This obviously raises problems as to the authenticity of any part of the Gospel regarding the upbringing of Jesus. Most scholars reject the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, considering it as sensational and crude. They also consider it “late” in the formation of narratives about the life of Christ, believing it to have been composed in Greek in the late 2nd or 3rd century. The Catholic Church leaders could not allow a portrayal of Jesus, from whom they derived their authority, as child-like, human, and weak. Putting aside the interesting portrait this creates, there are obvious problems for this narrative compared to the accepted religious dogma where Jesus is God, and God is infallible. Jesus is portrayed as struggling with his powers, trying to match his development as a human child with his manifest divinity. These stories clearly paint a different, and far more human character than the canonical New Testament of the Bible.
But Jesus began to teach them the law instead! A parallel to this story interestingly also appears in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus is shown teaching in a temple at age 12.