The Gospel of Thomas

Introduction

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings. It is not included in the official canon of the Bible but rather is one of the Nag Hammadi documents. (The Nag Hammadi is a collection of thirteen ancient codices containing over fifty texts, discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945.) It is not really a "gospel" as Christians commonly understand the term; rather it is a seemingly random collection of 114 sayings which are attributed to Jesus.

Authorship

The author of this document is unknown. Since these sayings are not tied to historical events (via a narrative), we cannot independently check its external validity. Apart from Jesus, the Gospel of Thomas also attributes some questions/statements to Simon Peter, Matthew, Thomas and Mary. Scholars frequently date the authorship to 100-150 CE, although some think it dates earlier.

Sayings

It includes very little narrative about Jesus' activities, but instead focuses on his words, introducing his sayings with simple phrases such as "Jesus said." Modern scholars have divided the text into a prologue and 114 sayings. Some of the sayings will have a familiar ring to readers of the New Testament, but others have no parallels in the traditional Christian Bible.

Further information

Teacher Background entry, Sayings of Jesus

Gospel of Thomas – Wikipedia

The Gospel of Thomas – full text translated