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The Gospel of Thomas (see Online Text) is a Christian gospel whose authority (and authorship) was attributed to the apostle Thomas.

Overview

The Gospel of Thomas was rediscovered (in a Coptic version) near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945. It was first published in a photographic edition in 1956, followed three years later (1959) by the first English-language translation, with Coptic transcription. After the rediscovery of the Coptic version some fragmentary texts were identified as evidence of the (original?) Greek version of the Gospel of Thomas.

Unlike Mark, Luke, Matthew and John, the Gospel of Thomas is not a narrative account of the Life of Jesus, but similarly to the structure of Q Gospel, is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus.

The work was attributed to Thomas:

"These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down."

Its place of composition may have been Syria.

Apart from a possible allusion to the death of Jesus in logion 65 (in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, paralleled in the Synoptic Gospels), the work does not mention his crucifixion, his resurrection, or the final judgment; nor does it mention a messianic understanding of Jesus.

The work was not included in the New Testament as its authority was disputed among the Church Fathers.

Main Themes

An early witness of the teaching of Jesus

Almost half of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas resemble those found in the Canonical Gospels,

In many cases the Gospel of Thomas seems to have preserved a version of the sayings of Jesus earlier than the Synoptics:

Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen -- Thomas (65-66) // see Gospel of Mark (12:1-12), Gospel of Matthew (21:33-46), Gospel of Luke (20:9-19)

Very ofter however the sayings are given a "proto-Gnostic" turn:

Thomas 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."

Thomas as recipient of secret knowledge

Thomas is presented as the recipient of secret knowledge from Jesus:

Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like:

Simon Peter [=Gospel of Mark] said to him: You are like a righteous angel.

Matthew [=Gospel of Matthew] said to him: You are like a wise philosopher.

Thomas said to him: "My mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like." And Jesus took him and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him. "What did Jesus say to you?" "If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up” (13)

See Secret Knowledge in Christianity.

From the Jewish Messiah to a pagan God

The first Christians saw in Jesus the Messiah Son of Man who came as a forgiver and would return as the final judge. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus is fully divine. His divinity however is expressed in Hellenistic terms. The Jewish concept of creation is set aside; Jesus is a bodily manifestation of the divine essence of the universe.

“I am he who exists from the undivided. I was given some of the things of my father” (61).

“It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the call, From me did the All come forth, and unto me did the All extend, Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there” (77).

“The images are manifest to man, but the light in them remains concealed in the image of the light of the Father. He will become manifest, but his image will remain concealed by his light” (83).

“I took my place in the midst of the world and I appeared to them in flesh…” (28)

The kingdom of God as a mystical experience

According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus announced the coming of the Kingdom of God as an (imminent) future event.

The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news (Mk 1:14)

Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power (Mk 9:1)

In the Gospel of Luke, the kingdom becomes both a future event and a present one, as Pauline Christians saw in the Church a reality that prefigured the future kingdom:

If it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Lk 11:20). Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming and he answered: "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is! or, There it is! For in fact the Kingdom of God is among you” (Lk 17:20-21).

In the Gospel of Thomas, the Kingdom lost its temporal and collective features; it is a mystical and individual experience:

“His disciples said to him, ‘When will the kingdom come?’ [Jesus said:] “It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘here it is’ or ‘there it is’. Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it” (113).

“Jesus said, If those who lead you say to you, See 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 kingdom is inside of you and is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father” (3)

No male nor female

“When you make the two one and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same… then will you enter the kingdom” (22). “Every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of God” (114)

Text, editions, translations

History of research

Related categories

• Thomas

External links

• Wikipedia

• Early Christian Writings