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CHAPTER BY CHAPTER DESCRIPTION

For THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS AND THE BIBLE

Chapter One. I will introduce the Gospel of Thomas, its discovery at Nag Hammadi and its history in scholarship. Outline of the nature of the Gospel of Thomas. It is a list of sayings containing virtually no narrative. About half the sayings are paralleled in the New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke but virtually none of the sayings are paralled in John’s gospel. Discussion of Thomas’ relationship to the more Gnostic documents in the Nag Hammadi collection, leading to consideration of the issues Thomas and the other non-canonical gospels raise about the diversity of opinion in the early church regarding Jesus, his message, and the central purpose of the Christian religion. Why the old “is it gnostic” question is no longer thought to be a particularly useful or meaningful one. Summary of some recent writing on Thomas: Elaine Pagels, Richard Valantasis, Risto Uro. I will assume I am writing to an audience that knows nothing about this.

Chapter Two. An irenic discussion of the question of Thomas’ relationship to the Biblical Gospels. Fundamentally, is Thomas derived from those Gospels (dependence theory) or is it independent of those Gospels? Why this question is so important and why it is that this question seems to have taken on a “liberal” versus “conservative” Christian political coloration. Because it will be used throughout the book, I’ll give an explanation and defense of the Two Source Hypothesis (Q hypothesis) and the scholarly consensus favoring Markan priority. Arguments in favor of Thomasine dependence include the occasional appearance of supposedly redactional elements in Thomasine sayings, in other words, that changes made by Matthew or Luke in Mark’s sayings seem to occur in Thomas. Discussion of the “secondary orality” theory, which is that Thomas’ sayings are taken from oral tradition sayings that were themselves derived from popular use of the Biblical Gospels. How it is that this is a non-falsifiable thesis without much merit. Next, I’ll give the arguments for independence: the lack of similar sayings order, the odd fact that Thomas’ sayings appear to have been revised back toward original versions, if they are indeed taken from the Biblical Gospels. The almost complete absence of any signs of Matthean or Lukan redaction in Thomasine sayings. Various explanations for why redactional material occasionally seems to appear in Thomas. My conclusion will be that the independence thesis carries the day but that the issue is not settled and may never be.

Chapter 3. Beginning with saying 1, which implies that Thomas’ hidden or secret sayings are riddles, compare Mark 4:11-12 where Jesus claims his parables are incomprehensible to those outside the inner circle. How it is that many sayings circulating as proverbs and parables and isolated from a context in life are literally meaningless. Sayings 97 and 98 are examples of Jesus’ parables that have not had 2 millenia of interpretation and so can be heard ab novo… and are incomprehensible. The need to create narrative to make sayings understandable was a fundamental motivation for Mark to write a gospel in the first place. How Mark seems to have used sayings in the construction of narrative, especially the alteration of a proverb found as Thomas 31 into a story in Mark 6:1-6. Possibly similar for Thomas 14c Mark 7:1-23. How proverbs must have a context; a proverb can be true, but what is it true about, e.g. saying 41 (‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’) and Biblical applications thereof. Examples of Thomas sayings that have been given meaning through their insertion into Biblical gospels’ narrative contexts… and how those meanings often differ as different authors provide different contexts.

Chapter Four (possibly two chapters). Various considerations. What are we to make of the fact that most of Thomas’ parables use people’s actions as a simile for the Kingdom while Synoptic parable variants sometimes use things as simile: Thomas 96 “The Kingdom is like a woman who took leaven” vs. Q Luke 13:20-21 // Matthew 13:33 “The Kingdom is like leaven that a woman took.” There is an interesting connection between Thomas 24 // Matt 6:22, Luke 11:34 and emission theory of vision advocated by Euclid and Ptolemy among others. How born-again and “not born of woman” connect in Thomas and John and in synoptic sayings about John the Baptist. Pantocrator sayings in Proverbs 8 leading to Thomas 77 and many New Testament sayings: Hebrews 1:2, Colossians 1:15-17, John 1:1-3 etc. all of which may originate as reflections connected to Proverbs 8; how do their conceptions of Jesus pantocrator differ from that in Thomas? What are we to make of Thomas 17 showing up in Paul’s 1 Corinthians 2:9, and in 1 John 1:1-4. There is an interesting history of Thomas 3 from Duteronomy 30:10-15, Job 28:12-27, Baruch 3:29–4:1, Romans 10:5-10. Thomas 38 has Jesus as Wisdom in the fashion of Proverbs 1:28 in a manner also found in John’s gospel. How it is possible to complete fragmentary NT sayings with the assistance of the Thomas version, e.g. 93. How coherent sets of parables may arise from use of Biblical and Thomasine versions. Finding the one-great-thing and discarding the rest as a parable-set motif including the Great Fish, Big Sheep, Treasure, Pearl parables. Parables lacking the evangelists’ interpretive settings do not automatically fit readings that assume that the principal character is God or Christ but, rather, in a remarkable set of instances the principal character acts stupidly (Thomas 9, 64, 65 and Mark chapter 4 explanatory paradigm). Discussion of the many versions of the saying having to do with faith and moving mountains into the sea; the various versions and meanings within the Gospel of Thomas and in the other gospels. This section of the book will not make any one particular sustained argument but will discuss various subjects separately.

Chapter Five. “Jesus the rabbi” is a very common modern paradigm for Jesus, but in Thomas there are deliberate contradictions to Judean torah law, e.g. 14 and 63. Similar contradictions in Mark 2 and Mark 7, some also in Thomas e.g. 47, 104. The idea of Jesus teaching against Torah law correlates with persecution reports by Paul and persecution reports found in Mark and in Thomas 68. The probable invention of “Jesus the rabbi” by Matthew takes place as a revision of Mark in next generation; a teacher against Torah (at least in some respects) becomes a proto-talmudic teacher in favor of Torah and fence around Torah. One must consider the influence of Jesus’ Galilean origins here; it is not reasonable to presume that a Galilean is ipso facto a Judean with a Judean (aka Jewish) view of Torah and Temple. Matthew’s construction of Jesus as a pharisaic rabbi happens through a shift of the sayings from a narrative-free disorganized list, in Thomas, to narrative dialogues in biographical setting in Mark, to rabbinical sermons in Matthew, especially 5:1 – 7:29: the Sermon on the Mount. Possibly Thomas 6 gave rise to chapter 6:1-18 in Matthew’s sermon. How other Thomas//Q and Thomas//Mark sayings are used and interpreted in the Sermon on the Mount and how that sermon is Matthew’s construction and not Jesus’.

Chapter Six. Discussion of the disciples in Thomas, who stand-in for the growing orthodox Christian communities compared to the disciples in the Gospel of Mark where they also fail to understand and end up betraying, denying and deserting Jesus, and also Paul’s personal problems with disciples e.g. Peter in Antioch and presumably James Peter John’s influence in Galatia. How this view of the disciples turns around in Matthew and Luke where disciples become heroes, as they remain to the present day. The disciples became symbolic heroes of orthodox Christianity and thus we find non-disciples becoming symbolic heroes of non-orthodox Christianity… especially Mary Magdalene in Gospel of Mary (etc.) who is a heroine opposed by disciples. This leads back to Gospel of Thomas 114 where Mary is opposed by the disciples, especially Peter, and into discussion of Thomas 21 which seems at first glance favourable to disciples but probably originally was an attack on them as thieves. How all this relates to Thomas 3 where “those who lead you” are mistaken at the outset of the text and how the disciples function in Thomas as foils: they ask the wrong questions and must be corrected by Jesus. Finally how there are specific hints of Thomasine influence (via Thomas 13) in the new Gospel of Judas (we can make fair-use of the National Geo material even if we can’t get hold of it all; the new partial translation in the New York Review of Books latest issue is an improvement anyhow.).

Chapter Seven. I will make a sustained argument that Mark used Thomas as a source (or, perhaps, a subset or source of Thomas). I will not be pushing this too hard, but suggesting that it is a theory worthy of consideration, one that allows for the possibility of redaction criticism of Mark. A version of this chapter has been published as a two part essay in the biblical studies journal Neotestamentica; those essays would be revised and simplified somewhat for this book. Arguments include the fact that Mark 12:1-12 and Thomas 65 – 66 are fundamentally the same things; Mark has constructed that parable and Hebrew Bible passage so as to reflect his primary interest, the death of Jesus and the consequences thereof. In Thomas we have a parable and a HB passage that are unrelated and disconnected. It is much more likely that the Thomas material was reworked for Mark’s particular views than vice versa. Similar argument for Mark 8:27-33 and Thomas 13. In the chapters on Jesus' public ministry (Mark 1:1-8:22 and 11:1-12:44), thirty six separate sayings can be counted that are neither pure Markan constructions nor occasional comments attributed to Jesus in the course of stories about his miracles. Twenty-one of the 36 Markan sayings have parallels in Thomas: 58%. Of the 21 sayings where Jesus addresses his "Associates," 16, or 76%, have parallels in Thomas (As Jesus' "associates" I include both his disciples and the other people whom Jesus addresses either in large groups or in more intimate assemblages.) Of the 9 sayings labeled "parables" by Mark, 8 are to be found in Thomas (89%). Of the 21 Thomas paralleled sayings, 20 are either addressed by Jesus to Associates or characterized as parables or both (95%). The only exception is the "render unto Caesar" chreia. Conversely, Jesus addresses or refers to "authorities" in 15 sayings, only 5 of which are paralleled in Thomas, 33%; of those 5, however, 4 are labeled parables (by "authorities" I mean those people labeled herodians, priests, lawyers, elders, scribes, sadducees and pharisees in Mark's Gospel). Of the ten sayings that are addressed to or refer to "authorities," but which are not labeled parables, seven cite the Hebrew Bible. The one citation of the Hebrew Bible that is to be found in Thomas paralleled material is labeled, uniquely, a parable. Throughout chapters 1-8:22 and 11-12 of the Gospel of Mark, whenever Jesus speaks to his associates or when he is said to speak in parables, a full 75% of the time he does so with words paralleled to one degree or another in the Gospel of Thomas. When we look at the occurrence of Thomas-paralleled material in Mark, it is usually grouped together. Of the 21 paralleled sayings, three occur in the sequence 2:18-22, two in the sequence 7:14-23, three in the sequence 12:1-17, and no fewer than eleven are found in the sequence 3:27-4:32 although here we do find one saying (4:25) that is not in Thomas and the sequence is interrupted by redactional material at 4:10-20. Only two Thomas-paralleled sayings are freestanding, while 90% of them are aggregated. How all of this, and more, indicates a close connection between Thomas and Mark leading toward the conclusion that Mark used Thomas, or that Mark used an earlier shorter version of what we now know as Thomas.

Chapter Eight. The only really Thomasine passage in the synoptic gospels is Luke 17:20-21, one similar to Thomas 113 and 3b. Segue from that fact into a chapter on the fundamental meaning of Thomasine Christianity and how it is not the same as the synoptic or Johannine Christianity, and not really Gnostic either. Adapt simplify and update my "The Christology and Protology of the Gospel of Thomas" from the Journal of Biblical Literature Volume 111, Number 4, Winter 1992. Main point is that the Thomasine Christians found the Kingdom of God in the world now, an idea Biblically grounded in the view that the Kingdom has persisted invisibly from the time of Genesis 1:1-2:4 to the present; a second creation follows in Genesis 2:5 etc. including Adam’s creation and fall (see Thomas 85) and that one is the one people usually see. A “return to the beginning” (Thomas 18, 19) discovered privately in the present by Thomasine Christians is the conceptual opposite of the apocalyptic Biblical and orthodox view that the Kingdom is coming publicly and in the future. Probably will have to revise this essay to make it a bit more accessable to amateur audience, but it makes a nice conclusion for the book, gives it some authority among professionals, and might get us a nice blurb from Elaine Pagels.

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