Thomas, Gospel of

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The '''''Gospel of Thomas''''' is a [[New Testament apocrypha|New Testament]]-era [[apocryphon]] completely preserved in a [[papyrus]] [[Coptic language|Coptic]] [[manuscript]] discovered in 1945 at [[Nag Hammadi]], [[Egypt]]. The book was bound in a method now called [[Coptic binding]]. Unlike the four canonical [[gospel]]s, which combine narrative accounts of the life of [[Jesus]] with sayings, ''Thomas'' is a "sayings gospel."  It takes the less structured form of a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus (including brief dialogues), the writing down of which is attributed to [[Thomas (apostle)|Didymus Judas Thomas]]. The words Didymus and Thomas are both translated "twin" giving emphasis to the name Judas, a derivative of Judah.  The gospel does not have a narrative framework, nor is it worked into any overt [[philosophical]] or [[rhetoric]]al context.
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The '''Gospel of Thomas''' is an important but long lost work of the [[New Testament]] [[Apocrypha]], completely preserved in a [[Coptic language|Coptic]] [[manuscript]] discovered in 1945 at [[Nag Hammadi]], [[Egypt]]. Unlike the four canonical [[gospel]]s, which combine substantial narrative accounts of the life of [[Jesus]] with his sayings, ''Thomas'' is a "sayings gospel" with little narrative text. It is attributed to the apostle [[Thomas (apostle)|Didymus Judas Thomas]]. {{cquote|''When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"''|20px|}} While believed by many scholars to have been written quite early, its theological perspective is markedly different from the biblical gospels in that the [[resurrection]] of Jesus plays no part in it, and it emphasizes a mystical understanding of Jesus' teachings, rather than the sacraments of [[baptism]] and the [[Eucharist]].
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All the texts have been available to the general public since 1975. The Gospel of Thomas has been translated, published and annotated in several languages. The original version is the property of Egypt's Department of Antiquities.  The first photographic edition was published in 1956, and its first critical analysis appeared in 1959.[http://www.nag-hammadi.com/gospel.html]
 
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The Gospel begins with the words, "These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down.  And he said, 'Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.'"
 
 
    
 
    
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The work comprises [[114 (number)|114]] sayings attributed to [[Jesus]]. Some of these sayings resemble those found in the four [[Biblical canon#Christian canons|canonical Gospel]]s ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]], [[Gospel of Mark|Mark]], [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]], and [[Gospel of John|John]]). Others were unknown until its discovery, and a few of these run counter to sayings found in the four canonical gospels.
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' comprises 114 sayings of [[Jesus]]. Some of these sayings resemble or are identical to those found in the four [[Biblical canon#Christian canons|canonical Gospel]]s ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]], [[Gospel of Mark|Mark]], [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]], and [[Gospel of John|John]]). Many, however, were unknown until the gospel's discovery.
  
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When a Coptic version of the complete text of ''Thomas'' was found, scholars realized that three separate [[Greek language|Greek]] portions of it had already been discovered in [[Oxyrhynchus]], Egypt, in 1898. The manuscripts bearing the Greek fragments of the ''Gospel of Thomas'' have been dated to about AD 200, and the manuscript of the Coptic version to about 340. Although the Coptic version is not quite identical to any of the Greek fragments, it is believed that the Coptic version was translated from an earlier Greek version.  
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The work begins with the words, "These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down. And he said, 'Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.'"
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{{toc}}
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Since its discovery, the ''Gospel of Thomas'' has been a major source of discussion and controversy among biblical scholars. Some believe it to have inspired a major group of first century Christians and that the gospels of Luke and John were written in part to refute its teachings. Others consider it to have been written in the mid to late second century as part of the heretical movement of [[Gnosticism]]. A good deal of discussion has also been devoted to the relationship between the ''Gospel of Thomas'' and the hypothetical [[Q document]], a collection of Jesus' sayings which many scholars believe was used in both [[gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] and [[gospel of Luke|Luke]].
  
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==Confusion with other works==
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==Importance==
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is distinct and unrelated to other [[apocrypha]]l or [[pseudepigraphy|pseudepigraphal]] works, such as the ''[[Acts of Thomas]]'' or the work called the ''[[Infancy Gospel of Thomas]]'', which expands on the canonical texts to describe the miraculous childhood of Jesus. When [[Hippolytus (writer)|Hippolytus]] and [[Origen]] (ca. 233) refer to a "Gospel of Thomas" among the [[heterodoxy|heterodox]] apocryphal gospels, it is unclear whether they mean the ''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'' or this "sayings" Gospel of Thomas.  Hippolytus may, however, cite ''logia'' 4 with reference to the [[Naassene Fragment|Naassenes]] in his ''Refutation of All Heresies'' 5.7.20, although the literary connection is weak.  The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is also distinct from the ''[[Book of Thomas the Contender]]'', a clearly [[Gnostic]] text.
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is regarded by some as the single most important find in understanding early [[Christianity]] outside the [[New Testament]]. It offers a window into the world view of ancient culture, as well as the debates and struggles within the early Christian community.
  
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In the [[4th century]], [[Cyril of Jerusalem]] mentioned a "Gospel of Thomas" in his ''Cathechesis V'': "Let none read the gospel according to Thomas, for it is the work, not of one of the twelve apostles, but of one of [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]]'s three wicked disciples." Very little trace of [[Manichaeism|Manichaean dualism]] can be detected in this "sayings" Gospel, the ''Gospel of Thomas'', which is agreed to be simpler and less legend-filled than that philosophy.
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is certainly one of the earliest accounts of the teaching of Jesus outside of the canonical gospels, and so is considered a valuable text by biblical scholars of all persuasions. It claims to contain special [[revelation]]s and [[parable]]s made known only to the apostle Thomas.
  
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==Corresponding Oxyrhynchus papyri==
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[[Image:Gerard van Honthorst 003.jpg|thumb|200px|Some scholars hold that the [[Gospel of John]] tells the story of "Doubting Thomas" both to dramatize the physical nature of Jesus' resurrection and to denigrate those who adhered to the attitude presented in the ''Gospel of Thomas.'']]
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Prior to the Nag Hammadi library discovery, the sayings of Jesus found in Oxyrhynchus were known simply as [[Logia|Logia Iesu]]. The corresponding [[Koine Greek]] fragments of the ''Gospel of Thomas'' found in [[Oxyrhynchus]] are:
 
  
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*P.Oxy. 1: fragments of logia 26 through 33.
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Furthermore, most readers are struck by the fact that this gospel makes no mention of Jesus' resurrection, a crucial point of faith among [[Christian]]s. Nor does it emphasize the salvific value of Jesus' death on the cross or the sacraments of [[baptism]] and [[holy communion|communion]]. Instead, it portrays Jesus' role as primarily that of guide and teacher, providing the special knowledge needed for each person to attain the [[Christ]]hood that he himself manifested.
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*P.Oxy. 654: fragments of the beginning through logion 7, logion 24 and logion 36 on the flip side of a papyrus containing [[surveying]] data.
 
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*P.Oxy. 655: fragments of logia 36 through 39, comprised of 8 fragments named ''a'' through ''h'', whereof ''f'' and ''h'' have since been lost.
 
  
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==Date of Composition==
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{{cquote|''Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death''.|20px|}}  
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There is currently much debate about when the text was composed, with scholars generally falling into two main camps: an '''early camp''' favoring a date in the 50s{{Fact|date=April 2007}}, and a '''late camp''' favoring a time after the last of the canonical gospels in the 100s. Among critical scholars, the early camp is more popular in North America{{Fact|date=April 2007}}, while the late camp is more popular in Europe (especially in the UK and Germany). The great majority of Biblical scholars at large favor a later dating.
 
  
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===The early camp===
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Some scholars consider the ''Gospel of Thomas'' to be a [[Gnostic]] text, since it emphasizes the importance of spiritual knowledge (Greek: ''gnosis'') and was found among a collection of other, more clearly gnostic texts. Others reject this interpretation, however, because ''Thomas'' lacks the full-blown mythology of Gnosticism as described by such [[Church Father]]s as [[Irenaeus of Lyons]] (ca. 185). Many consider it a "proto-gnostic" work, affirming the basic Gnostic belief that only the true knowledge of Jesus' teaching enables one to realize his or her own inner Christhood, but not promoting a formal Gnostic cosmology found in later gnostic texts. In this view, later Gnostic Christianity may have had its roots in the "Thomas community."
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The early camp argues that since it consists of mostly original material and does not seem to be based on the canonical gospels, it must have been transcribed from an oral tradition. Since the practice of considering oral tradition as authoritative ended during the [[1st century]], the ''Gospel of Thomas'' therefore must have been written before then, perhaps as early as around 40. {{Fact|date=April 2007}} Since this date precedes the dates of the traditional four gospels, there is some claim that the ''Gospel of Thomas'' is or has some connection to the hypothetical [[Q document]]—a text (or oral verse) that, with Mark, is postulated to have been a source for the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
 
  
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The early camp argues that about half of the material in ''Thomas'' has no known parallels to the New Testament, and at least some of this material could plausibly be attributed to the [[historical Jesus]], such as saying 42 "Be passers-by."
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' also differs from the [[synoptic gospel]] and the [[Gospel of John]] in terms of whom it looks to for leadership. The synoptics make it clear that [[Saint Peter]] is to be the central figure of the church after Jesus' death. Thus Jesus gives the keys to the Kingdom of God to Peter and announces "on this rock I will build my church." In John, Peter and John are the two chief disciples. In Thomas' gospel, the figure of Thomas conveys Jesus' teachings to the reader, but, surprisingly, none of Jesus' 12 original followers is to be the leader of the church after his death. Rather it is "James the Just," the leader of the [[Jerusalem church]] in the [[Book of Acts]], referred to as "the Lord's brother." James also seems to have a significance beyond mere leadership. As verse 12 puts it: "The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you will leave us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "Wherever you are, you are to go to [[James the Just]]. For his sake heaven and earth came into being."
  
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The early camp also notes that Q is almost universally regarded by secular biblical scholars as the most [[parsimonious explanation]] for the [[synoptic problem]] and is widely regarded to be the earliest written text of Jesus' teachings. It has been hypothesized that Q exists in 3 strata, termed Q1, Q2, and Q3, with the apocalyptic material belonging in Q2 and Q3. Secular biblical scholars have identified 37 sayings that overlap between ''Thomas'' and Q, all of which are conjectured to be in either Q1 or Q2 and none of which included the latter, apocalyptic material of Q3. As ''Thomas'' does not incorporate material from Q3, it was not aware of Q3 and precedes it. The Q layers of Q1 and Q2 are thought to predate the four gospels. Hence the ''Gospel of Thomas'' is thought to be early.
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No major Christian church accepts this gospel as canonical or authoritative. However, the [[Jesus Seminar]], an association of noted biblical scholars, includes it as the "[[Fifth Gospel]]" in its deliberation on the [[historical Jesus]]. Virtually all biblical scholars recognize it as an important work for understanding the theoretical [[''Q'' document]], a collection of sayings and teachings used by [[Matthew]] and [[Luke]] but absent from [[Mark]] and [[John]]. The fact that ''Thomas'' is a "sayings gospel" tends to confirm the theory of ''Q'''s existence and has stimulated much discussion on the relationship between ''Thomas'' and ''Q.''
  
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The central argument of [[Elaine Pagels]]'s ''[[Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas|Beyond Belief]]'' (2003) is that there seems to be conflict between the Gospel of John and the ''Gospel of Thomas''. According to Pagels, specific passages in the Gospel of John can only be understood in light of a community based on a philosophy espoused by the ''Gospel of Thomas'', though not necessarily precisely represented by that document. Pagels interprets the "[[Doubting Thomas]]" episode of the Gospel of John as rebuttal for the "''Thomas'' community"—Thomas physically touches Jesus and acknowledges his fleshy nature, in contrast to the [[docetism]] of gnostic groups.  Her interpretation of John requires that ''Thomas''-like ideas or a ''Thomas''-like community existed when John's gospel was written.
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==Philosophy and theology==
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The gospel of Thomas begins, "These are the sayings that the living Jesus spoke and [[Didymos]] Judas Thomas recorded." The words "Didymos" (Greek) and "Thomas" (The Aramaic: ''Tau'ma'') both mean "Twin" and may be titles rather than names. Some scholars speculate that he is called the "twin" of Jesus to denote a spiritual unity between the disciple and his master, as referenced in Thomas v. 13, where Jesus says, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drank and become drunk from the very same spring from which I draw."  
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{{readout||left|250px|The Gospel of Thomas emphasizes [[salvation]] through understanding the words of [[Jesus]]}}
  
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Another argument for the early camp is that there is overlap between Paul's epistles and ''Thomas''. The authentic corpus of Paul's epistles, which includes [[First Corinthians]], [[Epistle to the Galatians|Galatians]], and [[Philippians]], is regarded by almost all biblical scholars as predating the canonical gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. Some secular scholars see common themes in Paul and in ''Thomas'' absent from the canonical gospels (nor independently attested by them), and conclude that ''Thomas'' draws upon a common sayings pool also used by the canonical gospels and Paul. According to this theory, Paul drew on sayings widely recognized to have come from Jesus, some which are uniquely preserved in the ''Gospel of Thomas''.
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A central theme of the ''Gospel of Thomas'' is that [[salvation]] comes through true understanding of the words of Jesus, rather than through faith in his resurrection or partaking in the [[sacrament]]s of the church. This, and the fact that it is a "sayings" gospel with very little description of the activities of Jesus and no reference to his crucifixion and resurrection, is what distinguishes this gospel from the four canonical gospels.  
  
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The early camp argues that if the author of ''Thomas'' knew of the New Testament, including the Pauline epistles, and if it is thought that "Thomas" showed gnostic tendencies, then it is surprising that he did not take the opportunity to include many verses that would have supported such "gnostic" theology, which are present in the canonical New Testament, such as John 8:58, "Before Abraham was born, I AM." The ''Gospel of Thomas'' includes a great deal of material unparalleled in the New Testament, but lacks distinctive terms from second-century [[Gnosticism]] such as [[archon]]s, [[pleroma]], [[aeon]]s, or [[demiurge]] that would be expected from a product of historical Gnosticism: this is seen by some as another justification for an earlier date of authorship.
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In the [[synoptic gospels]] (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus is the [[Messiah]] who has come to earth to die for our sins that we might be saved through by faith in his resurrection. The [[Gospel of John]] adds that Jesus is a divine heir of the [[godhead]] and places particular emphasis on the sacrament of [[holy communion]]. In Thomas' gospel, on the other hand, Jesus is primarily a teacher and a spiritual role model. One is not saved by faith in him, but by understanding his teachings and realizing the potential to attain Christhood, just as Jesus did.
  
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The early camp counters arguments from the history of religion (and the relatively late appearance of gnostic thought) that ''Thomas'' reflects very little to none of the full-blown [[Valentianism|Valentinian]] gnosticism as seen in many of the other texts in the cache of manuscripts found at Nag Hammadi.  In fact, some point out that not all of the Nag Hammadi texts are gnostic; for example, one of the texts is an excerpt of a paraphrase of [[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]],'' which predates gnosticism by centuries. However, it is speculated that gnosticism was heavily influenced by the creation myth that Plato put forth in ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'', and that the fragment enclosed in Codex VI has Socrates make a rather far-fetched analogy of just and unjust behavior based on a gruesome image of the [[Chimaera]], the same sort of argument and image that full-blown Gnostics revelled in.
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{{cquote|''When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer… and when you make male and female into a single one… then you will enter [the kingdom].|''20px|}}
  
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It is also noted that gnosticism was a fluid belief system containing both new elements and old, and that material identified as "gnostic" in ''Thomas'' may have been current as early as 50. As for the focus on the cross that Thomas lacks, early daters contend that Thomas belonged to an early form of Christianity, exemplified by Q, that concentrated on the sayings and teachings of Jesus. If one is skeptical of Q, however, as several leading scholars in the UK are (see [[Farrer hypothesis]]), this argument is less probative.
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is thus more [[mystical]] than the canonical gospels and emphasizes a direct and unmediated experience of the Divine. While in ''John'' Jesus stresses the sacraments and says "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day," in ''Thomas,'' Jesus emphasizes his teaching of spiritual truth and says, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him." (Thomas 108) In Thomas v.3, Jesus says, "… the Kingdom of God is within you." This saying also found in Luke 17:21, but in Thomas' gospel it is a consistent and central theme.
  
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Earl Doherty [http://home.ca.inter.net/oblio/jhcjp.htm] argued that when the ''Gospel of Thomas'' does parallel Q or the New Testament, it shows less development, more "primitive" form than the latter. Stevan L. Davies believes he has proven statistically that a lack of order with the synoptics shows that Thomas could have not been reliant upon the canonical [[Gospels]].<ref>http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/correl.htm</ref>
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[[Elaine Pagels]], one of the pre-eminent scholars of the ''Gospel of Thomas,'' argued in her book ''Beyond Belief'' that ''Thomas'' was widely read in the early church and that portions of both Luke's and John's gospels were designed specifically to refute its viewpoint. John in particular goes out of the way to prove that Jesus' resurrection was physical. It has long been thought by biblical scholars that the story of [[Doubting Thomas]] served to refute those Christians who believed the resurrection was spiritual and not physical, but in Pagels' view it is no coincidence that Thomas happens to be the one disciple who adamantly doubts the resurrection and must have it demonstrated to him in graphic, indeed gruesome, detail (John 20:24-30). She concludes that ''Thomas'' gives us a rare glimpse into the diversity of beliefs in the early Christian community, and a check on what many modern Christians take for granted as being "heretical."
  
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===The late camp===  
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==Relation to other works==
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The late camp, on the other hand, dates ''Thomas'' sometime after 100, generally in the mid-[[2nd century]], and that ''Thomas'' is dependent on the ''[[Diatessaron]]'', which was composed shortly after 172. The Greek fragments of ''Thomas'' found in Egypt are typically dated between 140 and 200.  
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[[Image:Nag-Hammadi-Map.png|thumb|200x|Map shows the location of Nag Hammadi, where the complete text of the Gospel of Thomas was discovered in 1945.]]
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When the [[Coptic]] version of the complete text of ''Thomas'' was found at [[Nag Hammadi]], scholars realized for the first time that three separate [[Greek language|Greek]] portions of this gospel had already been discovered in [[Oxyrhynchus]], Egypt, in 1898. The manuscripts bearing the Greek fragments of the ''Gospel of Thomas'' have been dated to about 200 C.E., and a manuscript of the Coptic version to about 340 C.E..
  
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The main argument put forth by the late camp is an argument from ''redaction''.  Under the most commonly accepted solution to the [[Synoptic problem]], Matthew and Luke both used Mark as well as a lost sayings collection called [[Q document|Q]] to compose their gospels.  Sometimes Matthew and Luke modified the wording of their source, Mark (or Q), and the modified text is known as ''redaction''. Proponents of the late camp argue that some of this secondary redaction created by Matthew and Luke shows up in ''Thomas'', which means that ''Thomas'' was written after Matthew and Luke were composed.  Since Matthew and Luke are generally thought to have been composed in the 80s and 90s, ''Thomas'' would have to be composed later than that.  Members of the early camp respond to this argument by suggesting that 2nd-century scribes may have been the ones responsible for the Synoptic redaction now present in our manuscripts of ''Thomas'', not its original author.  Both camps agree, however, that the fluidity of the text in the [[2nd century]] makes dating ''Thomas'' very difficult.
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{{cquote|''I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart.''|20px|}}
  
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A related argument is that Matthew and Luke independently incorporated their own local traditions into their gospels in addition to the traditions they obtained from Mark and Q.  These local traditions are usually known as ''Sondergut'', or ''special material''.  The late camp notes that ''Thomas'' parallels not just the shared material in the Synoptic gospels, but also the special material found in each one of them. The late camp concludes that accessing this diverse set of materials, including local traditions, would be much easier after the canonical gospels were circulating rather than before.  Those who argue for a later date for ''Thomas'' also call into question the assumption of those within the early camp that "sayings" material is necessarily earlier than full-fledged gospels that include narrative.
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is distinct and not directly related to other [[apocrypha]]l or [[pseudepigraphy|pseudepigraphal]] works that bear Thomas' name, such as the ''[[Acts of Thomas]]'' or the work called the ''[[Infancy Gospel of Thomas]],'' which expands on the canonical texts to describe the miraculous childhood of Jesus. The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is also distinct from the ''[[Book of Thomas the Contender]],'' a more clearly [[Gnostic]] text.
  
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Bart Ehrman, (in ''Jesus Apocalyptic Prophet of the Millennium'') argues that the Jesus of history was a failed [[apocalypse|apocalyptic]] preacher, and that his fervent apocalyptic beliefs are recorded in the earliest Christian documents, Mark and the authentic Pauline epistles. The earliest Christians believed Jesus would soon return, and their beliefs are echoed in the earliest Christian writings. As the [[Second Coming]] did not materialize, later gospels, such as Luke and John, and pseudo-Pauline epistles, such as Timothy,  deemphasized an imminent end of the world, with the epistle of Peter even rationalizing the delay: "A day is as thousand years . . . in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires . . . where is this 'coming' your Christ has promised, ever since our forefathers died" (2 Pet 3:3–5); and Luke: "No one will say the Kingdom is here or there for behold it lies within you" (17:21). As Elaine Pagels pointed out, many sayings in the ''Gospel of Thomas'' relate to the coming end as a profoundly mistaken view, and that the real Kingdom is within the human heart, as stated in Luke above, and such a viewpoint implies a late date as the end of the world and Second Coming never materialized, and the early Christians had to explain Christ's non-appearance.
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In the fourth century, Church Father [[Cyril of Jerusalem]] mentioned a "Gospel of Thomas" in his ''Cathechesis V,'' saying: "Let none read the gospel according to Thomas, for it is the work, not of one of the twelve apostles, but of one of [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]]'s three wicked disciples." It is possible that he refers to the ''Gospel of Thomas'' discussed in this article, although [[Manichaeism|Manichaean dualism]] is hard to detect in it.
  
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The ''Gospel of Thomas'' makes no mention of Hell, Satan, Eternal Damnation, and demons, which is in contrast to the earliest extant Christian documents, the Pauline epistles and Mark, which clearly show a belief in these areas. This may suggest that the ''Gospel of Thomas'' was produced by a community or author who did not believe in Hell, Satan, Eternal Damnation, and demons.  So the author/community associated with the ''Gospel of Thomas'' appears to be unconnected with the early Christian community of followers of Paul and Mark.  
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The text of the Gospel of Thomas has been available to the general public since 1975. It has been translated, published and annotated in several languages. The original version is the property of Egypt's Department of Antiquities. The first photographic edition was published in 1956, and its first critical analysis appeared in 1959.
  
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Another argument for the late dating of Thomas is known as the criterion of multiple attestation. Darrel Bock, (in "Studying the Historical Jesus") claims that the more a theme is repeated in the early texts about Jesus, the more likely this theme can be traced to Jesus himself. And since apocalyptic texts are found in all four of the canonical gospels, he argues that it is quite likely that Jesus did indeed teach apocalyptically. Supporting this claim are the multitudes of Jewish apocalyptic texts that appeared from the late 3rd century [[Common_Era|BCE]] to the 2nd century CE. Many scholars believe that the impetus for these apocalyptic texts came from the crises produced by Babylon's conquest of Israel, the occupation of Israel by the Greeks, and then the occupation of Israel by the Romans. By the time of Jesus, many Jews believed very strongly in these apocalyptic themes which had been circulating among them for two hundred or more years. Furthermore, like Ehrman's argument, this argument points out that the earliest Christian texts of the New Testament (e.g., 1 Thessalonians) also have apocalyptic themes in them. Therefore, it is thought odd that Thomas did not address such themes given the nature of the times.
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==Date of Composition==
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There is much debate about when the text was composed, with scholars generally falling into two main camps: an '''early camp''' favoring a date prior to the gospels of Luke and John, possibly as early as the mid-50s C.E, and a '''late camp''' favoring a time well after the last of the canonical gospels, probably in the mid-100s C.E.  
  
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The last major argument for Thomas being later than the New Testament argues that Gnosticism is a later development, while the earliest Christianity, as evident in Paul's letters, was more Jewish than Gentile and focused on the death and resurrection of Jesus more than his words. In this connection, it is observed that the Jesus of Thomas does not seem very Jewish, and that its current form reflects the work of 2nd-century Gnostic thought, such as the rejection of the physical world and women (see Thomas 114). Graham Stanton (The Gospels and Jesus, p. 129) finds in Thomas a Gnostic document: "removal of the Gnostic veneer will never be easy."
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===The early camp===
  
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It should be noted that the dating of key New Testament documents varies greatly among Biblical Scholars.
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Pagels (2003) argues that both John's and Luke's gospels contain passages designed to refute the "Thomas Christians" who believed that true followers of Jesus could attain Christhood equal to that of Jesus himself.
  
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==The ''Gospel of Thomas'' and the canon of the New Testament==
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{{cquote|If spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty.|20px|}}
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The fact that the ''Gospel of Thomas'' does not seem to have been considered for the [[New Testament]] is seen by some as an indication of its being of a later date&mdash;had it actually been written by the apostle Thomas, they argue, it would have been at least seriously considered by those in the century immediately following Jesus' death. This opinion is popular among [[Christian]]s who accept a divinely inspired New Testament [[Biblical canon|canon]] as an article of their faith&mdash;especially those considering themselves [[fundamentalist]] or [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] Christians.{{Fact|date=April 2007}}
 
  
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The harsh and widespread reaction to [[Marcion]]'s canon, the first New Testament canon known to have been created, may demonstrate that, by 140, it had become widely accepted that other texts formed parts of the records of the life and ministry of Jesus. Although arguments about some potential New Testament books, such as the ''[[Shepherd of Hermas]]'' and [[Book of Revelation]], continued well into the 4th century, four canonical gospels, attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were accepted among orthodox Christians at least as early as the mid-2nd century. Tatian's widely used ''[[Diatessaron]]'', compiled between 160 and 175, utilized the four gospels without any consideration of others. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote in the late 2nd century that ''since there are four quarters of the earth ... it is fitting that the church should have four pillars ... the four Gospels'' (''Against Heresies'', 3.11.8), and then shortly thereafter made the first known quotation from a fourth gospel—the canonical version of the Gospel of John. The late 2nd-century [[Muratorian fragment]] also recognizes only the three synoptic gospels and John. Bible scholar [[Bruce Metzger]] wrote regarding the formation of the New Testament canon, "Although the fringes of the emerging canon remained unsettled for generations, a high degree of unanimity concerning the greater part of the New Testament was attained among the very diverse and scattered congregations of believers not only throughout the Mediterranean world, but also over an area extending from Britain to Mesopotamia."
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''Thomas'' does not mention the physical resurrection and Jesus acknowledges that Thomas, the ideal disciple, no longer needs his teaching. However, in John's gospel, Thomas physically touches the resurrected Jesus and them humbly acknowledges Jesus as "my Lord and my God." (John 20:28) Likewise, in the [[Gospel of Luke]], the resurrected Jesus goes out of his way to prove that he is not a mere spirit, saying "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a [[ghost]] does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." (Luke 24:38) To further prove the physical nature of the resurrection, Luke portrays Jesus as eating a meal with the disciples, specifying that he ate a broiled fish in their presence.
  
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It should be noted that information about the historical Jesus itself was not a singular criterion for inclusion into the New Testament Canon. The canonizers chose to include many books that contain neither much information about the historical Jesus nor teachings from the historical Jesus, such as the Epistles and the book of Revelation.
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Some in the "early camp" claim that the ''Gospel of Thomas'' is closely related to the hypothetical [[Q document]], a collection of sayings found in Matthew and Luke, but absent from the [[Gospel of Mark]]. Others in the early camp—those who argue for a date sometime in the 50s—see common themes in [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]]'s epistles and ''Thomas'' which are absent from the canonical gospels. According to this theory, Paul drew on sayings widely recognized to have come from Jesus, some which are uniquely preserved in the ''Gospel of Thomas.''
  
−
The ''Gospel of Thomas'' may have been excluded from the canon of the New Testament because:
+
The early camp also notes that ''Thomas'' reflects very little of the full-blown [[Valentianism|Valentinian]] [[Gnosticism]] seen in many of the other texts in the cache of manuscripts found at [[Nag Hammadi]]. It thus represents a kind of proto-gnosticism, reflecting a time when the Christian community had not yet divided between the groups who later became known as gnostic and [[orthodox]] Christians.
−
*It was deemed [[heresy|heretical]].
 
−
*It was deemed inauthentic.
 
−
*It was unknown to the canonizers.
 
−
*It was thought to be superseded by the narrative gospels.  
 
−
*It belonged to a branch of Christianity outside the circle of [[Athanasius of Alexandria]].
 
  
−
==The philosophy of the ''Gospel of Thomas''==
+
===The late camp===  
−
The gospel begins, "These are the sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded."  It should be noted that the word "Didymos" (Greek) and "Thomas" (Hebrew) both mean "Twin" and are not actually names; the presumption being that the reader of the original Greek text would not mistake the Hebrew word "Thomas" for a surname.  The name of the person this gospel is attributed to is unclear, but may be the [[Saint Jude|apostle Judas]], who is called Thomas to distinguish himself from [[Judas Iscariot]].  Or he may be called the twin of Jesus to denote a state of spiritual sameness {{Fact|date=February 2007}}, referenced in Thomas v. 13, where Jesus says, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drank and become drunk from the very same spring from which I draw."  If "Judas," is read as a derivative of, and referential to [[Judah]], the opening of the gospel may allude to a direct communication from Christ (living Jesus) to Judah through "the twin," or earthly [[Jesus of Nazareth]].
+
The late camp, on the other hand, dates ''Thomas'' sometime after 100 C.E.., generally in the  mid-second century. Some argue that ''Thomas'' is dependent on the ''[[Diatessaron]],'' which was composed shortly after 172 C.E... Moreover, the Greek fragments of ''Thomas'' found in Egypt are typically dated between 140 and 200 C.E...
−
 
+
 
−
This relationship between "Judas Thomas" and Jesus is what distinguishes this gospel from the four other books in the Catholic canon.  In the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), Jesus is a wise teacher, prophet or an anointed (''christos'') leader. The Gospel of John, apart from the Thomas gospel and the synoptic gospels, sees Jesus as a divine heir of the godhead and an object of worship. The events in the John gospel are rearranged and told differently than the other gospels perhaps to support and emphasize this view. In the Thomas gospel, Jesus is a spiritual role model, and he is offering everyone the opportunity to become (experience [[rebirth]] as) the anointed one (a Christ) as he is.
+
Noted biblical scholar [[Bart D. Ehrman]], in ''Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the Millennium,'' argued that the historical Jesus was a failed [[apocalypse|apocalyptic]] preacher, and that his fervent apocalyptic beliefs are recorded in the earliest Christian documents, namely Mark and the authentic Pauline epistles. The earliest Christians, still clinging to Jesus' apocalyptic teaching, believed Jesus would soon return, and their beliefs are echoed in the earliest Christian writings. As the [[Second Coming]] did not materialize, later gospels, such as Luke and John, deemphasized an imminent end of the world. Likewise, many sayings in the ''Gospel of Thomas'' treat the idea of the imminent end of the world as a profoundly mistaken view, emphasizing that the real [[Kingdom of God]] is within the human heart. Such a viewpoint implies a late date.
−
 
 
−
The Gospel of Thomas is [[mystical]] and emphasizes a direct and unmediated experience of the Divine through becoming a Christ. In Thomas v.108, Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him."  Furthermore, salvation is personal and found through spiritual (psychological) introspection.  In Thomas v.70, Jesus says, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not bring it forth, what you do not have within you will kill you."  As such, this form of salvation is idiosyncratic and without literal explanation unless read from a psychological perspective related to [[Self]] vs. [[ego]]. In Thomas v.3, Jesus says,
 
−
:''...the Kingdom of God is within you...''
 
−
 
 
−
In the other four gospels, Jesus is frequently called upon to explain the meanings of parables or the correct procedure for prayer.  In Thomas v.6, his disciples asked him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?"  Jesus dismisses the relevance of the questions with his reply, "Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain concealed;" correlating a state of unconflicted awareness with the external experience of the [[Real]].
 
−
 
 
−
In contrast to the Gospel of John, where Jesus is likened to a feudal (albeit divine and beloved) Lord, the Thomas gospel portrays Jesus as more the ubiquitous vehicle of mystical inspiration and enlightenment. In Thomas v. 77 where Jesus said,
 
−
:''I am the light that shines over all things. I am everywhere. From me all came forth, and to me all return. ''
 
−
:''Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift a stone, and you will find me there,''
 
−
 
 
−
In most other respects, the Thomas gospel offers terse yet familiar if not identical accounts of the sayings of Jesus as seen in the synoptic gospels.
 
−
 
 
−
Elaine Pagels, in her book ''Beyond Belief'', argues that the Thomas gospel at first fell victim to the needs of the early Christian community for solidarity in the face of persecution, then to the will of the [[Emperor Constantine]], who at the [[First Council of Nicaea]] in 325, wanted an end to the sectarian squabbling and a universal Christian creed. She goes on to point out that in spite of it being left out of the Catholic canon, being banned and sentenced to burn, many of the mystical elements have proven to reappear perennially in the works of mystics like [[Jacob Boehme]], [[Teresa of Avila]] and [[Saint John of the Cross]] (as long as they did not deny the uniqueness and divinity of Jesus).  She concludes that the Thomas gospel gives us a rare glimpse into the diversity of beliefs in the early Christian community, an alternative perspective to the [[Authorship of the Johannine works|Johannine gospel]] and a check on what many modern Christians take for granted as being heretical.  However the church at large considers the Thomas gospel not as a reflection of "Christian diversity" but as an example of one of the early heresies that attacked the church.  Writings like the Thomas gospel motivated the church to define its long-held canon and belief in the death and resurrection of Christ in the four gospels which formed the heart of the message proclaimed by the early church in the book of Acts.
 
−
 
 
−
==The ''Gospel of Thomas'''s importance and author==
 
−
The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is regarded by some individuals as the single most important find in understanding early Christianity outside the New Testament. While this preeminence is not universally accepted, what is clear is that the gospel attests to a diversity of viewpoints in early Christianity, including very different understandings of Jesus. It offers a window into the worldview of ancient culture, as well as the debates and struggles within early Christianity. The gospel also assists in understanding early Christianity's relationship, and eventual split, with [[Judaism]].
 
−
 
 
−
The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is certainly one of the earliest accounts of the teaching of Jesus outside of the canonical gospels, and so is considered a valuable text. It is unique in that it is ostensibly written from the point of view of [[Didymus Judas Thomas]], one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, and claims to contain special revelations and parables made only to Thomas. It is further unique in that the gospel is no more than a collection of Jesus' sayings and parables, and contains no narrative account of his life, which is something that all four canonical gospels include.
 
−
 
 
−
Furthermore, most readers are struck by the fact that this gospel makes no mention of Jesus' resurrection, an important point of faith among [[Christian]]s.  However, a minority opinion interprets the opening words of the book, "These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down" ([[Nag Hammadi library]] translation, 2d. edition, ISBN 0-06-066935-7), to mean that the sayings are being presented as the teaching of Jesus Christ ''after'' the [[resurrection]], due to the use of the term "living." The last verse in the book - which strikes many commentators as appended at a later date, perhaps reflecting a mainstream misogyny not otherwise found in this text - also refers to the "life" in a sense that can only mean the "life everlasting":
 
−
 
 
−
:'''114'''. Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females do not deserve life." Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."   
 
−
 
 
−
Some scholars consider the ''Gospel of Thomas'' to be a [[gnostic]] text, since it was found in a library among other, more clearly gnostic texts.  Yet others reject this interpretation, because ''Thomas'' lacks the full-blown mythology of Gnosticism as described by [[Irenaeus of Lyons]] (ca. 185) or recognized by modern scholarship. Still other scholars see evidence of increasingly gnostic redactions over time, particularly when they compare sayings in the New Testament with parallel sayings in the Greek versions of the ''Gospel of Thomas'' (ca. 200), and sayings in the Coptic version (ca. 340).
 
−
 
 
−
No major Christian group accepts this gospel as canonical or authoritative. Nonetheless, it is an important work for scholars working on the [[Q Gospel]], which itself is thought to be a collection of sayings or teachings upon which later gospels are based. Although no copy of Q has ever been discovered, the fact that Thomas is similarly a 'sayings' Gospel is taken by some as indication that the early Christians did write collections of the sayings of Jesus, and thus they feel it renders the Q theory more credible.
 
−
 
 
−
==The Gospel of Thomas and the historical Jesus==
 
−
Modern critical scholars use three criteria to determine what the historical Jesus may have taught: [[Criterion of multiple attestation|multiple attestations]], [[Criterion of dissimilarity|dissimilarity]], and contextual credibility. Many modern scholars believe that the Gospel of Thomas was written independently of the New Testament, and therefore, is a useful guide to historical Jesus research.
 
−
 
 
−
By finding those sayings in the ''Gospel of Thomas'' that overlap with Q, Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and Paul, scholars feel such sayings represent "multiple attestations" and therefore are more likely to come from a historical Jesus than sayings that are only singly attested, such as the vast majority of the material in John.
 
−
 
 
−
The ''Gospel of Thomas'' has also been used by Christ mythicist theorists such as [[Earl Doherty]], author of ''The Jesus Puzzle'', and Timothy Freke, author of ''The Jesus Mysteries'', as evidence that Christianity did not originate with a [[Historicity of Jesus Christ|historical Jesus]], but as a Jewish adaptation of the Greek [[mystery religion]]s. The collection of teachings attributed to Jesus represent part of the initiation to the mysteries of their religion.
 
−
 
 
−
==Differences between translations==
 
−
{{original research}}
 
−
In translating ancient texts, often the meaning of words is revealed only in abstraction, and must be interpreted after being translated, in order for the meaning to be addressed. This is the case with all translations, as each reveals the limits and changes of languages, in the ''divergent'' tasks of being sufficiently descriptive, and being easy to use in common speech. In the ''Gospel of Thomas'', logion 66 is one famous example of how translation often differs subtly from its proper interpretation.  
 
  
−
:'''66'''. ''Jesus said'', "Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone." (''From the'' Scholars Translation - ''Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer.'')
+
{{cquote|''If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you''.|20px|}}
  
−
Compare the above translation with the following:
+
Another argument put forth by the late camp is an argument from ''[[redaction]].'' Under the most commonly accepted solution to the [[Synoptic problem]], Matthew and Luke both used Mark as well as a lost sayings collection called [[Q document|Q]] to compose their gospels. Sometimes Matthew and Luke modified the wording of their source, Mark (or Q), and the modified text is known as ''redaction.'' Proponents of the late camp argue that some of this secondary redaction created by Matthew and Luke shows up in ''Thomas,'' which means that ''Thomas'' was written after Matthew and Luke were composed. Since Matthew and Luke are generally thought to have been composed in the 80s and 90s, ''Thomas'' would have to be composed later than that.
  
−
:'''66'''. ''Jesus said'', "Teach me concerning this stone which the builders rejected; it is the corner-stone." (''Brill edition.'')
+
Various other arguments are presented countered by both camps.
  
−
Many believe that the use of the word "corner-stone" in the Brill edition does not accurately convey the meaning of the saying, and that the correct word is "keystone," as in the Patterson-Meyer translation. To understand the difference, one must think through the parable for its intended meaning. As in all [[Christian]] [[parables]], the deeper meaning reflects a moral story. In this case, the meaning comes by the analogy of constructing an arch:
+
==Notable quotations==
 +
<blockquote>''All quotations are from the translation of Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer from the The [[Nag Hammadi Library]] collection at [http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html www.gnosis.org]'':</blockquote>
  
−
:In selecting stones for the arch, the most odd-shaped, useless stone is rejected, and cast aside. The builders select the ''cornerstones'' first; they must be strong, squarish blocks and must serve well as the foundation. As each separate pillar is built to the top, the stones are chosen for their slight curvatures, to bring the tops of the columns together.
+
* 1. "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
  
−
:Finally, the ''keystone'' must be selected. It must be of a particularly acute angle to accommodate the characteristics of each of the two arch halves: According to Jesus's parable, it is the stone which was first rejected, by the initial estimations of the builders, and only when the rest of the pieces are in place do they see its usefulness.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
+
*3. Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.  
  
−
== Comparison of The ''Gospel of Thomas'' to the New Testament ==
+
*13. … And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
−
The ''Gospel of Thomas'' does not refer to Jesus as "Christ" or "Lord" as the New Testament does, but simply as "Jesus." The ''Gospel of Thomas'' also lacks any mention of such classic Christian doctrines as [[Satan]], [[Demon]]s, [[The Second Coming]], [[Sin#Christian views of sin|sin]], or signs. However, it includes several parables similar to ones found in the canonical gospels that contain themes including [[Hell]], damnation, [[Heaven]], the [[Kingdom of God]], [[miracles]] (instructing his followers to heal people), and [[salvation]].
 
  
−
The ''Gospel of Thomas'' does not list the canonical twelve [[apostle]]s, though it does mention [[James the Just]], who is singled out ("No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being"); [[Simon Peter]]; [[Matthew the Evangelist|Matthew]]; [[Thomas (apostle)|Thomas]], who is taken aside and receives three points of revelation; [[Mary Magdalene|Mary]]; and [[Salome (disciple)|Salome]].  Though here Mary Magdalene and Salome are mentioned among the twelve disciples, the canonical Gospels and ''Acts'' only mention men, but make a distinction between "disciples" and the inner group of twelve "apostles" &mdash; a Greek term that does not appear in Thomas &mdash; with varying lists of names making up the canonical twelve. Despite the favorable mention of James the Just, generally considered a "pro-circumcision" Christian, the ''Gospel of Thomas'' also dismisses circumcision:
+
*17. Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."
  
−
:''His disciples said to him,'' "Is circumcision useful or not?"  ''He said to them,'' "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother.  Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect."
+
*22. Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one… then you will enter [the kingdom]."
  
−
Compare Thomas 8 SV
+
*29. Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty."
  
−
:'''8'''. ''And Jesus said'', "The person is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of little fish.  Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish.  He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and easily chose the large fish. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!"
+
*37. His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?" Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes…, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."
  
−
with {{bibleref|Matthew|13:47–50}} NIV:
+
*67. Jesus said, "Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking."
  
−
:<sup>47</sup>"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. <sup>48</sup>When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. <sup>49</sup>This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous <sup>50</sup>and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
+
*92. Jesus said, "Seek and you will find. In the past, however, I did not tell you the things about which you asked me then. Now I am willing to tell them, but you are not seeking them."  
  
−
Note that Thomas makes a distinction between large and small fish, whereas Matthew makes a distinction between good and bad fish. Furthermore, Thomas' version has only one fish remaining, whereas Matthew's version implies many good fish remaining. The manner in which each Gospel concludes the parable is instructive. Thomas' version invites the reader to draw their own conclusions as to the interpretation of the saying, whereas Matthew provides an explanation connecting the text to an apocalyptic end of the age.
+
*101. "Whoever does not hate [father] and mother as I do cannot be my [disciple], and whoever does [not] love [father and] mother as I do cannot be my [disciple]. For my mother […], but my true [mother] gave me life."
  
−
Another example is the [[parable of the lost sheep]], which is paralleled by Matthew, Luke, John, and Thomas.
+
*113. His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."
−
 
 
−
This is the parable of the lost sheep in {{bibleref|Matthew|18:12–14}} NIV
 
−
 
 
−
:<sup>12</sup>"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? <sup>13</sup>And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. <sup>14</sup>In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."
 
−
 
 
−
This is the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15: 3-7 NIV
 
−
 
 
−
:<sup>3</sup>''Then Jesus told them this parable:'' <sup>4</sup>"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? <sup>5</sup>And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders <sup>6</sup>and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' <sup>7</sup>I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."
 
−
 
 
−
This is the parable of the lost sheep in Thomas 107 SV
 
−
 
 
−
:'''107'''. ''Jesus said,'' "The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, ''I love you more than the ninety-nine.''"
 
−
 
 
−
This is the parable of the lost sheep in John 10: 1-18 NIV
 
−
 
 
−
<blockquote><sup>1</sup>"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. <sup>2</sup>The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. <sup>3</sup>The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. <sup>4</sup>When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. <sup>5</sup>But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." <sup>6</sup>Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
 
−
<sup>7</sup>Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. <sup>8</sup>All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. <sup>9</sup>I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[1] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. <sup>10</sup>The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
 
−
<sup>11</sup>"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. <sup>12</sup>The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. <sup>13</sup>The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
 
−
<sup>14</sup>"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me &mdash; <sup>15</sup>just as the Father knows me and I know the Father &mdash; and I lay down my life for the sheep. <sup>16</sup>I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. <sup>17</sup>The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life &mdash; only to take it up again. <sup>18</sup>No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."</blockquote>
 
−
 
 
−
Other parallels include
 
−
*{{bibleref|Matthew|10:16}} parallels Thomas 39.
 
−
*{{bibleref|Matthew|10:37}} parallels Thomas 55 and 101
 
−
*{{bibleref|Matthew|10:27}}b parallels Thomas 33a.
 
−
*{{bibleref|Matthew|10:34–36}} parallels Thomas 16.
 
−
*{{bibleref|Matthew|10:26}} parallels Thomas 5b.
 
−
 
 
−
==Gospel of Thomas scholars==
 
−
This is a list of scholars or intellectuals who either have committed significant scholarly work in Gospel of Thomas studies, or have commented on the Gospel.
 
−
 
 
−
*[[Joseph Campbell]], mythologist
 
−
*[[Stevan L. Davies]], Professor of Religious Studies at College Misericordia and author of ''The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Wisdom''
 
−
*[[April DeConick]], Professor of Biblical Studies at [[Rice University]] and author of ''Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas''
 
−
*[[Bart D. Ehrman]], author of ''[[The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings]]'' (2nd Ed. Oxford University Press, Inc. NY 2004) and ''[[The New Testament : A Historical Introduction to Early Christian Writings]]'' (3rd Ed. Oxford University Press, Inc. NY 2004).
 
−
*[[Luke Timothy Johnson]], Ph.D. Yale, Professor of New Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory.
 
−
*[[Helmut Koester]], Harvard University Divinity professor
 
−
*[[Marvin Meyer]], translator of the scholars version SV
 
−
*[[Ronald H. Miller]], Associate Professor of Religion at [[Lake Forest University]] and author of ''The Gospel of Thomas: A Guidebook For Spiritual Practice''
 
−
*[[Elaine Pagels]], author of ''[[Gnostic Gospels]]'', ''[[Beyond Belief]]'', and ''[[The Gnostic Paul]]: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Epistles''
 
−
*[[Stephen Patterson]]
 
−
*[[Hugh McGregor Ross]]
 
−
*Thin-min Tach, [[Zen]] Buddhist
 
−
*[[Tom Wright (Theologian)|N. T. Wright]], [[Bishop of Durham]] and author of the ''[[Christian Origins and the People of God]]'' series
 
−
 
 
−
==Jesus Seminar==
 
−
The ''Gospel of Thomas'' is one of the ''Five Gospels'' used by the [[Jesus Seminar]] in its attempt to determine the authentic sayings of the "[[historical Jesus]]." It designates sayings it deems fully authentic Red and sayings it believes to be very much like what Jesus might have said Pink.
 
−
<center>
 
−
{| align="center" style="text-align:center" class="wikitable"
 
−
| colspan=2 | Sayings in Thomas rated Red by the Jesus Seminar, with the percentage of Seminar scholars so rating them
 
−
|-
 
−
! Saying Number || Percentage (%)
 
−
|-
 
−
| 54 || 90
 
−
|-
 
−
| 100:2b-3 || 82
 
−
|-
 
−
| 20:2-4 || 76
 
−
|-
 
−
| 96:1-2 || 65
 
−
|-
 
−
| 69:2 || 53
 
−
|}
 
−
{| align="center" style="text-align:center" class="wikitable"
 
−
| colspan=2 | Sayings in Thomas rated Pink by the Jesus Seminar, with the percentage of Seminar scholars so rating them
 
−
|-
 
−
! Saying Number || Percentage (%)
 
−
|-
 
−
| 36 || 75
 
−
|-
 
−
| 31:1 || 74
 
−
|-
 
−
| 45:1a || 69
 
−
|-
 
−
| 64:1-11 || 69
 
−
|-
 
−
| 36:2 || 68
 
−
|-
 
−
| 76:1-2 || 68
 
−
|-
 
−
| 86 || 67
 
−
|-
 
−
| 14:5 || 67
 
−
|-
 
−
| 39:3 || 67
 
−
|-
 
−
| 47:2 || 65
 
−
|-
 
−
| 98 || 65
 
−
|-
 
−
| 95 || 65
 
−
|-
 
−
| 33:2-3 || 63
 
−
|-
 
−
| 65:1-7 || 61
 
−
|-
 
−
| 62:2 || 60
 
−
|-
 
−
| 26 || 60
 
−
|-
 
−
| 63:1-3 || 60
 
−
|-
 
−
| 113:2-4 || 59
 
−
|-
 
−
| 35 || 59
 
−
|-
 
−
| 5:2 || 57
 
−
|-
 
−
| 89 || 57
 
−
|-
 
−
| 109 || 54
 
−
|-
 
−
| 32 || 54
 
−
|-
 
−
| 97 || 53
 
−
|-
 
−
| 10 || 52
 
−
|-
 
−
| 47:4 || 52
 
−
|-
 
−
| 9 || 52
 
−
|-
 
−
| 99:2 || 52
 
−
|-
 
−
| 78:1-2 || 51
 
−
|-
 
−
| 94 || 51
 
−
|-
 
−
| 2:1 || 51
 
−
|-
 
−
| 47:3 || 51
 
−
|-
 
−
| 41 || 51
 
−
|-
 
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| 14:4a || 51
 
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| 6 || 50
 
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|-
 
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| 55:1-2a || 49
 
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| 107 || 48
 
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|-
 
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| 21:9 || 46
 
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|-
 
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| 4:2 || 45
 
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|}
 
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</center>
 
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==Popular culture==
 
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The plot of the 1999 Hollywood film ''[[Stigmata (film)|Stigmata]]'' revolves around a cover-up within the [[Roman Catholic Church]] of an unnamed lost "Gospel" (that is revealed at the end of the film to be based upon the real-life ''Gospel of St. Thomas''), whose teachings of the [[immanence]] of God are profoundly threatening to the church hierarchy.
 
−
 
 
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The DVD commentary of the film has the director saying that he believes the truth is "out there" and hopes the movie would encourage people to research alternative Christian writings, like the ''Gospel of St. Thomas''.
 
−
 
 
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===See also===
 
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*[[Five Trees]]
 
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*[[Tree of Life]]
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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*Guillaumont, Antoine Jean Baptiste, Henri-Charles Puech, [[G. Quispel]], Walter Curt Till, and Yassah ˁAbd al-Masīh, eds. 1959. ''Evangelium nach Thomas''. Leiden: E. J. Brill ''Standard edition of the Coptic text''
+
* Davis, Stevan L. and Andrew Harvey. ''The Gospel of Thomas: Annotated & Explained.'' Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002. ISBN 978-1893361454
−
*Johnson, Luke Timothy. ''The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation''.  Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986.  (pp. 530-548.)
+
* Ehrman, Bart D. ''Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew.''.Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition, 2005. ISBN 978-0195182491
−
*[[Elaine Pagels|Pagels, Elaine]], 2003. ''Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas'' (New York: Random House)
+
* Funk, Robert. ''The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the AUTHENTIC Words of Jesus.'' HarperOne, 1997. ISBN 978-0060630409 
−
*James McConkey Robinson et al., ''The Nag Hammadi Library in English'' (4th rev. ed.; Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1996).
+
* Johnson, Luke Timothy. ''Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity: A Missing Dimension in New Testament Study.'' Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1998. ISBN 978-0800631291
 +
* Pagels, Elaine. ''Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.'' Pan Books; New Ed edition, 2005.  ISBN 978-0330431972
 +
* Patterson, Stephen J. ''The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas Comes of Age.'' Trinity Press International, 1998. ISBN 978-1563382499
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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*[http://thomasinechurch.org/ Thomasine Church]
+
All links retrieved June 27, 2017.
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*[http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl_thomas.htm Gospel of Thomas Collection at The Gnosis Archive]
+
*[http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl_thomas.htm Thomas Collection at The Gnosis Archive]. ''www.gnosis.org''.  
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*[http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/gospel-of-st-thomas.htm Gospel of St. Thomas] - Lost book of the Bible? (Christian apologetics)
+
*[http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html Patterson-Meyer Translation]. ''www.gnosis.org.''
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*[http://www.westarinstitute.org/Polebridge/Title/ThomasJesus/thomasjesus.html The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus]
+
*[http://www.gospelofthomas.info/ Hugh McGregor Ross' translation and commentary]. ''www.gospelofthomas.info''.  
−
*[http://www.nag-hammadi.com/ The Nag Hammadi Library]
+
*[http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas.html Various Translations and Resources]. ''www.earlychristianwritings.com''.  
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*[http://christian-thinktank.com/gthomas.html An examination of the Gospel of Thomas by a Christian apologetics thinktank]
 
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===Translations===
 
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*[http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html Patterson-Meyer Translation]
 
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*[http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/Trans.htm Patterson-Meyer Translation]
 
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*[http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html Thomas Lambdin Translation]
 
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*[http://home.epix.net/~miser17/Thomas.html Various Translations]
 
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*[http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gth_pat_rob.htm Patterson and Robinson Translation]
 
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*[http://www.goodnewsinc.net/othbooks/thomas.html Brill Literal Translation]
 
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*[http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9068/ Coptic Interlineal Gospel of Thomas]
 
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*[http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas.html Gospel of Thomas - Many Translations and Resources]
 
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===Translations with commentaries===
 
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*[http://www.gospelofthomas.info/ Hugh McGregor Ross' translation and commentary]
 
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*[http://www.murple.net/thomas Gospel of Thomas with detailed comparisons with canonical sayings]
 
  
 
[[Category:philosophy and religion]]
 
[[Category:philosophy and religion]]
 
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Latest revision as of 20:09, 11 September 2021

Part of a series on
Gnosticism
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History of Gnosticism

Gnosticism
History of Gnosticism
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Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism
Sethians
Thomasines
Valentinians
Basilideans
Bardaisanites

Proto-Gnostics
Philo
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Cerinthus
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Fathers of Christian Gnosticism
Theudas
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Early Gnosticism
Ophites
Cainites
Carpocratians
Borborites
Thomasines

Medieval Gnosticism
Paulicianism
Tondrakians
Bogomilism
Bosnian Church
Catharism

Gnosticism in modern times
Gnosticism in popular culture

Gnostic texts
Nag Hammadi library
Codex Tchacos
Gnosticism and the New Testament
Gnostic Gospels

Related articles
Gnosis
Pythagoreanism
Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
Esoteric Christianity
Theosophy

The Gospel of Thomas is an important but long lost work of the New Testament Apocrypha, completely preserved in a Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Unlike the four canonical gospels, which combine substantial narrative accounts of the life of Jesus with his sayings, Thomas is a "sayings gospel" with little narrative text. It is attributed to the apostle Didymus Judas Thomas.

“ When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?" ”

While believed by many scholars to have been written quite early, its theological perspective is markedly different from the biblical gospels in that the resurrection of Jesus plays no part in it, and it emphasizes a mystical understanding of Jesus' teachings, rather than the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist.

The Gospel of Thomas comprises 114 sayings of Jesus. Some of these sayings resemble or are identical to those found in the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Many, however, were unknown until the gospel's discovery.

The work begins with the words, "These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down. And he said, 'Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.'"

Since its discovery, the Gospel of Thomas has been a major source of discussion and controversy among biblical scholars. Some believe it to have inspired a major group of first century Christians and that the gospels of Luke and John were written in part to refute its teachings. Others consider it to have been written in the mid to late second century as part of the heretical movement of Gnosticism. A good deal of discussion has also been devoted to the relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the hypothetical Q document, a collection of Jesus' sayings which many scholars believe was used in both Matthew and Luke.

Importance

The Gospel of Thomas is regarded by some as the single most important find in understanding early Christianity outside the New Testament. It offers a window into the world view of ancient culture, as well as the debates and struggles within the early Christian community.

The Gospel of Thomas is certainly one of the earliest accounts of the teaching of Jesus outside of the canonical gospels, and so is considered a valuable text by biblical scholars of all persuasions. It claims to contain special revelations and parables made known only to the apostle Thomas.

Some scholars hold that the Gospel of John tells the story of "Doubting Thomas" both to dramatize the physical nature of Jesus' resurrection and to denigrate those who adhered to the attitude presented in the Gospel of Thomas.

Furthermore, most readers are struck by the fact that this gospel makes no mention of Jesus' resurrection, a crucial point of faith among Christians. Nor does it emphasize the salvific value of Jesus' death on the cross or the sacraments of baptism and communion. Instead, it portrays Jesus' role as primarily that of guide and teacher, providing the special knowledge needed for each person to attain the Christhood that he himself manifested.

“ Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death. ”

Some scholars consider the Gospel of Thomas to be a Gnostic text, since it emphasizes the importance of spiritual knowledge (Greek: gnosis) and was found among a collection of other, more clearly gnostic texts. Others reject this interpretation, however, because Thomas lacks the full-blown mythology of Gnosticism as described by such Church Fathers as Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 185). Many consider it a "proto-gnostic" work, affirming the basic Gnostic belief that only the true knowledge of Jesus' teaching enables one to realize his or her own inner Christhood, but not promoting a formal Gnostic cosmology found in later gnostic texts. In this view, later Gnostic Christianity may have had its roots in the "Thomas community."

The Gospel of Thomas also differs from the synoptic gospel and the Gospel of John in terms of whom it looks to for leadership. The synoptics make it clear that Saint Peter is to be the central figure of the church after Jesus' death. Thus Jesus gives the keys to the Kingdom of God to Peter and announces "on this rock I will build my church." In John, Peter and John are the two chief disciples. In Thomas' gospel, the figure of Thomas conveys Jesus' teachings to the reader, but, surprisingly, none of Jesus' 12 original followers is to be the leader of the church after his death. Rather it is "James the Just," the leader of the Jerusalem church in the Book of Acts, referred to as "the Lord's brother." James also seems to have a significance beyond mere leadership. As verse 12 puts it: "The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you will leave us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "Wherever you are, you are to go to James the Just. For his sake heaven and earth came into being."

No major Christian church accepts this gospel as canonical or authoritative. However, the Jesus Seminar, an association of noted biblical scholars, includes it as the "Fifth Gospel" in its deliberation on the historical Jesus. Virtually all biblical scholars recognize it as an important work for understanding the theoretical ''Q'' document, a collection of sayings and teachings used by Matthew and Luke but absent from Mark and John. The fact that Thomas is a "sayings gospel" tends to confirm the theory of Q's existence and has stimulated much discussion on the relationship between Thomas and Q.

Philosophy and theology

The gospel of Thomas begins, "These are the sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded." The words "Didymos" (Greek) and "Thomas" (The Aramaic: Tau'ma) both mean "Twin" and may be titles rather than names. Some scholars speculate that he is called the "twin" of Jesus to denote a spiritual unity between the disciple and his master, as referenced in Thomas v. 13, where Jesus says, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drank and become drunk from the very same spring from which I draw."

Did you know?
The Gospel of Thomas emphasizes salvation through understanding the words of Jesus

A central theme of the Gospel of Thomas is that salvation comes through true understanding of the words of Jesus, rather than through faith in his resurrection or partaking in the sacraments of the church. This, and the fact that it is a "sayings" gospel with very little description of the activities of Jesus and no reference to his crucifixion and resurrection, is what distinguishes this gospel from the four canonical gospels.

In the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus is the Messiah who has come to earth to die for our sins that we might be saved through by faith in his resurrection. The Gospel of John adds that Jesus is a divine heir of the godhead and places particular emphasis on the sacrament of holy communion. In Thomas' gospel, on the other hand, Jesus is primarily a teacher and a spiritual role model. One is not saved by faith in him, but by understanding his teachings and realizing the potential to attain Christhood, just as Jesus did.

“ When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer… and when you make male and female into a single one… then you will enter [the kingdom]. ”

The Gospel of Thomas is thus more mystical than the canonical gospels and emphasizes a direct and unmediated experience of the Divine. While in John Jesus stresses the sacraments and says "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day," in Thomas, Jesus emphasizes his teaching of spiritual truth and says, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him." (Thomas 108) In Thomas v.3, Jesus says, "… the Kingdom of God is within you." This saying also found in Luke 17:21, but in Thomas' gospel it is a consistent and central theme.

Elaine Pagels, one of the pre-eminent scholars of the Gospel of Thomas, argued in her book Beyond Belief that Thomas was widely read in the early church and that portions of both Luke's and John's gospels were designed specifically to refute its viewpoint. John in particular goes out of the way to prove that Jesus' resurrection was physical. It has long been thought by biblical scholars that the story of Doubting Thomas served to refute those Christians who believed the resurrection was spiritual and not physical, but in Pagels' view it is no coincidence that Thomas happens to be the one disciple who adamantly doubts the resurrection and must have it demonstrated to him in graphic, indeed gruesome, detail (John 20:24-30). She concludes that Thomas gives us a rare glimpse into the diversity of beliefs in the early Christian community, and a check on what many modern Christians take for granted as being "heretical."

Relation to other works

Map shows the location of Nag Hammadi, where the complete text of the Gospel of Thomas was discovered in 1945.

When the Coptic version of the complete text of Thomas was found at Nag Hammadi, scholars realized for the first time that three separate Greek portions of this gospel had already been discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, in 1898. The manuscripts bearing the Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas have been dated to about 200 C.E., and a manuscript of the Coptic version to about 340 C.E.

“ I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart. ”

The Gospel of Thomas is distinct and not directly related to other apocryphal or pseudepigraphal works that bear Thomas' name, such as the Acts of Thomas or the work called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which expands on the canonical texts to describe the miraculous childhood of Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas is also distinct from the Book of Thomas the Contender, a more clearly Gnostic text.

In the fourth century, Church Father Cyril of Jerusalem mentioned a "Gospel of Thomas" in his Cathechesis V, saying: "Let none read the gospel according to Thomas, for it is the work, not of one of the twelve apostles, but of one of Mani's three wicked disciples." It is possible that he refers to the Gospel of Thomas discussed in this article, although Manichaean dualism is hard to detect in it.

The text of the Gospel of Thomas has been available to the general public since 1975. It has been translated, published and annotated in several languages. The original version is the property of Egypt's Department of Antiquities. The first photographic edition was published in 1956, and its first critical analysis appeared in 1959.

Date of Composition

There is much debate about when the text was composed, with scholars generally falling into two main camps: an early camp favoring a date prior to the gospels of Luke and John, possibly as early as the mid-50s C.E, and a late camp favoring a time well after the last of the canonical gospels, probably in the mid-100s C.E.

The early camp

Pagels (2003) argues that both John's and Luke's gospels contain passages designed to refute the "Thomas Christians" who believed that true followers of Jesus could attain Christhood equal to that of Jesus himself.

“ If spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty. ”

Thomas does not mention the physical resurrection and Jesus acknowledges that Thomas, the ideal disciple, no longer needs his teaching. However, in John's gospel, Thomas physically touches the resurrected Jesus and them humbly acknowledges Jesus as "my Lord and my God." (John 20:28) Likewise, in the Gospel of Luke, the resurrected Jesus goes out of his way to prove that he is not a mere spirit, saying "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." (Luke 24:38) To further prove the physical nature of the resurrection, Luke portrays Jesus as eating a meal with the disciples, specifying that he ate a broiled fish in their presence.

Some in the "early camp" claim that the Gospel of Thomas is closely related to the hypothetical Q document, a collection of sayings found in Matthew and Luke, but absent from the Gospel of Mark. Others in the early camp—those who argue for a date sometime in the 50s—see common themes in Paul's epistles and Thomas which are absent from the canonical gospels. According to this theory, Paul drew on sayings widely recognized to have come from Jesus, some which are uniquely preserved in the Gospel of Thomas.

The early camp also notes that Thomas reflects very little of the full-blown Valentinian Gnosticism seen in many of the other texts in the cache of manuscripts found at Nag Hammadi. It thus represents a kind of proto-gnosticism, reflecting a time when the Christian community had not yet divided between the groups who later became known as gnostic and orthodox Christians.

The late camp

The late camp, on the other hand, dates Thomas sometime after 100 C.E., generally in the mid-second century. Some argue that Thomas is dependent on the Diatessaron, which was composed shortly after 172 C.E.. Moreover, the Greek fragments of Thomas found in Egypt are typically dated between 140 and 200 C.E..

Noted biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman, in Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the Millennium, argued that the historical Jesus was a failed apocalyptic preacher, and that his fervent apocalyptic beliefs are recorded in the earliest Christian documents, namely Mark and the authentic Pauline epistles. The earliest Christians, still clinging to Jesus' apocalyptic teaching, believed Jesus would soon return, and their beliefs are echoed in the earliest Christian writings. As the Second Coming did not materialize, later gospels, such as Luke and John, deemphasized an imminent end of the world. Likewise, many sayings in the Gospel of Thomas treat the idea of the imminent end of the world as a profoundly mistaken view, emphasizing that the real Kingdom of God is within the human heart. Such a viewpoint implies a late date.

“ If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you. ”

Another argument put forth by the late camp is an argument from redaction. Under the most commonly accepted solution to the Synoptic problem, Matthew and Luke both used Mark as well as a lost sayings collection called Q to compose their gospels. Sometimes Matthew and Luke modified the wording of their source, Mark (or Q), and the modified text is known as redaction. Proponents of the late camp argue that some of this secondary redaction created by Matthew and Luke shows up in Thomas, which means that Thomas was written after Matthew and Luke were composed. Since Matthew and Luke are generally thought to have been composed in the 80s and 90s, Thomas would have to be composed later than that.

Various other arguments are presented countered by both camps.

Notable quotations

All quotations are from the translation of Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer from the The Nag Hammadi Library collection at www.gnosis.org:

  • 1. "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
  • 3. Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
  • 13. … And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
  • 17. Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."
  • 22. Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one… then you will enter [the kingdom]."
  • 29. Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty."
  • 37. His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?" Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes…, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."
  • 67. Jesus said, "Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking."
  • 92. Jesus said, "Seek and you will find. In the past, however, I did not tell you the things about which you asked me then. Now I am willing to tell them, but you are not seeking them."
  • 101. "Whoever does not hate [father] and mother as I do cannot be my [disciple], and whoever does [not] love [father and] mother as I do cannot be my [disciple]. For my mother […], but my true [mother] gave me life."
  • 113. His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Davis, Stevan L. and Andrew Harvey. The Gospel of Thomas: Annotated & Explained. Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002. ISBN 978-1893361454
  • Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew..Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition, 2005. ISBN 978-0195182491
  • Funk, Robert. The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the AUTHENTIC Words of Jesus. HarperOne, 1997. ISBN 978-0060630409
  • Johnson, Luke Timothy. Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity: A Missing Dimension in New Testament Study. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1998. ISBN 978-0800631291
  • Pagels, Elaine. Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas. Pan Books; New Ed edition, 2005. ISBN 978-0330431972
  • Patterson, Stephen J. The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas Comes of Age. Trinity Press International, 1998. ISBN 978-1563382499

External links

All links retrieved June 27, 2017.

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