Introduction
The Quran recounts twice a story in which Jesus miraculously brings to life birds made from clay:Indeed, I come to you with a sign from your Lord. For you, I shape clay into the form of a bird, then I blow into it: and, by the permission of Allah, it becomes a bird (3:49).
You made birds out of clay by My permission; then you breathed into them. So, by My permission, they became birds (5:110). Familiar to readers of the canonical Gospels, this story is absent from their texts. The question then arises whether this is a story unique to the Quran or if the Quran borrows it from a source yet to be identified. Historians have long provided an answer: the motif of Jesus giving life to clay birds is a legendary theme found in several apocryphal Christian texts. In this article, we will trace the history of the legend, from its origins to the Quran.
The Childhood Story of Jesus
The miracle of the clay birds is attested in several Christian apocryphal texts before Islam. The earliest appears to be the Childhood Story of Jesus. It is an anonymous writing, although from the Middle Ages onwards some attributed it (falsely) to Thomas—hence it is sometimes called the Gospel of the Childhood of Pseudo-Thomas1. It is most likely that the text was originally composed in Greek, then translated into many other languages, notably Syriac2. Its composition dates back to the 2nd century, but it is generally believed that the text was revised multiple times3. In any case, it is certain that its final form was completed before Islam, as evidenced by several Syriac manuscripts from the 5th and 6th centuries4. Recently, the discovery of a manuscript from the 4th or 5th century, but this time in Greek, which contains the story of the miracle of the birds, decisively confirms the antiquity of the text.
Fig. 1: Hamburg Papyrus, containing the text of the Childhood Story of Jesus in Greek (4th/5th century)
Fundamentally, the Childhood Story of Jesus is a rather surprising text. Indeed, Jesus is depicted as a rebellious and aggressive child, who does not hesitate to strike and kill those who provoke his anger. An unusual scene recounts, for example, that a child was innocently running ahead of Jesus when Jesus cast a curse on him. The child immediately died. When the parents complained to Joseph, Jesus blinded them. This anecdote raises an obvious question: what interest would a Christian author have in fabricating stories in which Jesus acts so negatively? The crux of the matter, as Kristi Upso-Saia has shown, is that the authors of these compromising stories are actually opponents of Christianity5. By propagating such stories, their goal was to weaken Jesus' reputation by portraying him as a rebellious and unruly child. The author of the Childhood Story of Jesus incorporated these unfavorable anecdotes to counter them by rewriting certain scenes and adding more favorable ones. Overall, the text appears as a compilation of stories from various origins, subject to multiple revisions by later scribes who edited, deleted, and added certain narratives6. It is also noteworthy that several of these stories draw inspiration from legendary themes associated with Buddha, Krishna, and certain figures from Greek mythology7.
The Miracle of the Birds
The story of the miracle of the birds appears in the first chapter of the Childhood Story of Jesus. It reads:
When this boy, Jesus, was five years old, he was playing by a swift stream. He collected water flowing into basins and instantly made the water pure again. He did this by a simple command. Then, he took soft clay and shaped it into twelve birds. This happened on a Sabbath day, and many other boys were playing with him. But when a Jew saw what Jesus was doing while playing on the Sabbath, he immediately went to inform Joseph, Jesus' father: “Look, your son is at the stream; he took mud and shaped twelve birds, thus violating the Sabbath.” Joseph went there, and as soon as he saw him, he exclaimed: “Why are you doing something not allowed on the Sabbath?” But Jesus simply clapped his hands and said to the birds: “Fly away, and remember me, you who are now alive!” The birds then flew away in a great tumult. The Jews, astonished, then went to report to their leaders what they had seen Jesus do.
Here, the young Jesus creates twelve clay birds and miraculously brings them to life by uttering a single word, a scene very similar to what is reported in the Quran. However, as usual, the Quranic version is much less detailed and only states the conclusion. Furthermore, the Childhood Story of Jesus specifies that the birds were twelve in number. The Quran, on the other hand, does not bother with such details and simply mentions one or several birds, both readings being acceptable8.
As mentioned, the miracle of the birds has no equivalent in the canonical Gospels. Did the author of the story draw inspiration from an already existing theme? Accounts of creating living beings from clay are abundant in many mythologies. In Mesopotamia, the gods Enki and Ninmah create humans from a model of clay9. In Greece, Prometheus is said to give life by blowing into a clay prototype—note that in the Quranic version, it is also by breath that Jesus brings the birds to life. In a German article, Arnold Meyer draws an interesting parallel between the miracle of the birds and an Egyptian myth where the high priest Neneferkaptah brings figurines of clay to life by reciting magical incantations10. Also in ancient Egypt, the Westcar Papyrus, discovered by a British traveler in the early 19th century, recounts how a priest named Webaoner miraculously transforms a wax crocodile into a real reptile by throwing it into a lake (the crocodile will later serve him by devouring his wife’s lover)11. Sarit Kattan Gribetz further notes that the creation of birds via clay models is well attested in rabbinic literature. More generally, “the creation and animation of persons and animals (and ultimately golems) from clay has become a recurring theme in rabbinic and Kabbalistic sources”12. As shown, the miracle of the birds attributed to Jesus has numerous precedents or equivalents in Near Eastern mythologies.
Another historian, Stephen Davis, has examined the symbolism of the bird13. He demonstrates that the association between young Jesus and birds is not accidental. Indeed, in Greco-Roman society of antiquity, clay figurines of birds and other animals were common children's toys: “the use of such clay figurines as children's toys is attested throughout the Roman Empire […]. Excavations at Athens’ Agora have uncovered many clay toys and rattles shaped like domestic animals, including birds. A clay bird mounted on wheels found in a Roman tomb in Palestine testifies to the popularity of such toys in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD”14. Thus, the miracle of the birds can be seen as presenting Jesus’ childhood as “consistent with certain patterns and practices familiar in childhood in the Greco-Roman world”15. Davis also notes that birds were frequently associated with various religious rituals. In Greece, clay birds are displayed in some public sanctuaries16. In magical papyri, birds are occasionally sacrificed to deities. Sometimes, the ritual involves observing a bird’s flight. A spell to induce insomnia recommends releasing a bat or a bird, with an incantation written on its wing17. According to legend, Romulus founded Rome after observing “twelve sacred birds” flying into the air, interpreting this as a divine sign. These examples show that the story of the miracle of the birds fits within a mythic universe where the bird, whether of clay or flesh, embodies the sacred.
