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| Introduction | vii | ||
| PART ONE The Gospel of Thomas with the Greek Gospel of Thomas fragments | 1 | (30) | |
| PART TWO The Gospel of Mary | 31 | (12) | |
| PART THREE The Gospel of Philip | 43 | (46) | |
| PART FOUR The Gospel of Truth by Valentinus | 89 | (24) | |
| PART FIVE The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit or the Egyptian Gospel | 113 | (30) | |
| PART SIX The Secret Book of John | 143 | (42) | |
| PART SEVEN The Secret Book of James | 185 | (18) | |
| PART EIGHT The Book of Thomas | 203 | (16) | |
| PART NINE The Dialogue of the Savior | 219 | (22) | |
| PART TEN The Second Discourse of Great Seth | 241 | (20) | |
| PART ELEVEN The Book of Baruch by Justin | 261 | (16) | |
| PART TWELVE The Round Dance of the Cross | 277 | (10) | |
| Notes | 287 | (42) | |
| Bibliography | 329 |
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The gospel of thomas, or the Hidden Sayings of Jesus,is a collection of sayings of Jesus, traditionally numbered byscholars at 114, which are said to communicate salvation and life.While the Gospel of Thomas has some features in common withgnostic gospels, it does not seem to fit the definition of gnosticismgiven in the Introduction to a significant extent. Thus I preferto consider the Gospel of Thomas to be a gospel with anincipient gnostic perspective. According to the incipit (or prologue)of the Gospel of Thomas, the sayings are hidden or secretsayings spoken by the living Jesus and recorded by Judas Thomasthe Twin. Judas Thomas was thought in some circles, particularlywithin Syriac Christianity, to be the twin brother of Jesus and assuch the ideal person to function as guarantor of the Jesus tradition.The Gospel of John in the New Testament begs to differwith this positive assessment of Judas Thomas, however, and insteadchooses to depict him as "doubting Thomas."
The sayings included in the Gospel of Thomas include a varietyof aphorisms, parables, stories, and other utterances of Jesus,the interpretation of which, saying 1 announces, can lead to salvationand life. Saying 1 states, "Whoever discovers the interpretationof these sayings will not taste death," and saying 2 describes the epistemological process whereby one comes to knowledge andunderstanding: "Let one who seeks not stop seeking until onefinds. When one finds, one will be troubled. When one is troubled,one will marvel and will reign over all."The Greek Gospel ofThomas adds an additional stage to the interpretive process: "and[having reigned], one will [rest]." In other words, the quest for anunderstanding of the sayings of Jesus is an enterprise to be undertakenwith commitment, and although the way to knowledge maybe difficult and even disturbing, those who persevere will discoverGod's reign and God's rest. And if God's reign, God's kingdom, isoutside a person, it is also within (Gospel of Thomas 3:3).
As in Q and the New Testament gospels, especially the synopticgospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, Jesus in the Gospel ofThomas asks his disciples to seek and find. In the Gospel ofThomas and other early texts, the sayings of Jesus are open to interpretation,so that disciples and readers are encouraged to searchfor the meaning of the sayings of Jesus and complete his thoughtsafter him. The Gospel of Thomas is an interactive gospel: wisdomand knowledge come when readers creatively encounter sayingsof Jesus and respond to the sayings with insight. Such aninteractive approach may go back to the historical Jesus, whosesayings and stories seem to have provided the opportunity for hisdisciples and others around him to react and respond. To that extentthe Gospel of Thomas coheres well with much of the Jesussayings tradition. A number of the sayings in the Gospel ofThomas, however, are especially cryptic and riddle-like, and theneed for creative interpretation is obvious. Much is at stake.Those who find the meaning of Jesus's sayings find life, theGospel of Thomas proclaims, and they come to realize that theyare children of the living father. Or, as Jesus puts it in saying 108, those who drink from his mouth will be like him and he will beone with them, and they will understand what is hidden.
Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas confronts his disciples andreaders of the gospel with powerful sayings, but he does not pullrank. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus assumes very few Christologicaltitles, and, as Stephen Patterson notes, Jesus in this gospelis just Jesus. Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas is not designated theChrist or the messiah, he is not acclaimed master or lord, andwhen he refers to himself once in the gospel, in saying 86, as childof humankind or son of man, he does so in the generic sense ofreferring to any person (or to himself ) as a human being. If Jesusin the Gospel of Thomas is a child of humankind, so are otherpeople called children of humankind (sayings 28 and 106). Jesus inthe Gospel of Thomas is not presented as the unique or incarnateson of God, and nothing is said of a cross with saving significanceor an empty tomb. Jesus is named the living Jesus, but God is alsosaid to be a living one, and followers of Jesus are called living onesas well. Jesus the living one lives through his words and sayings.
The Gospel of Thomas is the second tractate in Codex II ofthe Nag Hammadi library, where it is preserved in Coptic translation.Three Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas also survive(Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1, 654, and 655), as do testimonia inearly Christian literature, especially in the writings of Hippolytusof Rome. Translations of the Nag Hammadi Coptic text, theGreek fragments, and two testimonia from Hippolytus are givenbelow. Most likely the Gospel of Thomas was composed in Greek,probably in Syria, perhaps at Edessa, where Thomas was reveredand his bones venerated. A reasonable case can be made for a firstcenturydate for a first edition of the Gospel of Thomas, thoughsome scholars prefer a second-century date ...
The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus
Excerpted from The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus: The Definitive Collection of Mystical Gospels and Secret Books about Jesus of Nazareth by Marvin Meyer
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
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