the gospel of thomas

I wrote a paper this week on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12, the passage beginning with Jesus' famous line, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I planned on comparing them to the version of the Beatitudes in Luke 6. In my research, I was made aware that some of the Beatitudes are also found in "The Gospel of Thomas," an ancient manuscript that I had heard of before, but knew very little about. I did a little bit of digging and gained a small overview of this book; it is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus that was compiled around the same time as the other Gospels found in our modern Bible, with many overlaps: around 50% of the sayings are words we are already quite familiar with from our New Testament, such as:

"Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven" (Thom. 54). 

"See, the sower went out, he filled his hand, he threw. Some seeds fell on the road; the birds came, they gathered them. Others fell on the rock and did not strike root in the earth and did not produce ears. And others fell on the thorns; they choked the seed and the worm ate them. And others fell on the good earth; and it brought forth good fruit; it bore sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure" (Thom. 9). 

"You see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you do not see the beam that is in your own eye" (Thom. 26). 


But many of the sayings are completely new to those of us who have only read Jesus' words from the New Testament books! We have no way of knowing what of these sayings were closest to what Jesus may have actually said; some of them may have simply been common sayings of the early church, but some may have been actual traditions of Jesus. Either way, I felt like it was worth taking a look at and I am enjoying just pondering some of these ideas, new ways of talking about things I thought I knew so well. Here are a few of the things that stood out to me!


"Jesus said: 'If those who lea you say to you: "See the kingdom in heaven", then the birds of the heaven will precede you. If they say to you: "It is in the sea," then the fish will precede you. But the Kingdom is within you and it is without you. If you know yourselves, then you will be known and you will know that you are the sons of the Living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty and you are poverty.'" (3)

"Jesus said, 'If two make peace with each other in this one house, they shall say to the mountain: "Be moved," and it shall be moved.'" (48)

"Jesus said, 'If they say to you: "From where have you originated?", say to them: "We have come from the Light, where the Light has originated through itself.It stood and it revealed itself in their image." If they say to you, "Who are you?", say: "We are His sons and we are the elect of the Living Father." If they ask you: "What is the sign of your Father in you?", say to them: "It is a movement and a rest."' His disciples said to Him: 'When will the repose of the dead come about and when will the new world come?' He said to them: 'What you expect has come, but you know it not.'" (50-51)

"His disciples said to Him: 'Is circumcision profitable or not?' He said to them: 'If it were profitable, their father would beget them circumcised from their mother. But the true circumcision in Spirit has become profitable in every way.'" (53)

"Jesus said: 'Whoever knows the All but fails to know himself lacks everything.'" (67)

"Jesus said: 'The Kingdom of the Father is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking on a distant road, the handle of the jar broke. The meal streamed out behind her on the road. She did not know it, she had noticed no accident. After she came into her house, she put the jar down, she found it empty.'" (97)

"His disciples said to Him: 'When will the kingdom come?' Jesus said: 'It will not come by expectation; they will not say: "See, here," or "See, there." But the Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it." (113)




How interesting! There is always more to learn and ponder!



PS - For people who already know the Gospel of Thomas, I think the last stanza is a later addition. I haven't done the research whatsoever, I just think it is incredibly out of sync with the rest of the book. If you know more, send it my way!

Translations by A Guillaumont, H. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till, and Yassah 'Abd Al Masih from the Coptic text, Leiden: Brill, 1959.