Gospel of Thomas

Background

The Gospel of Thomas is a sayings collection that gathers only the words of Jesus, without narrative. Its opening introduces it as "the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down." It thus bears the name of Thomas, one of the Twelve Disciples. It contains almost no accounts of Jesus' birth, miracles, passion, or resurrection. It consists mostly of short sayings and parables, most of which begin with "Jesus said." It is a different document from the similarly named Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

The Church Fathers Hippolytus, Origen, and Eusebius, writing in the third and fourth centuries, mentioned a document called the "Gospel of Thomas" as a book used by heretical groups. Many scholars hold that this document is the same as the text that survives today.

Discovery and Research

• Late 19th to early 20th century: Three Greek papyrus fragments were unearthed at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and published. At the time they were regarded as sayings of Jesus of unknown origin.
• 1945: A collection of Coptic documents was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Coptic is the ancient Egyptian language written in the Greek alphabet. This collection contained the complete text of the Gospel of Thomas, in a manuscript dated to around the fourth century. The discovery confirmed that the Oxyrhynchus fragments were parts of the Greek text of the Gospel of Thomas.
• Late 1950s onward: Serious research began with the publication of the Coptic text and translations. Opinions on its date of composition range from the mid-first century to the mid-second century.

Contents

About half of the 114 sayings have parallels in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Examples include the parables of the sower and the mustard seed. In the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Saying 107, the sheep that goes astray is described as "the largest." After finding it, the shepherd says, "I love you more than the ninety-nine." As this example shows, the wording or emphasis frequently differs from that of the canonical Gospels. Some sayings stress salvation through understanding, such as "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death" (Saying 1). The collection also contains a number of sayings not found in the canon.

Influence

The Gospel of Thomas has become an important source for the study of the Synoptic Problem, which concerns the relationships among the Gospels, and for research on the historical Jesus. Some scholars have regarded it as evidence of early Jesus traditions transmitted independently of the Synoptic Gospels. Public interest grew in 1993 when scholars of the Jesus Seminar in the United States published The Five Gospels, which treated this document alongside the four canonical Gospels. In Korea, too, a number of translations and commentaries have appeared.

Assessment

Scholarly assessments divide chiefly over two issues.

• Origin: One view holds that it preserves early tradition independent of the Synoptic Gospels, while an opposing view holds that it was composed in the second century with reference to the Synoptic Gospels.
• Thought: Some regard it as a Gnostic text. Gnosticism was an ancient system of thought holding that salvation is attained through secret knowledge. Others, however, argue that it is difficult to classify it as such, since it lacks the systematic mythology characteristic of Gnosticism.

None of the Protestant churches, the Catholic Church, or the Orthodox Church recognizes the Gospel of Thomas as part of the canon. In the theological education of Korea's major denominations—Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel—it is generally treated as a noncanonical apocryphal text or as Gnostic-related literature. The reasons cited include the uncertainty of its apostolic origin, the fact that the early church did not use it widely, and the fact that its understanding of salvation differs from that of orthodox faith. Some scholars, on the other hand, value it as a historical source showing that diverse currents existed within early Christianity.