What is the Gospel of Thomas?
What is the Gospel of Thomas?
The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus that was discovered in 1945 at the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. Before the Nag Hammadi discovery, very little was known about the Gospel of Thomas other than three small fragments from Oxyrynchus that date to 200 A.D. and roughly a half dozen allusions from church fathers. The manuscripts discovered at Nag Hammadi date to around 340 A.D., though the original composition of the Gospel of Thomas was definitely before that time, probably sometime around 140 to 180 A.D.
The Date of Thomas
Even though the Gospel of Thomas is perhaps the earliest, most popular, and best "Gnostic" Gospel around, it does not belong in the New Testament since it was written in the second century at a time when all of the apostles of Christianity had already died. This second century date of composition is demonstrated by (1) its dependence on more than half of the New Testament writings, (2) its likely mid to late second-century Syrian influence, (3) its heretical nature with Gnostic overtones, (4) its lack of references from early church fathers or first-century witnesses, (5) its disagreements and variations from the first-century context of the New Testament gospels, and (6) its self-conscious promotion as an apostolic book which reflects a later time period. In fact, even many adherents to a first-century origin for the Gospel of Thomas argue that, in its present form, Thomas reflects later editing.
Historical value
Though the final composition of the Gospel of Thomas is likely in the second century, there may be some traditions in Thomas that date back to the first century and may be independent of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). However, by and large, the Gospel of Thomas does not really give us much new information about the historical Jesus compared to what is already found in the New Testament Gospels. The Gospel of Thomas, as we shall see, is not "The Fifth Gospel" or an earlier or more reliable source for Jesus than the New Testament Gospels which were written in the first century sometime between 55-100 A.D.
The key criteria for Canonicity: Apostolicity
The reason that there are only four gospels in the New Testament is because these were the only first century gospels available to the early Church, as far as scholars can currently tell, that were written either by (1) an apostle or (2) an associate of an apostle. Though each of the New Testament Gospels was written anonymously, there was a strong tradition connecting each of them to apostles (Matthew and John) or associates of apostles (Mark was an associate of Peter; Luke was an associate of Paul). An apostle was someone who knew the historical Jesus or had seen an appearance of the risen Jesus (cf. 1 Cor. 9:1).
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