Fully divine

In order to be faithful to her Church's theology, which in turn she would argue is faithful to the Gospels, Rice endeavors to depict a Jesus who is fully divine. Of course, portraying a fully divine seven-year-old boy who is also fully human and a believable character is quite a

51 is an issue for all artists and theologians, not just for Rice. Somewhat ironically, Rice hopes to solve this dilemma not by portraying the presence of Jesus' divinity but its absence. In her Author's Note, she claims to adopt a kenotic Christology, which is based upon an interpretation of Phil 2:7, according to which Jesus "empties" himself of his divine qualities (320).

Unfortunately, Rice is inconsistent in her Christological portrait and, as we shall see, ultimately unsuccessful in creating a fully divine Christ child.

7.1.1. An omniscient seven-year-old?

In Out of Egypt, the kenosis of Jesus' divinity extends only to his omniscience, or as Rice calls it, "his Divine awareness" (320), and of this quality, Jesus is emptied only some of the time. At other times, this boy Jesus fully experiences his omniscient powers. One such experience Rice's Jesus describes in the following way: "And there came in a flash to me a feeling of understanding everything, everything!It was gone as soon as it had come" (215; cf., 98, 99, 196). All of the knowledge of the universe floods his mind but then recedes like a wave. Indeed, Rice portrays his omniscience much like a car that is having trouble cranking. Sometimes the engine growls loudly, but at other times, it remains strangely silent.

In the novel, Cleopas comments that members of Jesus' own family do not know what to do with the divine child (47) who will one day give them all the answers (215). It is clear that Rice struggles with what to do with him and his divine knowledge as well. Rather than displaying a form of kenosis, Rice instead offers us an embodiment of krypsis, a Christology in which Christ's divine omniscience is hidden, but not entirely. She gives us a Christ who is divine in fits and starts—now he is omniscient; now he is not. His knowledge has been poured out, but now it comes rushing back to him. The result is confusing and unsuccessful as an example of both kenotic Christology and omniscience.

52 Rice's attempt to portray both omniscience and kenosis points to the fundamental problem of trying to do both since the very definition of kenosis negates any tangible portrayal of omniscience. If Rice were to depict a Christ child fully "emptied" of his divine attributes, then we would not see any signs of omniscience. Yet if we could not see any evidence of

omniscience, then how could we know that she intends to portray his character as divine? It is a paradoxical problem of portrayal and one that Rice is not alone in struggling to solve.

While Paul in his letter to the Philippians may appear to be more certain about such divine emptying, the evangelists themselves seem more confused over the issue of omniscience and kenosis, that is, if these were even issues about which they were aware. In the Gospels, we see a similar tension to that found in Out of Egypt in that Jesus seems to have extraordinary

knowledge at some points but not always. For example, the Gospel Jesus can predict signs of the coming end of the age but still declare that even he does not know when these events will take place (cf. Mark 13). There also seems to be tension between the Gospels themselves regarding the amount of awareness Jesus has about his own identity. In the Synoptics, there appears to be more of a process of discovery in which Jesus grows in wisdom (cf. Luke 2:52) and even in self-awareness whereas in John, Jesus seems to know all about his own identity, his relationship with his Father God, and his destiny. In fact, most of Jesus' teachings in John center on these topics. If the Gospel writers themselves had difficulty in deciding whether and how to portray an omniscient Jesus, then perhaps we should not expect Rice to have such a complicated issue solved and depicted perfectly either.

7.1.2. An omnipotent seven-year-old?

While the omniscient part of his divinity supposedly has been poured out, at least partially, Jesus retains another part of his divine nature—his omnipotence, which is displayed through his miracles. As Mary explains to Jesus:

53 'You are the son of the Lord God!' she said. 'That's why you can kill and bring back to life, that's why you can heal a blind man as Joseph saw you do, that's why you can pray for snow and there will be snow, that's why you can dispute with your uncle Cleopas when he forgets you're a boy, that's why you make sparrows from clay and bring them to life' (296).

Because Rice sees Jesus' miraculous powers as tied to his divine nature, she reasons that Jesus would have displayed special powers as a child. Precisely why, since Rice endeavors to portray kenosis, an emptying of these divine powers does not take place along with his divine knowledge is unclear.

In deciding to depict Jesus as possessing miraculous powers at a young age, Rice follows the lead of the non-canonical infancy gospels and, as we have seen, draws some of her boy wonder's deeds from them. Her decision to begin the novel with the Thomasine tale of Jesus' slaying of the bully Eleazar and the subsequent raising of that child from the dead not only sets the tone of the novel but also tells the reader a great deal about the Christological presentation to come. Throughout the novel, we see a picture of a little boy full of miraculous powers that he does not quite know how to control.

Unlikethe Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Out of Egypt cannot be accused of the same type of docetic portrayal of Jesus "as a god walking around in a little boy's body, performing one miracle after another."97 _{Yet Rice's picture of the boy's omnipotence is neither without its own}

problems nor perhaps without its own form of doceticism.

The belief seen in Out of Egypt that Jesus' mighty deeds are expressions of his divinity is what D.S. Cairns calls the traditionalist view of miracles. The assumption behind this view is that only a divine being could have performed such powerful acts.98 Cairn contends that this

97 _{Charles H. Talbert, “Once Again: Gospel Genre,” Semia 43 (1988): 354. In her note to the paperback edition,} Rice addresses the concerns expressed by some of her readers about the inclusion of the apocryphal infancy gospels, which some view as possible Gnostic material. She responds that she made a conscious effort to remove any docetic elements from the early legendary material and that her purpose was to present a truly human and orthodox child Jesus (Rice, “Note to the Paperback Edition,” 347-48).

98 _{D.S. Cairns, The Faith That Rebels: A Re-examination of the Miracles of Jesus (6th ed.; London: SCM, 1954),} 25.

54 position is in fact incongruous with the presentation of miracles in the Synoptic Gospels. For one, it negates the role of human faith reiterated as an essential component for many of these works. For another, in ascribing these miracles to Jesus' divinity rather than to his perfect humanity, this position negates the transference of those powers from Jesus to his disciples described in the Gospels and thus calls into question the validity of stories found throughout the NT of decidedly non-divine followers of Jesus performing miracles. Cairn and many other scholars argue that miracles are not an outflowing of Jesus' omnipotence but are the result of the indwelling of God's Spirit within Jesus.99 According to this view, Jesus in his full humanity prefigures his disciple's later abilities to perform mighty deeds through the Spirit. An equation of the miraculous with Jesus' divinity comes at the cost of his full humanity and could be even be construed as a form of doceticism.

Also problematic with Rice's portrayal of Jesus' divinity is the presence of divine power without any divine awareness. This combination produces not only a very confused little boy but also one who is capable of performing immoral deeds, such as the Thomasine slaying of Eleazar. It is no wonder then that the neighbors in both Rice's tale and in the Thomasine gospel all fear Jesus. Who would not be afraid with such a dangerous mixture of omnipotence sans omniscience? Thankfully, as the novel progresses, Jesus learns to pray to his Father and to ask his will before performing miracles, such as the healing of Cleopas (98) and that of the blind man (280), but sometimes miracles still seem to spring unbidden, such as when the rain ceases (170-171) or when the snow begins (231).

99 _{e.g., Ibid., 29-30; D.M. Baillie, God Was in Christ: An Essay on Incarnation and Atonement (London: Faber} and Faber, 1958).

55 7.1.3. Complementing ancient biographies and the non-canonical infancy gospels

Instead of successfully embodying a kenotic Christology that Rice and others would claim as a faithful representation of the Gospel portrayals and of Catholic theology, Rice's Jesus more successfully embodies the assumptions of ancient biographies in general and of the non-

canonical infancy gospels in particular that personhood is fixed and consistent over one's lifetime. Because later in life Jesus demonstrates omniscient characteristics, the novel depicts similar traits in Jesus as a boy by portraying him as a highly intelligent pupil whose wisdom far exceeds his years.100 Likewise, since the adult Jesus will later show omnipotence through the miracles he performs, Rice has the boy Jesus perform similar mighty works. Rather than portraying the absence of Jesus' divinity as suggested in the Author's Note, Out of Egypt

consistently tries to depict the presence of that divine nature by displaying the characteristics of omniscience and omnipotence through acts that foreshadow those of the adult Gospel Jesus.

This portrait of a miracle-working, all-knowing seven-year-old Jesus is not in keeping with the Gospels, which delay portraying Jesus with such abilities until after his baptism. It is, however, more in line with the non-canonical infancy gospels.