What is the Gospel of Thomas?

this episode is sponsored by wandrium watch until the end of the video to find out more the discovery of the nag hamadi library in 1945 is along with the Dead Sea Scrolls one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century it gave us writings from some of the earliest Christians writings that were not included in the eventually canonized New Testament and which gave us unprecedented insight into some of these early movements that we previously only knew from second hand often critical accounts it is for example in these writings that we now have access to the writings of these so-called gnostics as well as many other groups now one of the most famous maybe the most famous and mysterious texts from the nag hamadi library is the so-called Gospel of Thomas a book that often defies any clear association with the known groups of early Christianity and which includes some really sometimes surprising sayings from Jesus [Applause] the canonical New Testament that we all know and love include four gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John they serve as the basis for information about the life sayings and teachings of Jesus to Christians around the world but as most of us know there were many other gospels and accounts as well the canonization process was a gradual one but really solidified around the 4th Century before this time and in the after there existed many other gospels and accounts of Jesus's life and teachings which were favored by other groups than those that became known as quote-unquote Orthodox and one of these is the fascinating Gospel of Thomas which offers some teachings of Jesus that seem very odd in comparison to the synoptic gospels even to sometimes contradict them indeed this is a gospel that seems to have a pretty radically different Theology and which was likely favored by a group of early Christians quite different from the proto-orthodox so what's going on with this text the Gospel of Thomas is kind of just that a gospel it is an account of Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ but it differs pretty drastically from the gospels that we know in fact Thomas is not an account of Jesus's life that gives us any biographical information in instead it is simply a collection of sayings that Jesus conveyed to his disciples indeed the whole gospel begins with the words quote these are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the twin recorded what follows is basically a list of sayings 114 in total without any sort of context or biographical material but the courts themselves are really fascinating for various reasons many of these sayings we recognize from the canonical gospels but many others are totally unique as an example we all recognize sayings like what you see the speck that is in your sibling's eye but you do not see the beam that is in your own eye which is the 26th saying in Thomas but can also be found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke so what's in this gospel first of all we can address the question whether or not it is a so-called Gnostic Gospel which is how it has been oftened characterized if we talk about the Gospel of Thomas many people will say that this is the most famous agnostic gospel so-called but is this actually accurate it is true that it was found at nag hamadi among a bunch of books that can certainly be labeled as Gnostic but this situation is in fact quite complicated if you've seen my earlier episode about the gnostics you will know that there is a huge debate over whether or not this term can be used at all as a designation for a movement in antiquity early Christianity was an explosion of different ideas and tendencies and it's difficult to talk about any specific quote-unquote groups or coherent movements as such but we have certain doctrinal Tendencies and schools of thought in this period which are often associated with so-called gnosticism and which have certain characteristics in particular as David brachi argues the group that is often referred to as the sethians is perhaps the group that can most rightfully be referred to as the gnostics other groups like The valentinians and marcinats will also often be labeled as gnostics because they hold similar ideas but there is a huge scholarly debate about this term if it can be used at all if it should be used who should it who should be applied to and so on it's a difficult topic and if you want to know more about that you should advise my earlier episode about the gnostics so is the Gospel of Thomas part of that Gnostic movement well it's very uncertain the sayings in Thomas contain very little reference to the characteristic doctrines of the gnostics such as an ignorant demiurge as the creator of the world or the concept of the barbello as a first Eon or principle now this has led some Scholars to argue when I tend to agree with them that Thomas is not necessarily A Gnostic Gospel or shouldn't be called agnostic gospel but represents another theological tendency entirely in the early diversity of Christianity it has some affinities with the teachings of the canonical gospels as well as some similarities with the Gnostic schools but also differ in unique ways of its own from both of them indeed the Gospel of Thomas fundamentally differs from Key teachings of mainstream Christianity in Christianity as we know it Jesus is the Incarnation of the word of God which brings salvation to humanity by dying on the cross for our sins but in the Gospel of Thomas the death and crucifixion of Jesus is never even mentioned it's not an important aspect of this theology at all Jesus does not bring Salvation through his death instead when we read Thomas it becomes clear that it is the very teachings of Jesus and the following of those teachings that will lead the person to Salvation by gaining knowledge of his true self the first saying in the gospel goes like this quote and he said whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death in the teachings of Thomas us humans don't belong to this material world and body our true home and true nature is in the spiritual world of wholeness we can attain salvation by getting true knowledge or gnosis of our essential reality or our true selves and Jesus is the figure who helps us discover this Jesus represents the divine presence and wisdom speaking to us reminding us of who we really are he comes from the spiritual world of unity our true home to save us from this illusory material existence quote I am the one who comes from what is whole I was given from the things of my father Jesus said I disclose my Mysteries to those who are worthy of my mysteries in fact the Gospel of Thomas seems to reveal a theology where the imminence of God is emphasized Jesus or God is present everywhere at all times quote Jesus said I am the light that is over all things I am all from me all has come forth and to me all has reached split a piece of wood I am there lift up the stone and you will find me there God or Jesus is the light that in some sense is all things he is present everywhere including in the human self thus Jesus calls us to know his words and to know him as that reality and through that knowledge know ourselves to know God is to know yourself and vice versa in some way we become Jesus or God when we turn away from darkness and towards the light that is hidden within us quote Jesus said whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me I myself shall become that person and the hidden things will be revealed to that person this is pretty different from at least most interpretations of mainstream Christianity we aren't saved because Jesus dies on the cross but because he teaches us to know ourselves and to know him as the light that is present in all existence through that self-knowledge of ourselves and even such a core feature of Jesus's teachings like the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is given radically different interpretations in the Gospel of Thomas while the canonical gospels and Orthodox Christianity in general seem to indicate that the kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is an event that is coming in the future Jesus tells his disciples to get ready for this event when all people will be judged by God and the new Divine era will be inaugurated this is not only not present in Thomas it is outright rejected the kingdom of God is not coming in the future and neither is it a place at all instead Jesus tells us that the kingdom is already here it's everywhere and within us this interpretation is not unheard of in Christianity of course but it is more explicit in Thomas in one of the most famous sayings from the gospel Jesus says quote if your leaders say to you look the kingdom is in heaven then the birds of heaven will precede you if they say to you it is in the sea then the fish will precede you rather the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you when you know yourselves then you will be known and you will understand that you are the children of the living father but if you do not know yourselves then you will dwell in poverty and you are poverty this quote which comes at the very beginning of the text kind of summarizes the entire message and Theology of the Gospel of Thomas the kingdom is already here within us and within all things it's not that it's coming and we need to prepare it has already arrived but people can't see it at least those people that haven't received Jesus's real message and at the end of the text it kind of circles back and seals the deal that it's a nice sort of Full Circle when he says quote his disciples said to him when will the kingdom come Jesus says it will not come by watching for it rather the father's kingdom is spread out upon the Earth and people do not see it as you can tell this is a truly unique and fascinating interpretation of Jesus and his teachings and it really shows us how diverse and varied early Christianity was there were many different groups or tendencies that were in dialogue and sometimes also in conflict with each other Thomas represents one of those tendencies that did not become part of the later Orthodoxy but luckily we now have access to this text for example which gives us fasting insights into this particular if you could call our school of thought or a theological tendency or whatever it is whatever this text represents right we now can access it at least somewhat from this text which is just so amazing it's probably the most famous non-canonical gospel in the world and perhaps for good reason given how amazing the interesting its contents are but because of this there are also many let's say less than scholarly interpretations and claims made about it there's a big debate about when it was written and its relationship with the other gospels some claiming that it's the earliest source for Jesus's sayings and that the other gospels Drew inspiration from it but what do we actually know about this text from a historical scholarly perspective well we aren't perhaps all that surprised to learn that there really isn't much in terms of a consensus we have known about a Gospel of Thomas for a long time since some of the early church fathers mentioned it in their writings for example the famous Christian philosopher origin of Alexandria mentioned it in one of his writings quote the church has four gospels Heretics have very many I know one Gospel called according to Thomas and another according to Matthias we have read many others too lest we appear ignorant of anything because of those people who think they know something if they have examined these gospels he is all obviously not a fan of the supposed Gospel of Thomas which could be referring to the text we had talked about today but might also refer to the so-called infancy Gospel of Thomas which has an annoyingly similar name regardless the discovery of the text at nag hamadi has revolutionized our understanding of it it only survives in one Coptic copy dating from the early 4th century but Scholars are fairly certain that the original text itself probably written in Greek originates much further back in fact basically no one would say that the text was composed any later than the year 200 but aside from this Scholars disagree greatly we simply don't know for sure when Thomas Was Written the historians and biblical Scholars sometimes fall into two general camps those who adhere to an early composition and those who believe in a late composition or later composition I guess some those of the first Camp believed that Thomas was composed in the first century around the same time that the four canonical gospels came to be some argue that it might even have been earlier than them others and I would probably say the majority of Scholars today but keep in mind that there's nothing in terms of a consensus here but probably the majority of Scholars today argue that the text was actually composed in the early second century so a few decades after the four you know John Mark Matthew and Luke right but again no complete agreement exists here right many scholars and historians do tend to believe that it was written much earlier in the first century sometime some even believe that it was earlier like I said earlier than the canonical gospels before the year 70 we're obviously not going to solve this issue today so if you're interested in diving into the history of the manuscripts and the different scholarly opinions about the dating of this text then you should check out some of the dedicated research and always as always leave some sources and links in the description if you want to check that out but this topic is of course significant because it has implications in terms of the relationship of Thomas to the other gospels as we saw many of the sayings in Thomas correspond to these sayings in the synoptic gospels almost around half of them in fact so the question becomes did Thomas use the other gospels as a source for these sayings or was it the other way around alternatively which Christians would of course argue do they all perhaps represent actual sayings of Jesus that were preserved independently in both texts opinions about who we influence to will of course change depending on when you believe that the Gospel of Thomas was composed so if you believe that it was composed before or at the same time as the canonical gospels then maybe you'll will be of the opinion that Thomas influenced them whereas if it was written after in the early 2nd Century then obviously an argument could be made for the fact that Thomas might be drawing from these synoptic gospels so you know it's hard to say it's all very enticing and fascinating to think about who was inspired by who and which if any of these sayings actually go back to Jesus at the very least it does tell us that texts that were written roughly at the same time came to represent Jesus and sometimes the very sayings of Jesus in radically different ways which again shows us just how diverse and varied the world of early Christianity really was it is a vast and Incredibly fascinating and complicated topic a one that is worth diving into and one really good way of doing that is through today's sponsor wandrium wandrium is an online learning platform that brings you a vast library of educational and engaging content through short form videos long-form courses tutorials documentaries and much more they have some wonderful courses and lectures led by experts in their respective fields and always with really high production quality wandrum is the first ever sponsor here on let's talk religion and for good reason I obviously love to learn and study new things and I've personally used bonjour myself and been very happy with it I do feel like they have the same goal as us here on the channel to be a source for Reliable and high quality content that is both educational and entertaining so I'm actually very happy to be collaborating with them one gym has 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Channel: Let's Talk Religion

Views: 533,616

Keywords: What is the gospel of thomas, gospel of thomas explained, thomas, gospels, non-canonical gospels, bible, secret bible, secret gospel, nag hammadi, dead sea scrolls, history of the bible, early christianity, spiritual christianity, gnosticism, gnostic, gnostic gospels, mysticism, pantheism, gnosis, Jesus, sayings of jesus, secret sayings of jesus, christian mysticism

Id: jiD3KVoDCt8

Length: 18min 42sec (1122 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 20 2022