Gospel of Thomas
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For a similarly titled work, see Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
The Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian,non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library.[1]
The Coptic language text, the second of seven contained in what modern-day scholars have designated as Codex II, is composed of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus.[2] Almost half of these sayings more or less resemble those found in theCanonical Gospels, while the other sayings were previously unknown. Its place of origin may have been Syria, where Thomasine traditions were strong.[3]
The introduction states: These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down. [4] Didymus (Greek) and Thomas (Aramaic) both mean "twin". Scholars suspect this reference to theApostle Thomas to be false and the true writer remains unknown.[5] The document probably originated within a schoolof early Christians, possibly proto-Gnostics [6] Even the description of Thomas as a "gnostic" gospel is based upon little other than the fact that it was found along with gnostic texts at Nag Hammadi.[7] The name of Thomas was also attached to the Book of Thomas the Contender, which was also in Nag Hammadi Codex II, and the Acts of Thomas.
The Gospel of Thomas is very different in tone and structure from other New Testament apocrypha and the four Canonical Gospels. Unlike the canonical Gospels, it is not anarrative account of the life of Jesus; instead, it consists of logia (sayings) attributed to Jesus, sometimes stand-alone, sometimes embedded in short dialogues or parables. The text contains a possible allusion to the death of Jesus in logion 65 [8] (Parable of the Wicked Tenants, paralleled in the Synoptic Gospels), but doesn't mention crucifixion,resurrection, or final judgement; nor does it mention a messianic understanding of Jesus.[9][10] The Early Church believed it to be a false gospel. Eusebius, for example, included it among a group of books that he believed to be not only spurious, but "the fictions of heretics" that should be thrown out as absurd and impious.[11]
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