joseph, who was an old man with grown sons, came to be Mary's husband (he won her in a lottery) and that she was 16 when Jesus was born. Should be an interesting discussion tomorrow.