Jesus playing what may well be the precursor of cricket, with a club and ball.
Might have been golf?
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
I kind of anticipated this being a link to something in The Onion, not that I'm saying the lamb of God didn't play cricket, but er... well, you know...
It's from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the ordinary Gospel of Thomas) and, if it was (as said here) similar to an infancy narrative by Luke mentioned by Iranaeus, that dates it to the middle of the second century.
But there is an earlier reference from Irenaeus, as Cameron notes: "In his citation, Irenaeus first quotes a non-canonical story that circulated about the childhood of Jesus and then goes directly on to quote a passage from the infancy narrative of the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:49). Since the Infancy Gospel of Thomas records both of these stories, in relative close proximity to one another, it is possible that the apocryphal writing cited by Irenaeus is, in fact, what is now known as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Because of the complexities of the manuscript tradition, however, there is no certainty as to when the stories of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas began to be written down."
Thus, while our present Infancy Gospel of Thomas may have been expanded over time, the original must have been written sometime in the middle of the second century.
But as for Jesus playing cricket, I think that must be a case of silly mid off.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.