It has been suggested that when it comes to Christmas many people read a kind of ‘fifth gospel’ which contains all the bits they like from the other four, and ignores the ways that the writers tell starkly different stories about the birth of Jesus.
But just like the Beatles, there’s a bit of competition to be number five. Because there are a lot of non-canonical books knocking about which would love to be included. Some of these early writings profoundly influenced the Jesus traditions in Islam, and stories from them have crept out elsewhere too.
Like the encounter between the holy refugee family and a band of robbers led by two characters called Titus and Dumachus, (or Gestas and Dismas). In characteristic tidiness these two are sometimes said to be the robbers between whom Jesus was later crucified. In this early encounter, one robber was kind to the family, the other not so much. Leaving aside the various questions one might have about this story, it remains a clear reminder that the world in which Jesus grew up was not just dangerous because of the Romans, but there were other predators abroad at the time too. Christmas may be tame now, but 2000 years ago it was wild. And very dangerous.
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