Part of a series on Gnosticism

History of Gnosticism Early Gnosticism Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism Gnosticism in modern times Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Image File history File links Simple_crossed_circle. ... The History of Gnosticism is subject to a great deal of debate and interpretation. ... Early Gnosticism Ophites Cainites Carpocratians Borborites Thomasines ... Syrian-Egyptian Gnostic Schools were ancient Gnostic sects from around the middle east, with some Judaic influences. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Proto-Gnostics Philo Valentinius Cerinthus Basilides The death of Simon Magus. ... Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), known also as Philo of Alexandria and as Philo Judaeus And as Yedidia, was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ... -Quevedo Valentinius, also called Valentinus (c. ... Cerinthus was the leader of a late first-century or early 2nd century sect, an offshoot of the Ebionites yet similar to Gnosticism in some respects, interesting in that it demonstrates the wide range of conclusions that could be drawn from the life and teachings of Jesus. ... Basilides redirects here. ...

Gnostic texts Gnostic Gospels Nag Hammadi library Codex Tchacos Bruce Codex Gnosticism and the New Testament Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts or are lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings. ... The Gnostic Gospels are a class of writings about the life of Jesus which are associated with the early mystical trend of Gnostic Christianity. ... The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts discovered near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. ... The Codex Tchacos is an ancient Egyptian Coptic papyrus document containing early Christian Gnostic texts: The Gospel of Judas The First Apocalypse of James The Letter of Peter to Philip A fragment of Allogenes It is important because it contains the first known surviving text of the Gospel of Judas... The Bruce Codex (also called the Codex Brucianus) is a gnostic manuscript acquired by the British Museum. ... This article discusses the relationship between Gnosticism and the New Testament. ...

Related articles Gnosis Pythagoreanism Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Manichaeism Esoteric Christianity Theosophy This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Bust of Pythagoras Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were much influenced by mathematics and probably a main inspirational source for Plato and platonism. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Manichean priests, writing at their desk, with panel inscription in Sogdian. ... In fashion then as of a snow-white rose Displayed itself to me the saintly host, Whom Christ in his own blood had made his bride - The Divine Comedy, Paradiso, Canto XXXI “Esoteric Christianity” is a term which refers to an ensemble of spiritual currents which regard Christianity as a... Theosophy is a word and a concept known anciently, commonly understood in the modern era to describe the studies of religious philosophy and metaphysics originating with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky from the 1870s. ... This box: view • talk • edit

The Gospel of Thomas (full name The Gospel According to Thomas (in Coptic, p.euaggelion p.kata.cwmas)) is a New Testament-era apocryphon nearly completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The text is in the form of a codex bound in a method now called Coptic binding. It was written for a school of early Christians who claimed the Apostle Thomas as their founder and does not have a narrative framework, nor is it worked into any overt philosophical or rhetorical context. Unlike the four canonical gospels, which are structured as narrative accounts of the life of Jesus, Thomas is a "logia or sayings Gospel" with short dialogues and sayings attributed to Jesus. The writer is credited in the incipit as "Didymus Judas Thomas". The words "Didymus" (Greek) and "Thomas" (Hebrew) both mean "twin" and the name Judas (or Jude) is a derivative of Judah. In the process of determining the Biblical canon, a large number of works were excluded from the New Testament. ... Apocryphon (secret writing), plural apocrypha, was a Greek term for a genre of Jewish and Early Christian writings that were meant to impart secret teachings or gnosis that could not be publicly taught. ... For other uses, see Papyrus (disambiguation). ... The Coptic language is a direct descendant of the ancient Egyptian language which was once written in Egyptian hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic scripts. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... The town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt Nag Hammâdi (Arabic نجع حمادي; transliterated: Naj Hammādi) (26°03′N 32°15′E), is a town in the middle of Egypt, called Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor with some 30,000 citizens. ... First page of the Codex Argenteus A codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural codices) is a handwritten book, in general, one produced from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages. ... Coptic binding is a bookbinding method that was used by the Copts in the 3rd and 4th centuries CE for the gospel of Thomas and other Gnostic manuscripts found in 1945, buried in a jar near the Egyptian village of Nag Hammadi. ... // Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Relation to other religions Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Christianity Portal This box:      Early Christianity is the Christianity of the three centuries between the death of Jesus ( 30) and the First Council of Nicaea (325). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Jude Thomas. ... Philosophy (from the Greek words philos and sophia meaning love of wisdom) is understood in different ways historically and by different philosophers. ... Rhetoric (from Greek , rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art or technique of persuasion through the use of oral, visual, or written language; however, this definition of rhetoric has expanded greatly since rhetoric emerged as a field of study in universities. ... Gospel, from the Old English good tidings is a calque of Greek () used in the New Testament (see Etymology below). ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Logia is a term applied to collections of sayings credited to Jesus and used as source materials by the Gospel writers in the writing of the familiar canonic narrative gospels. ... The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is its first few words or opening line. ...

The work comprises 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. Some of these sayings resemble those found in the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Others were unknown until its discovery, and Christian scholars assert that a small number are incompatible with sayings in the four canonical gospels. No major Christian group accepts this gospel as canonical or authoritative. A biblical canon is a list of Biblical books which establishes the set of books which are considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular Jewish or Christian community. ... The Gospel of Matthew (literally, according to Matthew; Greek, Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον, Kata Maththaion or Kata Matthaion) is a synoptic gospel in the New Testament, one of four canonical gospels. ... The Gospel of Mark, anonymous[1] but traditionally ascribed to Mark the Evangelist, is a synoptic gospel of the New Testament. ... The Gospel of Luke (literally, according to Luke; Greek, Κατά Λουκαν, Kata Loukan) is a synoptic Gospel, and the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament. ... For other uses, see Gospel of John (disambiguation). ...

When this Coptic version of the complete text of Thomas was found, scholars realized that three separate portions of a Greek version of it had already been discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, in 1898. The manuscripts bearing the Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas (P. Oxy. I 1; IV 654; IV 655) have been dated to between AD 200 and AD 250^[1], with one Greek fragment predating AD 200 ^[2]; the manuscript of the Coptic version dates 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, itself recorded from an earlier oral version. Oxyrhynchus (Greek: Οξύρυγχος; sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian Per-Medjed; modern Egyptian Arabic el-Bahnasa) is an archaeological site in Egypt, considered one of the most important ever discovered. ... Year 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... It has been suggested that Oxyrhynchus be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see number 200. ... Events Diophantus writes Arithmetica the first systematic treatise on algebra. ... Events Constantine II attacks his brother Constans near Aquileia, aiming for sole control of the western half of the Roman Empire, but is defeated. ...

The original text was published in photographic facsimile in 1975. The James M. Robinson translation was first published in 1977, as part of The Nag Hammadi Library in English, (E.J. Brill and Harper & Row).^[3] The Gospel of Thomas has been translated and annotated in several languages. The original manuscript 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.^[4] James M. Robinson is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. ...

Attestation

The earliest surviving written references to the Gospel of Thomas are found in the writings of Hippolytus (c. 222-235) and Origen (c. 233).^[5] Hippolytus wrote in his Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.20: Statue of Hippolytus, 3rd century. ... Origen Origen (Greek: Ōrigénēs, 185–ca. ... Events Roman Emperor Alexander Severus wins a war against the Persians. ... The Refutation of All Heresies is a compendious Christian polemical work of the early third century, now generally attributed to Hippolytus of Rome. ...

"[The Naassenes] speak...of a nature which is both hidden and revealed at the same time and which they call the thought-for kingdom of heaven which is in a human being. They transmit a tradition concerning this in the Gospel entitled "According to Thomas," which states expressly, "The one who seeks me will find me in children of seven years and older, for there, hidden in the fourteenth aeon, I am revealed."

This appears to be a reference to saying 4 of Thomas.

Origen listed the "Gospel according to Thomas" heterodox apocryphal gospels in Hom. in Luc. 1. In the 4th and 5th centuries, various Church Fathers wrote that the Gospel of Thomas was highly valued by Mani. In the 4th century, Cyril of Jerusalem mentioned a "Gospel of Thomas" twice in his Catechesis: "The Manichæans also wrote a Gospel according to Thomas, which being tinctured with the fragrance of the evangelic title corrupts the souls of the simple sort."^[6] and "Let none read the Gospel according to Thomas: for it is the work not of one of the twelve Apostles, but of one of the three wicked disciples of Manes."^[7] The 5th century Decretum Gelasanium wrote "A Gospel attributed to Thomas which the Manichaean use" among a list of heretical books.^[8] Heterodoxy includes any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position.[1] As an adjective, heterodox is used to describe a subject as characterized by departure from accepted beliefs or standards (status quo). ... Mani (in Persian: مانی, Syriac: ) was born of Iranian (Parthian) parentage in Babylon, Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) which was a part of Persian Empire about 210-276 CE. He was a religious preacher and the founder of Manichaeism, an ancient Persian gnostic religion that was once prolific but is now extinct. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... Cyril of Jerusalem was a distinguished theologian of the early Church ( 315 - 386). ...

Corresponding Oxyrhynchus papyri

Prior to the Nag Hammadi library discovery, the sayings of Jesus found in Oxyrhynchus were known simply as Logia Iesu. The corresponding Koine Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, all dated to c. 200,^[9] found in Oxyrhynchus are: Logia is a term applied to collections of sayings credited to Jesus and used as source materials by the Gospel writers in the writing of the familiar canonic narrative gospels. ... Koine redirects here. ... Oxyrhynchus (Greek: Οξύρυγχος; sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian Per-Medjed; modern Egyptian Arabic el-Bahnasa) is an archaeological site in Egypt, considered one of the most important ever discovered. ...

• P.Oxy. 1: fragments of logia 26 through 33, and logia 77 (ordered: 26-30, 77, 31-33).
• 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.
• 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.

Surveyor at work with a leveling instrument. ...

Date of Composition

There has been considerable disagreement much about when the text was composed, with scholars generally falling into two main camps: an early camp favoring a date between the years 50 and 100, approximately before or contemporary to the composition of the canonical gospels and a late camp favoring a date in the 2nd century, after composition of the canonical gospels .^[10] The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...

The early camp

Those who argue that Thomas dates from the first century use a variety of arguments:

Form of the gospel

Theissen and Merz argue the genre of a collection of sayings was one of the earliest forms in which material about Jesus was handed down.^[11] They assert that other collections of sayings, such as the Q document and the collection underlying Mark 4, were absorbed into larger narratives and no longer survive as independent documents, and that no later collections in this form survive.^[11] Meyer also asserts that the genre of a "sayings collection" is indicative of the first century,^[1] and that in particular the "use of parables without allegorical amplification" seems to antedate the canonical gospels.^[1] The Q document or Q (from the German Quelle, source) is a postulated lost textual source for the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke. ... Mark 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. ...

Independence from Synoptic Gospels

Stevan L. Davies provides statistical evidence that the lack of order with the synoptics shows that Thomas was most likely not reliant upon the canonical Gospels and probably predated them.^[12] A number of authors argue that when the logia in Thomas do have parallels in the synoptics the version in Thomas often seems closer to the source. Theissen and Merz give sayings 31 and 65 as examples of this.^[11] Similary Earl Doherty argues that when the Gospel of Thomas does parallel Q or the New Testament, it shows a less developed, more "primitive" or "original" form than the latter. [1] Koester agrees, citing especially the parables contained in sayings 8, 9, 57, 63, 64 and 65.^[2] In the few instances where the version in Thomas seems to be dependent on the Synoptics, Koester suggests, this may be due to the influence of the person who translated the text from Greek into Coptic.^[2] For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ...

Koester also argues that the absence of narrative materials (such as those found in the canonical gospels) in Thomas makes it unlikely that the gospel is "an eclectic excerpt from the gospels of the "New Testament". ^[2] He also cites the absence of the eschatological sayings characteristic of Q to show the independence of Thomas from that source.^[2]

Independence from John's gospel

Another argument for the early date (originally brought forward as the central argument of Elaine Pagels' book Beyond Belief The Secret Gospel of Thomas) is that there seems to be conflict between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas. Certain passages in the Gospel of John can only be understood in light of a community based on the theological teachings of the Gospel of Thomas. John is the only one of the Canonical Gospels that gives Thomas a speaking part - indicating respect for the Thomas community. This is because the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas are theologically similar in almost every respect except one. In the story of Doubting Thomas, the Johannine Community is theologically rebutting the Thomas community. The Johannine Community believes in a bodily resurrection; Thomas community believes in a spiritual resurrection — and completely rejects a bodily resurrection. So the Gospel of John has Thomas physically touch the risen Jesus and acknowledges his bodily nature. Her interpretation of John requires that a Thomas community existed when John's Gospel was written. Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey, (born February 13, 1943), is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. ... The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio. ...

Role of James

Albert Hogeterp argues that the Gospel's saying 12, which attributes leadership of the community to James the Just rather than to Peter, agrees with the description of the early Jerusalem church by Paul in Galatians 2:1-14, and may reflect a tradition predating AD 70.^[13] Meyer also lists "uncertainty about James the righteous, the brother of Jesus" as characteristic of a first century origin.^[1] Saint James the Just (יעקב Holder of the heel; supplanter; Standard Hebrew Yaʿaqov, Tiberian Hebrew Yaʿăqōḇ, Greek Iάκωβος), also called James Adelphotheos, James, 1st Bishop of Jerusalem, or James, the Brother of the Lord[1] and sometimes identified with James the Less, (died AD 62) was an important figure...

Parallel with Paul

According to Meyer, Thomas's saying 17: "I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard and no hand has touched, and what has not come into the human heart", is strikingly similar to Paul's description of the beliefs of the Corinthians he criticizes in 1 Corinthians 2:9.^[1] Paul of Tarsus (b. ...

Other arguments

Joseph B. Lumpkin makes reference to Thomas' journey into India. In the books The Tao of Thomas and The Gospel of Thomas Lumpkin states that the flavor of The Gospel of Thomas may not be Gnostic at all but may instead be a list of sayings penned after Thomas was exposed to the Eastern wisdom found in Asia Minor. If exposure to Eastern mysticism influenced Thomas' understanding of Jesus' words the result could be interpreted as Gnosticism. Lumpkin goes on to state that in his opinion the Gospel of Thomas could have been written prior to the Gospel of Mark. Mark's writings are seen as the seed document to the other gospels found in the New Testament, but the fact that Thomas does not follow Mark's pattern may suggest it was written prior to or in isolation from Mark. ^[14]

The Ecumenical Coptic Project ^[15] points out in its annotated translation that the grammatic construction of the Coptic and Greek texts suggest they are from translations of an earlier text and not directly from an oral tradition. This hypothesis is derived from the presence in the text of several instances of a "asyndeton, or omission of conjunctions, characterizing the Semitic and Hamitic languages, but not Indo-European— thus signaling an original Hebrew or Aramaic text underlying the Greek, from which Coptic Thomas was in turn translated; see P338 and Matthew Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts: ‘Asyndeton is, on the whole, contrary to the spirit of the Greek language ... but is highly characteristic of Aramaic’."^[16]

The late camp

The late camp, on the other hand, dates Thomas sometime after 100, generally in the mid-2nd century, and the theory of Nicholas Perrin argues that Thomas is dependent on the Syriac Diatessaron, which was composed shortly after 172^[17]. Pliny the Younger advances to consulship. ... The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... Tatians Diatessaron was one of a number of harmonies of the four Gospels, that is, the material of the four distinct Gospels rewritten as a continuous narrative resolving all conflicting statements. ... Events Last (5th) year of Jianning era and start of Xiping era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. ...

Bart Ehrman, (in Jesus Apocalyptic Prophet of the Millennium) argues that the Jesus of history was a failed 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. Bart D. Ehrman is a New Testament Scholar and an expert on Early Christianity. ... Look up Apocalypse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

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 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. BCE redirects here. ...

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."

The Gospel of Thomas and the canon of the New Testament

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." Marcion of Sinope (ca. ... The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian work of the first or second century which had great authority in ancient times and was considered by some as one of the books of the Bible. ... Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ... On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis, commonly called Against Heresies (Latin: Adversus haereses), is a five volume work written by St. ... Among Christians, the Muratorian fragment is known as a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of New Testament books that were accepted as canonical by the churches known to its anonymous compiler. ... Bruce Metzger pictured on the cover of his autobiography Reminiscences of an Octogenarian Bruce Manning Metzger (born 1914) is a professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who serves on the board of the American Bible Society. ...

It should be noted that information about the historical Jesus itself was not a singular criterion for inclusion into the New Testament Canon. Not all of the books that ended up in the New Testament contain information about the historical Jesus nor teachings from the historical Jesus, such as the Epistles and the book of Revelation.

The Gospel of Thomas may have been excluded from the canon of the New Testament because it may have been believed to be:

• not have been written close to the time of Jesus
• not have been written by apostolic authority or was forged in Thomas' name
• not used by multiple churches over a wide geographic range
• heretical or unorthodox^[18]

The Theology of the Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas begins, "These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas recorded." Both the words "Didymos" (Greek) and "Thomas" (Hebrew) mean "Twin" and are not actually names. Rather the author's surname is Judas or Jude, who is — according to Catholic Church tradition — the Apostle Jude who is credited as having penned the canonical Epistle of Jude and is also called the Apostle Thomas to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. This is the same Apostles who — in the Gospel of John — is referred to as "Thomas who is called Didymos." For other uses, see Saint Jude (disambiguation). ... Thomas was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. ... For other uses, see Judas. ... For other uses, see Gospel of John (disambiguation). ...

According to the ancient Thomasian tradition, the author of the gospel had the unique position of being Jesus' twin brother. Though, in the Gospel of Thomas, this is clearly supposed to indicate a spiritual relationship; in other related pieces of Thomasian literature (such as the Book of Thomas the Contender and the Acts of Thomas — even in the canonical Epistle of Jude — which was not from the same sect) this relationship is supposed to be taken both spiritually and literally. The Book of Thomas the Contender, also known more simply as the Book of Thomas (though this must not be confused with the quite different Gospel of Thomas), is one of the books of the New Testament apocrypha. ... The early 3rd century text called Acts of Thomas is arguably the most Gnostic of the New Testament apocrypha, portraying Christ as the Heavenly Redeemer, independent of and beyond creation, who can free souls from the darkness of the world. ...

The introduction also says, "These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke..." By using the word "secret" the author is telling you that these sayings are not for everyone's ears. These are the secret teachings that are only for a special chosen few — the solitary elect or monachos in Greek (which is where we get the word "Monk" from). Furthermore, they are the "secret" teachings of the "living Jesus." The term living Jesus is to distinguish the dualism of the mortal man — Jesus of Nazareth — and the immortal divine being living inside him. The living Jesus would be a pre-existent godly being conceptually similar to the Logos in the Gospel of John. This article is about logos (logoi) in ancient Greek philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, Theophilosophy, and Christianity. ...

The theological framework for the Gospel of Thomas is determined by its cosmological outlook. The cosmology of the Gospel of Thomas is extremely dualistic. For Thomas there are only two realms of existence: the material realm and the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm is a blissful reality of goodness, life, and light; it is the Kingdom of the Father. The material realm is a reality of evil, death, and darkness. From Thomas' point of view, the material world is the world of death ruled over by the Lion (possibly a reference to the lion-headed Yaldabaoth in classically Gnostic literature) and his minions or rulers. Cosmology, from the Greek: κοσμολογία (cosmologia, κόσμος (cosmos) order + λογια (logia) discourse) is the study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanitys place in it. ... The term Demiurge (or Yaldabaoth, Yao, Bythos and several other variants, such as Ptahil used in Mandaeanism) refers in some belief systems to a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. ... Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge) that only a few possess. ...

While most people in this material world, according to this ancient belief, are lifeless, soulless beings (little more than animated corpses) created to serve the Lion and his rulers; a few people are actually spiritual beings in disguise. These chosen few — though clothed in a mortal body — are actually immortal pre-existent beings of light and Children of the Living Father who have become intoxicated and fallen asleep under the weight of the material world and its vices. These solitary elect, upon hearing the words of the Living Jesus, will then shake off their slumber and — upon the death of the material body — will return to the Kingdom of the Father.

In this way, the theology of Thomas is not that different from the theological concepts within the canonical Gospel of John. In fact, in most ways the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas are very similar. However, this is where the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas part.

While the Gospel of John clearly has a strong accent on a future eschaton in which the risen Jesus overthrows the ruler of this world, Thomas believes that the eschaton is already happening. Also, while John clearly preaches the belief in a bodily resurrection, Thomas claims that the body will never inherit life. Rather, for Thomas, the resurrection is a spiritual one.

Perhaps the best summary of the theology of the Gospel of Thomas is found in the Hymn of the Pearl or the Hymn of the Apostle Thomas — which is found within the Acts of Thomas. The Hymn of the Pearl (also The Hymn of the Soul or The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle) is a passage of the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. ...

In the Hymn of the Pearl a young prince is sent by his father in the east (East, in antiquity, was seen as symbolic of light and life) to Egypt in the west (West was seen as symbolic of death) in which lies a great pearl guarded by the dragon. The prince puts on the clothes of the Egyptians, so as not to be recognized as a foreigner. However, the dragon learns of the prince and gets the prince to eat the heavy food of the Egyptians. After eating the Egyptian food the prince falls asleep and forgets who he is. He believes himself to be an Egyptian, when in fact he is really a prince from the East.

When the prince's father, the king, hears of his son's capture, he sends a personified message to his son reminding him who he is and where he is from. Upon hearing the message, the prince shakes off his drunkenness, defeats the dragon, takes the pearl, removes the Egyptian clothes and returns to his home in the East.

References

Riley, Gregory J (1995). Resurrection Reconsidered. Augsburg Fortress Publishers. ISBN 0800628462.

Riley, Gregory J (1997). One Jesus, Many Christs : How Jesus Inspired Not One True Christianity, but Many. Harper San Francisco. ISBN 006066790.

Riley, Gregory J (2003). River of God: A New History of Christian Origins. Harper San Francisco. ISBN 0060669802.

Layton, Bentley (1987). The Gnostic Scriptures. Doubleday. ISBN 0385478437.

Meyer, Marvin (2004). The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060655815.

The Philosophy of the Gospel of Thomas

In the Thomas gospel, Jesus is a spiritual teacher, and he is offering everyone the opportunity to live (Saying 4) a life that goes beyond death (Saying 1), to become the ruler of their own lives (Saying 2) and thus to know themselves (Saying 3) and their legacy of being the children of "the living Father" (Saying 3). These goals are presented in the image of "entering the Kingdom" by the methodology of insight that goes beyond duality. (Saying 22). The Gospel of Thomas shows no concern for doctrines such as "God", "original sin", "Christ", "divinity," etc.

The Gospel of Thomas is mystical and emphasizes a direct and unmediated experience of the truth of life. 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,^[19] Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ... The Self is a complex and core subject in many forms of spirituality. ... In spirituality, and especially nondual, mystical and eastern meditative traditions, the human being is often conceived as being in the illusion of individual existence, and separateness from other aspects of creation. ...

...the Kingdom of God is inside of you, and it 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. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty.

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?" For reasons unknown, Jesus' answer is found in v. 14 and he emphasizes that what is encountered in the world will not defile a person but what comes out from the mouth will.^[20] This is just one example in Thomas in which the hearer's attention is directed away from objectified judgements of the world to knowing oneself in direct and straighforward manner, which is sometimes called being "as a child" or "a little one" through the unification of our dualistic thinking and modes of objectification. (For example, Sayings 22^[21] and 37^[22]) To protray the breaking down of the dualistic perspective Jesus uses the image of fire which consumes all. (See, Sayings 10^[23] and 82^[24]).

The teaching of salvation (i.e., entering the Kingdom of Heaven) that is found in The Gospel of Thomas is neither that of "works" nor of "grace" as the dicotomy is found in the canonical gospels, but what might be called a third way, that of insight. The overriding concern of The Gospel of Thomas is to find the light within in order to be a light unto the world. (See for example, Sayings 24^[25], 26^[26])

In contrast to the Gospel of John, where Jesus is likened to a (divine and beloved) Lord as in ruler, 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 many other respects, the Thomas gospel offers terse yet familiar if not identical accounts of the sayings of Jesus as seen in the synoptic gospels.^[27]

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 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. Constantine. ... The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first Ecumenical council[1] of the early Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. ... Idealized portrait of Böhmes from Theosophia Revelata (1730) Jakob Böhme (1575–1624) was a Christian mystic born in central Germany, near Görlitz. ... Teresa of Avila by Peter Paul Rubens Saint Teresa of Avila (known in religion as Teresa de Jesús, baptised as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada) was a Spanish Roman Catholic mystic and monastic reformer; born at Avila (53 miles north-west of Madrid), Old Castile, March 28, 1515; died... Saint John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz) was a Spanish Carmelite friar, born on June 24, 1542 at Fontiveros, a small village near Avila. ... El Grecos rendition of John the Apostle shows the traditional author of the Johannine works as a young man. ...

The Gospel of Thomas's importance and author

The Gospel of Thomas is regarded by many scholars as one of the most important texts in understanding early Christianity outside the New Testament. It is one of the earliest accounts of the teaching of Jesus outside of the canonical gospels, and so is considered a valuable text.^[28] 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. Thomas was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. ...

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.^[29] The Q document (also called the Q Gospel, the Sayings Gospel Q, the Synoptic Sayings Source, and in the 19th century the Logia) comprises a hypothetical collection of Jesuss sayings, hypothesized in accordance with the two-source hypothesis to be a source of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. ...

Most scholars consider the Gospel of Thomas to be a gnostic text, since it was found in a library among other, it contains Gnostic themes, and perhaps presupposes a Gnostic worldview.^[30] Others reject this interpretation, because Thomas lacks the full-blown mythology of Gnosticism as described by Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 185). Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge) that only a few possess. ... St. ... For other uses, see number 185. ...

The Gospel of Thomas and the historical Jesus

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.^[31][32] Scholars may utilize one of a number of critical tools in biblical scholarship, the criterion of multiple attestation, to help build cases for historical reliability of the sayings of Jesus. 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.^[33] This article is about Jesus the man, using historical methods to reconstruct a biography of his life and times. ... This article is about the academic treatment of the bible as a historical document. ... The criterion of multiple attestation or independent attestation is a tool used by some Biblical scholars to help determine whether certain actions or sayings by Jesus in the New Testament are from Jesus or from the Church that followed. ...

The Gospel of Thomas has been used by Jesus Myth theorists, such as Earl Doherty and Timothy Freke, as evidence that Christianity did not originate with a historical Jesus, but as a Jewish adaptation of the Greek mystery religions. The collection of teachings attributed to Jesus represent part of the initiation to the mysteries of their religion. The Jesus-Myth is a historical theory usually associated with a skeptical position on the historicity of Jesus, which claims that Jesus did not exist as an historical figure. ... Earl Doherty, currently living in Canada, is the author of The Jesus Puzzle, a work published in 2000 by the Canadian Humanist Association arguing that Jesus never lived. ... The existence of Jesus, known by Christians as Jesus Christ (Jesus the Messiah) and by Muslims as Isa, is accepted by the followers of two world religions, Christianity and Islam, on the basis of their respective scriptures - the Bible and the Koran. ... Mystery religions, or simply Mysteries, were belief systems of the Graeco-Roman world full admission to which was restricted to those who had gone through certain secret initiation rites. ...

Comparison of The Gospel of Thomas to the New Testament

The Gospel of Thomas does not refer to Jesus as "Christ", "Lord", or "Son of Man" as the New Testament (and Q document) do, but simply as "Jesus."^[34] The Gospel of Thomas also lacks any mention Jesus' birth, baptism, miracles, travels, death, and resurrection.^[35] However, over half of the saying in Thomas are similar to sayings and parables found in the canonical gospels.^[36] The Q document or Q (from the German Quelle, source) is a postulated lost textual source for the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke. ...

The Gospel of Thomas does not list the canonical twelve apostles, 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; Thomas, who is taken aside and receives three points of revelation; Mary; and 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" — a Greek term that does not appear in Thomas — 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: Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Relation to other religions Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      For... Saint James the Just (יעקב Holder of the heel; supplanter; Standard Hebrew YaÊ¿aqov, Tiberian Hebrew Yaʿăqōḇ, Greek Iάκωβος), also called James Adelphotheos, James, 1st Bishop of Jerusalem, or James, the Brother of the Lord[1] and sometimes identified with James the Less, (died AD 62) was an important figure... According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside-down, as shown in this painting by Caravaggio. ... Matthew the Evangelist (מתי, Gift of the LORD, Standard Hebrew and Tiberian Hebrew: Mattay; Septuagint Greek: Ματθαίος, Matthaios), most often called Saint Matthew, is an important Christian figure, and one of Jesus Twelve Apostles. ... This article is about the disciple of Jesus. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

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."

Compare Thomas 8 SV

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!"

with Matthew 13:47–50 NIV:

⁴⁷"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. ⁴⁸When 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. ⁴⁹This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

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.

Another example is the parable of the lost sheep, which is paralleled by Matthew, Luke, John, and Thomas. The Parable of the Lost Sheep is a parable told by Jesus in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:3-7. ...

This is the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18:12–14 NIV

¹²"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? ¹³And 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. ¹⁴In 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

³Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴"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? ⁵And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' ⁷I 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 lost sheep discourse in John 10: 1-18 NIV

¹"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. ²The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. ⁷Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[1] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ¹¹"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The 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. ¹³The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I 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. ¹⁷The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. ¹⁸No 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."

Other parallels include

• Matthew 10:16 parallels Thomas 39.
• Matthew 10:37 parallels Thomas 55 and 101
• Matthew 10:27b parallels Thomas 33a.
• Matthew 10:34–36 parallels Thomas 16.
• 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: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, and The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Epistles
• Stephen Patterson, Professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary
• Hugh McGregor Ross
• Thin-min Tach, Zen Buddhist
• Richard Valantasis, Associate Professor of Early Christian Literature, Saint Louis University, and author of The Gospel of Thomas (Routledge, London and New York, 1997)
• N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham and author of the Christian Origins and the People of God series

For other uses, see Joseph Campbell (disambiguation). ... Lovett Hall William Marsh Rice University (commonly called Rice University and opened in 1912 as The William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science and Art) is a private, comprehensive research university located in Houston, Texas, USA, near the Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. ... Bart D. Ehrman is a New Testament scholar and an expert on early Christianity. ... Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson is the R.W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. ... Helmut Koester (born 1926) is a German-born American scholar of the New Testament, and currently Research Professor of Divinity and Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Ronald H. Miller is a professor of Religion at Lake Forest College. ... Category: ... Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey, (born February 13, 1943), is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. ... The Gnostic Gospels are a class of writings about the life of Jesus which are associated with the early mystical trend of Gnostic Christianity. ... The Gnostic Paul is book by Elaine Pagels, a well respected scholar of gnosticism and also Princeton Universitys Professor of Religion. ... Hugh McGregor Ross, 88 years of age when the photo was taken in January 2006, with a copy of the 1987 Draft Proposal for ISO/IEC 10646 Hugh McGregor Ross (born August 31, 1917 in Nairobi, Kenya) is an early pioneer in the history of British computing. ... For other uses, see Zen (disambiguation). ... Nicholas Thomas Tom Wright (b. ... The Bishop of Durham is the officer of the Church of England responsible for the diocese of Durham, one of the oldest in the country. ...

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. The Jesus Seminar is a research team of about 200 New Testament scholars founded in 1985 by the late Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan under the auspices of the Westar Institute. ...

Popular culture

The plot of the 1999 Hollywood 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. 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. Stigmata is a controversial movie directed by Rupert Wainwright that premiered on September 10, 1999. ... Catholic Church redirects here. ... Immanence, derived from the Latin in manere to remain within, refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of the divine as existing and acting within the mind or the world. ...

In Gary Renard's book Your Immortal Reality, the character Pursah, who claims to be Thomas's reincarnation, gives what she claims is the full original text of the Gospel of Thomas with minor adjustments and spurious verses omitted, leaving 70 sayings, and discusses the book's origin and history, as well as related subjects such as the Q document. In Renard's prior book The Disappearance of the Universe, in addition to quoting verses frequently, Pursah also gives what she says were the original three sayings Jesus spoke aside to Thomas. Gary Renard, author of The Disappearance of the Universe. ... The Q document or Q (from the German Quelle, source) is a postulated lost textual source for the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke. ...

See also

• Five Trees
• Tree of Life

Five Trees in Paradise is a mysterious concept from famous coptic Gospel of Thomas NHC 2: (gnostic library from Nag Hammadi in Egypt) 19th saying/logia of Jesus and other sources of religious mythology. ... The Tree-of-Life is a fictional plant (the ancestor of yams, with similar appearance and taste) in Larry Nivens Known Space universe, for which all Hominids have an in-built genetic craving. ...

Notes

John Paul Meier is a prominent Biblical scholar and Catholic priest. ... is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• Ehrman, Bart (2003). The Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-514183-0. 
• Funk, Robert Walter and Roy W. Hoover, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? the Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, Polebridge Press, 1993
• 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
• Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986. (pp. 530-548.)
• Koester, Helmut (1990). Ancient Christian Gospels. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International. ISBN 0334024501. 
• Lumpkin, Joseph B. The Gospel of Thomas. Fifth Estate Books, 2005
• Lumpkin, Joseph B. The Tao of Thomas. Fifth Estate Books, 2005
• Pagels, Elaine, 2003. Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas (New York: Random House)
• Robinson, James McConkey et al., The Nag Hammadi Library in English (4th rev. ed.; Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1996)

Robert W. Funk (July 18, 1926-September 3, 2005), was founder of the controversial Jesus Seminar and the nonprofit Westar Institute in Santa Rosa, California. ... Gilles Quispel (Rotterdam, 30 May 1916 - El Gouna, Egypt, 2 March 2006) was a Dutch theologian, and historian of Christianity and Gnosticism. ...

External links

• Thomasine Church
• Gospel of Thomas Collection at The Gnosis Archive
• Gospel of St. Thomas - Lost book of the Bible? (Christian apologetics)
• The Nag Hammadi Library
• An examination of the Gospel of Thomas by a Christian apologetics thinktank

Translations

• Hypertext interlinear of Thomas; by Paterson Brown
• Patterson-Meyer Translation
• Patterson-Meyer Translation
• Thomas Lambdin Translation
• Ecumenical Coptic Project Fully-Annotated Edition
• Various Translations
• Patterson and Robinson Translation
• Brill Literal Translation
• Coptic Interlinear Gospel of Thomas
• Gospel of Thomas: Many Translations and Resources
• Translation of "The Gospel according to Thomas"
• Modern Layman's Interpretation from an original Translation of the Nag Hammadi coptic

Translations with commentaries

• Gospel of Thomas with detailed comparisons with canonical sayings
• Gospel of Thomas Commentary