6. Jesus as a miracle worker during childhood
According to the books of the Apocrypha, the young Jesus quickly learned that his miraculous powers could be used to ease the burden of childhood chores. In one tale, Jesus is asked by his mother to fetch a pitcher of water, only to find the vessel broken. Jesus uses his “garment” which he spreads forth to carry the water, an act which can be determined to be of a miraculous nature by his mother’s decision to keep it a secret. At the time, according to the book, Jesus was six years old (Infancy Gospel of Thomas). A similar tale, in which Jesus uses his garment to carry water after another child breaks the pitcher occurs in Pseudo-Matthew, where Mary again decides to keep her son’s powers to herself.
Jesus also used his growing awareness of his powers to help his father in his work as a carpenter, according to the Apocrypha. In an incident in which Joseph is directed by a customer to build a bedframe from two unevenly cut lengths of wood, rather than shorten the one Jesus lengthens the other, stretching the piece with his hands. Another apocryphal book, the Arabic Infancy Narratives, has Jesus using this skill, which would surely be deemed a blessing by any carpenter at any age, as a habitual means of helping his father in his work. In some of the stories, Joseph shares his amazement with his wife, who responds with praise for her son.