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Young Jesus explains the alphabet
HE INFANCY GOSPEL OF THOMAS relates that young Jesus was a prodigy who instructed his own
teachers about the mysteries of the alphabet. True insight into the meaning of the letters, he said, should reveal "sound," "glory," and "the power of understanding."
While many listened, he said to the teacher, "Listen, Teacher, and understand the arrangement of the first element. Now, notice how it has sharp lines and a middle stroke, which you see pointing, standing with legs apart, coming together, going out, dragging behind, lifting up, dancing around, in triple rhythm, two-cornered, of the same form, of the same thickness, of the same family, raised, balanced, isometric, of equal proportions. These are the lines of the ℵ aleph."
Infancy gospel of Thomas
Hebrew has extensive scholarship about the meaning of each letter in its alphabet. Letters are both simple, like chemical elements, and complex, an embodiment of numerous forces. The aleph has a diagonal slash showing division. The first acts of creation included God dividing light from darkness, and separating the waters above and below heaven. Later, Moses and Joshua parted the waters, and Jesus descended from the house of David. The first letter aleph shows both division and swirling rotation. It is a dance, according to young Jesus.
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