Cricket is supposed to have originated some 300 years ago in England, but it is
just possible that the game zealously followed all over the British Commonwealth, is
older than currently thought. The story, told by the distinguished kaghakatsi
Armenian professor Dr Abraham Terian, was first released online by the Australian
Associated Press, and has been picked up around the world, with both the reverent
and irreverent, having a field day with the intriguing revelation.
Terian
stumbled
across
the
snippet
in
an
ancient
Armenian
manuscript,
The
Gospel
of
Infancy,
housed
in
the
manuscript
library
of
the
Armenian
Patriarchate
of
Jerusalem.
He
has
since
translated
the
book
into English and it has been published by the Oxford University Press.
Terian
notes
that
long
before
the
English
launched
cricket
three
centuries
ago,
similar
games
were
being
played
as
early
as
the
8th
century
in
the
Punjab
region,
as
Derek
Birley
writes
in
his
"Social
History
of English Cricket."
But
he
says
that
there
is
good
reason
to
believe
that
similar
games
were
played
in
the
Middle
East
long before that time.
Terian,
who
was
born
and
grew
up
in
the
Armenian
Quarter,
in
the
Old
City
of
Jerusalem,
and
who
was
recently
a
visiting
professor
at
the
Hebrew
University
of
Jerusalem
as
Fulbright
Distinguished
Chair
in
the
Humanities,
says
the
Gospel
was
translated
into
Armenian
in
the
6th
century
from
a
much
older
lost
Syriac original.
It
contains
a
passage
that
tells
of
Jesus
playing
what
may
well
be
the
precursor
of
cricket,
with
a
club
and ball.
Dr
Terian
discovered
the
manuscript
more
than
a
decade
ago
at
the
Saint
James
Armenian
Monastery
in the Old City of Jerusalem.
He
has
now
identified
the
same
passage
in
a
couple
of
other
manuscripts
of
the
same
gospel,
of
which
some
40
copies
exist
in
various
archival
collections
in
Europe
and
the
Middle
East,
including
the
oldest
copy
now
in
Yerevan.
The
latter
manuscript
is
dated
1239
(no.
7574,
Madenataran
collection),
while
the
undated Jerusalem manuscript is considerably later (no. 1432, in the Saint James collection).
AAP
quotes
Dr
Terian
as
saying
the
gospel
relates
how
Jesus,
at
the
age
of
nine,
had
been
apprenticed
to a master dyer named Israel in Tiberias, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
"Jesus
is
instructed
to
watch
Israel's
house
and
not
leave
the
place
while
the
master
goes
away
on
a
tour
to
collect
clothes
to
be
dyed.
But
no
sooner
has
Israel
left
the
house,
than
Jesus
runs
out
with
the
boys," Dr Terian says, AAP reports.
"The
most
amazing
part
of
the
story
of
the
nine-year-old
Jesus
playing
a
form
of
cricket
with
the
boys
at
the
seashore,
is
that
he
would
go
on
playing
the
game
on
water,
over
the
sea
waves,"
which
Dr
Terian
says echoes allusions to Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee, as told in the gospels.
"Jesus
would
take
the
boys
to
the
seashore
and,
carrying
the
playing
ball
and
the
club,
he
would
go
over
the
waves
of
the
sea
as
though
he
was
playing
on
a
frozen
surface,
hitting
the
playing
ball.
And
watching
him,
the
boys
would
scream
and
say:
'Watch
the
child
Jesus,
what
he
does
over
the
waves
of
the sea!' Many would gather there and, watching him, would be amazed.
"When
Joseph
heard
this,
he
rushed
there
and
said:
'Son,
what
work
are
you
doing?
Your
master
has
gathered everything in the house and has entrusted it to you.'
"Jesus
said:
'I
have
done
all
that
my
master
instructed
me.
I
shall
wait
for
his
return.'
Joseph
did
not
hear what Jesus told him.
"When
Jesus
came
to
his
mother,
Mary
said
to
him:
'Son,
have
you
done
all
that
your
master
instructed?'
Jesus said: 'I have done everything and nothing is missing.'
Mary said: 'I have noticed that this is the third day that you have not entered that house.'"
As
soon
as
the
last
words
were
spoken,
Israel
shows
up,
and
Jesus
has
to
account
for
what
he
has
done in the master’s absence. A fascinating miracle-story ensues.
"Of
course,
the
story
echoes
allusions
to
Jesus’
walking
on
the
Sea
of
Galilee,
as
told
in
the
canonical
gospels.
But
the
apocryphal
story
shows
that
for
a
ball
game
even
Jesus
would
forget
work
and
would
go
to have fun with the boys, for days," Terian adds.
playing fields of Jerusalem?