Author Topic: THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS  (Read 75 times)

Offline cizz

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THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS
« on: January 04, 2012, 04:21:05 pm »
http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/thomas.htm

Excerpt:

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of traditional Sayings
(logoi) of Jesus. It is attributed to Didymos Judas Thomas, the
"Doubting Thomas" of the canonical Gospels, and according to many
early traditions, the twin brother of Jesus ("didymos" means
"twin" in Greek).
     We have two versions of the Gospel of Thomas today. The
first was discovered in the late 1800's among the Oxyrhynchus
Papyri, and consists of fragments of a Greek version, which has
been dated to c. 200. The second is a complete version, in
Coptic, from Codex II of the Nag Hammadi finds. Thomas was
probably first written in Greek (or possibly even Syriac or
Aramaic) sometime between the mid 1st and 2nd centuries.
     There has been much speculation on the relationship of
Thomas to the canonical Gospels. Many Sayings in Thomas have
parallels with the New Testament Sayings, especially those found
in the synoptic Gospels. This leads many to believe that Thomas
was also based on the so-called "Q" Document, along with Matthew,
Luke, and Mark. Indeed, some have speculated that Thomas may in
fact be "Q". Unlike the synoptic Gospels, and like "Q", the
Gospel of Thomas has no narrative connecting the various Sayings.
In form, it is simply a list of 114 Sayings, in no particular
order. Comparison with New Testament parallels show that Thomas
contains either more primitive versions of the Sayings, or
developments of more primitive versions. Either way, Thomas seems
to preserve earlier traditions about Jesus than the New
Testament.
     Although it is not possible to attribute the Gospel of
Thomas to any particular sect, it is clearly Gnostic in nature.

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