The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of Jesus' sayings which is claims to be written by Didymus Judas Thomas, who is Jesus' twin brother according to Christian legend. It unlike the more well known Gospels in many regards, namely in its structure and overall message. The Gospel of Thomas pays no attention to the life of Jesus and makes no mention of his birth, death on the Cross, or his Resurrection. Unlike the canonical Gospels, the author does not attempt to write a biography of Jesus. Instead, his goal was to pass on only the knowledge that Jesus taught to his disciples. Not only was he concerned with passing on "gnosis" (knowledge) of Jesus, the Author of the Gospel intended it to be received by a select few believers. This belief in only a select few being entrusted with the knowledge of Jesus can be seen throughout the Gospel. A good example can be seen in Verse 107, when Jesus says that "The kingdom of God is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, which is the largest, wandered off. He left the ninety-nine; he searched for the one until he found it. After he tired himself, he said to the sheep, 'I love you more than the ninety-nine.'" (Ehrman 244). This verse fits perfectly with Lynch's general description of Gnosticism, where he states that "Many gnostic believers saw themselves as members if an elite, whose special knowledge made them superior to ordinary, simple-minded believers." (Lynch 58). It is easy to see how this elitist thinking would clash with the other Christian movements that are proclaiming that Jesus came to save every Jew and Gentile alike, and not just the 1%.
Another Gnostic theme that is remarkably common in the Gospel of Thomas is the rejection of the body and emphasis on the good of the spirit. Gnostics generally held the belief that created matter was a bad thing that existed only because of a disruption in the Plemora, or the spirit world (Lynch 58). Thus it would make sense to hear Jesus say something like "I will give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has not come into the heart of a human." (Verse 17, Ehrman 239).
A final common Gnostic theme noted by Lynch is that "In varying degrees, gnostics cut off Christianity from its Jewish roots." (Lynch 58). This theme is one of the less obvious ones found in the Gospel of Thomas. While the author makes a few jabs at the Pharisees, there are no direct claims that disassociate Jesus with Judaism. The main way that the author attempts this cut off could possibly be his lack of even mentioning the God of Israel. There are, however, some verses that were most likely written only by someone who did not believe the God of Israel to be their God. In Verse 44, Jesus says "Whoever blasphemes the Father, it will be forgiven him, and whoever blasphemes the Son, it will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in earth or in Heaven." (Erhman 241). This does not sound characteristic of a typical God fearing Jew or early Christian in saying that blasphemy against the Father will be forgiven. It is also important to note that this verse implies a hierarchy among the three instead of equality.
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The Gospel of Truth was a gnostic view of early Christianity in the second and third centuries. According to Lynch, the handwritten documents that were written by rivals of Orthodox Christians, had failed to be copied anymore or had disappeared in disasters, including purposeful acts of destruction. And because of that, not much was known about these types of Christians, except their names. A discovery of texts (not included in the New Testament) in Egypt in 1945, regarded some of the missing information about Christian groups in the second, third, and fourth centuries. The texts did not come with definite titles, so The Gospel of Truth was named from the beginning of its text: “The gospel of truth is joy for those who have received from the Father of truth the grace of knowing him, through the power of the Word that came forth from the pleroma, the one who is in the thought and the mind of the Father, that is, the one who is addressed as the Savior, (that) being the name of the work he is to perform for the redemption of those who were ignorant of the Father, while in the name of the gospel is the proclamation of hope, being discovery for those who search for him.” Already in this first sentence, you can see some of the themes that are in the gospel. Believing in the Father can bring you joy and hope, and you can be representatives for people who search for him, as well as do work to redeem the ignorant people who did not believe. The term gnosis translates to knowledge, and in the gospel, the Father calls upon those who he has given the knowledge to. If one has knowledge, he is from above. If knowledge is not present in a person, they are surely ignorant and shall vanish. Knowledge can only come from the Father and ascends to him. The Father calls to those who seek and respond to him. The opening of The Gospel of Truth attends to the ignorance and its created problem. It gives a solution of how ignorance can be eliminated through found knowledge, darkness eliminated through light, and multiplicity eliminated by unity. A difference between The Gospel of Truth and the other four gospels is simply in the name. The Gospel of Truth brings forth knowledge of the Father, rather than providing a life story of Jesus. It is more a sermon about Jesus, than a biography or specific events that occurred in his growth. Brooke I.
(I) Nag Hammadi takes an opportunity to blatantly belittle the views of proto-orthodox opponents in his writing 35. The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter. His idea is that the non-Gnostic Christians are ridiculous for believing in their “views about Christ Based on a wooden reading of sacred texts” (Ehrman 227). Hammadi believes that in order to have a true understanding of God and his relation to Christ, is through revelation of the truth (his belief), that pro-orthodox churches have been falsely “teaching that Jesus was himself the Christ who suffered a literal death on the cross. The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, is written in the first person perspective of Christ, and intends to further prove that “Christ himself descended into the man Jesus’ body” (Ehrman 230). (II) Reading through The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter, I find the theme of annoyance and belittlement to be prominent when Hammadi is discussing the views of pro-orthodox Christians. The Second Treatise of the Great Seth has a very similar tone, “…and I was laughing at their ignorance”, referencing the people’s belief that Christ himself was being crucified. As I stated above, Nag Hammadi found the pro-orthodox Christian views on Christ as flesh and a man to be absurd. In short, he states that people will begin to believe the falsehoods and “hold fast to the name of a dead man, while thinking they will become pure”, which is referring to the belief that Jesus himself died on the cross for others sins (Ehrman 228). The Second Treatise of the Great Seth further begins to prove Hammadi’s belief, beginning with the first sentence: “I visited a bodily dwelling. I cast out the one who was in previously, I went in” (Ehrman 231). This is a blatant statement allegedly made by Jesus, that indeed, as Hammadi states, he was never born as flesh but became flesh. This statement helps one understand why Hammadi would continually refer to pro-orthodox Christians as “deaf and blind”, misled, and close minded to the truth. The theme of being deaf and blind is repeated in The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, “They nailed their man up to their death. For their minds did not see me, for they were deaf and blind” (Ehrman 232). Another example of Hammadi’s belief that his teaching was the only truth is when he states: “since they have been ignorant and have not been saved…” (Ehrman 228). Once again, referring to the stupidity of agnostics. He also criticizes the pro-orthodox teachers themselves in his statement that others will “name themselves ‘bishop’ and also ‘deacons’, as if they have received authority from God” (Ehrman 229). He is now calling the teachers, which are viewed at in high respect, wrong and misleading. Clearly, Gnostic Christians intentions are to glorify Christ as the immortal savior and not to be mistaken as flesh and a man. The second-century Gospel of Truth puts forth a path of salvation that differs distinctly from the path of “mainstream Christianity.” But before that, it describes the situation from which we need to be saved. The Gospel of Truth discloses that the knowledge of the Father destroys ignorance. Error, in the Gospel of Truth is personified to describe how it came to be in this world. Ignorance of the Father brought about anguish and terror; and the anguish grew like a fog so that no one was able to see. For this reason error became more powerful (161). The Gospel of truth characterizes error in many ways, the outcome of ignorance, nothingness, and devil. Error is the devil in the sense that it creates falsehood and it creates illusions that deceive human beings. Jesus came from the Father to eliminate error, who becomes angered and nails Jesus to the cross (161). Jesus became a fruit of knowledge, and the gospel describes rather than causing destruction because it was eaten, it gave people discovery when they ate it. Discovery of Jesus within themselves and themselves in Jesus, more or less, self-discovery. The Gospel of Truth describes being ignorant is like living in a nightmare, and gaining the knowledge is like waking up from that dream.
Unlike the other gospels, The Gospel of Truth does not describe the teachings, passions, deeds or resurrection of Jesus. Instead of a narrative account of Jesus’ life, his life is presented around various themes. The Gnostic approach or point of view might say that Jesus did not come to save mankind from their sins, but rather to replace people’s ignorance with revealing to them knowledge. The themes in the Gospel of Truth seem to flow into each other with no clear order of affiliation to one another. It feels as if the ideas were scattered and disorganized. The main theme according to the Gospel of Truth for me, reveals how to return to the divine realm. How gaining knowledge of the Father dispels ignorance away. In this gospel the main weakness of human is ignorance, not sin. The distress of the world is not caused by disobedience to god, but it is because of the unenlightened human beings. |