As a gospel that had disappeared from ancient existence, but then reappeared in 1945, when it was unearthed with a collection of other scrolls (Irvin and Sunquist 57), the Gospel of Thomas is enshrouded in layers of mystery. This mystery began in the second century: As the Church’s evangelization efforts and liturgy format were primarily using the same four Gospels that are now part of the Biblical canon, other gospels and related works had suddenly sprung up and entered the scene as well: The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of Peter, the Acts of John, and the Acts of Paul – just to name a few (Irvin and Sunquist 52, 53).
All of these second century works were attributed to Jesus’ apostles and other followers – however, all were written well after these followers had passed. Further, when looking more closely at the Gospel of Thomas, its collection of 114 sayings by Jesus was probably written and predominantly used in Syria (Irvin and Sunquist 57, 62). The Syrian Christian communities, who had a more practical approach to the liturgy, yet with a more developed theology of Christ as the Spirit incarnate (Irvin and Sunquist 63), often included women in spiritual imagery and liturgical rites. Syrian Christians even referred to God as both Father and Mother during the eucharistic liturgy (Irvin and Sunquist 63).
This approach to Christology, while not meant to be overtly philosophical (at least in how Syrian Christians developed the theology), made room for yet another layer to the Gospel of Thomas mystery – Gnosticism (Irvin and Sunquist 63, 62). Founded by Valentinus, who hailed from Alexandria and had a special interest in claims that Jesus had revealed secret mysteries exclusively to his closest disciples (Irvin and Sunquist 80), Gnosticism grew into several schools of Christian thought. Gnostics (“one who knows” in Greek), who had a more mystical view of Christian belief, redressed the apostles’ message about Jesus and infused it with Hellenistic, Jewish, and Egyptian philosophy. Ultimately, they believed their mission was to capture the true, deeper meanings of the Gospel message (Irvin and Sunquist 88, 89).
As such, it was probably not a mere coincidence that the rise of Gnosticism and the rise of several new works about Jesus and the apostles all spawned within the second century. This becomes even clearer when reading the Gospel of Thomas: While many of the passages closely resemble – or even match word-for-word – passages from the canonical Gospels, much of Thomas’ gospel reads like a fortune cookie. What’s more, it alludes to the deeper, esoteric meanings that Gnostics had claimed to discover.
Verse 13 in the GoT (not to be confused with Game of Thrones), when compared to Matthew 16:13-20, gives a strong clue about the Gnostic approach to Scripture: In Matt 16:13-20, when Jesus’ disciples attempt to answer his question, “Who do people say that the son of man is?”, Simon steps up and calls Jesus “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Then, after Jesus renames Simon as “Peter,” and then commissions Peter to build his church, Jesus orders his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah.
Compare this to GoT verse 13 (Coakley and Sterk 6) : After Jesus asks the disciples a similar question about his identity, Simon Peter and Matthew reveal their answers – “you are a righteous angel”; “you are like a wise philosopher — while Thomas answers, “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like.” Jesus then pulls Thomas away from the other disciples and apparently gives the answer in secret. Thus, Thomas’ gospel is not only mysterious, but it is also a bit evasive.
In other words, it is one thing to seek out answers that may be more hidden in Scripture; it’s another thing to be evasive. Thomas’ gospel has elements of both. Moreover, it seems to shift the goal posts on certain subjects when compared to the canonical Gospels – especially Matthew’s Gospel, which appears to be a primary source for Thomas, or perhaps draws quite a bit from the “Q” source (Irvin and Sunquist 51).
Another example is Matt 24:36-34 versus GoT verse 21: In Matt 24:36-44, Jesus gives an eschatological discourse, including the often-quoted line in verse 43, “…if the Master had known the hour of the night when the thief was coming…”. GoT verse 21 (Coakley and Sterk 7), on the other hand, is response to Mary’s question, “Whom are your disciples like?” Therefore, here we have two remarkably similar Gospel passages addressing two separate subjects. Furthermore, Thomas reinforces “thief is coming” idea with the following lines: “You, then, be on guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest the robbers find a way to come to you…” This fits with the Gnostic need to dive deeper into Jesus’ words and understand their overarching meaning.
Of course, the examples above are just a couple of the numerous passages in Thomas’ Gospel that lean even more on the philosophical context around Jesus’ words, when compared to the canonical gospels. This mystery may not be entirely solved – but it does show how various forms of Christian thought tried to make sense of the overall theology.
Works Cited
Irvin, Dale T., and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement: Earliest Christianity to 1453. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001.
Ignatius Press. Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. Ignatius Pr, 2016.
Coakley, John W., and Andrea Sterk. Readings in World Christian History, Volume 1: Earliest Christianity to 1453. New York: Orbis Books, 2004.