The Gospel of Thomas

THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS

and why it is not embodied in the Bible

In the first three centuries after Jesus' death, there were hundreds of different versions of Jesus Christ's sayings, hundreds of Gospels.  These competitive Gospels of the early Christians existed until the Roman emperor Constantine was converted to one version of this faith. In the year 325 he convoked a council of the early Christian bishops and theologians in Nicaea (in the present Turkey) in order to determine once and for all who Jesus was, what he said and did. It is reported that all those who were present there were practically under pressure. If Constantine had not obtained the concurrence he wished, he could have withdrawn his support to Christianity. This result consisted of a number of compromises. As in the Roman culture, for instance, the Sun-God was loved very much, the council declared the Roman sun-day to be the Christian Sunday. In the same way the council adopted the traditional celebration of the sun-birth on the winter solstice as celebration of Jesus' birth. For the early followers these celebrations had no particular importance.

Moreover the council of Nicaea banned all versions and variants of the Gospels (including the Gospel of Thomas) with the exception of those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. According to a contemporary report of that time, the hundreds of Gospels and reports of Jesus' teachings which were available then were placed under the table in the gathering hall. At the end of the day everybody left and the hall was closed. All the gathering bishops were summoned to pray that the true Gospels may miraculously appear on the table the next morning. Next day only the books of Matthew,  Mark, Luke and John were lying on the table. Nobody reported who had the key to the hall in the night.

From that time on all other Gospels which were not lying on the table in Nicaea were either hidden (as the Gospel of Thomas) or destroyed. The four Gospels selected for the New Testament were canonically acknowledged, that is, acknowledged as the only authoritative rules of conduct for Christian life   whereas the others were considered apocryphal, that is, clandestine, secret and non-biblical, and were excluded from being read in the divine services. Among these the Gospel of Thomas was reckoned as likewise apocryphal, although it is as rich as, or even richer with the Spirit of Christ than the other four Gospels and was handed down in the same way as these.                

At the time of the Council of Nicaea, the eastern part of what now consists of Turkey, plus Syria and Iraq belonged to the Persian Empire. There the Christians still possessed copies of the early Scriptures, which they could freely study at home, without fear of persecution. The Gospel of Thomas ranked already among these Scriptures in the early days. It was most probably compiled in Syria and gave a conception of Jesus as a wisdom-teacher rather than as a Saviour.

Until the present time only little was known about the content and scope of the Gospel of Thomas. This obscurity which prevailed over one and a half millennium was altogether cleared away through the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas - which was known until now only by name - nearby the town of Nag Hammadi, a hundred kilometres North of Luxor in Upper-Egypt.

The fact that the Gospel of Thomas was found again is the most important archaeological discovery of the twentieth century and  can be considered as a significant event in the history of Christianity. It shows the true portrayal of Jesus, which was utterly misrepresented by the institutional church. And Rome tried and tries everything to make this finding sink into oblivion and reacts very reservedly. The much controversial Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran, which were found in the years 1947 and 1952 in caves on the northern shore of the Dead Sea, consist of manuscripts of the Old Testament as well as documents of the Essene from the time before Jesus' birth. 

On the other hand the findings of Nag Hammadi, which originate from the first centuries of our era, throw a light on the texts of the New Testament and the religious belief of the early Christians. This discovery began when in the year 1945 Egyptian peasants found a pottery urn in a grave at an ancient graveyard; the urn contained papyrus volumes partly leather-bound. 

 These old books were passed on from hand to hand until they ended at the Coptic Museum in Cairo, where they first remained unnoticed. Only eleven years afterwards the significance of the manuscripts started to be known through scientific investigations.

The Galilean Thomas - who, quite wrongly, was reputed to be the sceptical one - was called by Jesus to the apostolate in the year 31. He was one of the twelve apostles who were less mentioned in the Gospels, as his sayings of Jesus were destined just for the inner circle of the apostles. Each apostle saw in Jesus what corresponds to his spiritual level. Thomas cannot describe Jesus with words because he sees in Jesus the indescribable divinity. Thomas is therefore on that level on which the divine reveals it directly to him. Thus, Jesus reveals to him things which he cannot yet tell the others.   In the 13^th logion of the Gospel of Thomas it is said: Not just Jesus is enlightened, but Thomas, too. This means that Thomas has already passed through the path of self-knowledge and has redeemed himself guided of course by the words of Jesus.

Thomas does not report, like the other Gospels, about Jesus' life and works, but apparently takes for granted the knowledge of what is contained therein. The main topic in the Gospel of Thomas is the Kingdom of God: What it is, where it is and how it is manifested.

The Gospel of Thomas represents exclusively a self-contained anthology of those confidential sayings of Jesus which were destined for people being in the process of awakening. It deals with the inner miracle of the person's transformation and his spiritual renewal - instead of outer miracles - and guides us directly to the inner Christian faith. It is in a way the continuation and complement of the Sermon on the Mount, as it repeatedly connects with its sayings. Its spiritual worth is understood by the person seeking God according to his consciousness and his matureness. A person who reads the confidential sayings of Jesus and acts upon them will see himself guided towards true self-knowledge and the recognition of God. In these sayings Jesus approaches us as the enlightened and perfect one who makes the path to the Kingdom of God manifest to all seekers of the Light.

Jesus' sayings from the Gospel of Thomas:

"When you know yourselves, God will know you and choose you. Then you will grasp that you are children of the living Father. But when you do not know yourselves, you will continue to live in want and will be the want itself." "The one who knows the invisible divine world but does not know himself has missed everything."

Seeing the divine presence in everything is only possible when the person has found it in himself. Then everything appears to be permeated by God. Feeling to be one with God in all daily activities means to unify all opposites respectively, to be truthful, to refrain from all prejudices.

The Gospel of Thomas differs from the Bible by its spiritualized interpretation of the Kingdom of God. And the Bible differs basically from the former as it says: One cannot come to God of one's own power. Whereas the Gospel of Thomas affirms one can very well do it, by complying with the confidential teachings of the Saviour and his enlightened example. In this Gospel the "Kingdom of God" or "resurrection" is understood as a change in the state of the human being. The person must liberate himself through self-knowledge - one of the main points in the Gospel - thereby attaining his own divinity already during his earthly life.

Thomas considers Jesus as the transcendent divinity that permeates everything. A person can perceive it and achieve his oneness with it, when he is no more entangled and walks the inner path of recognition.                                 

The need for inner experience is today of prime importance, and the Gospel of Thomas becomes increasingly significant. And it is not just by chance that this guidance is available, precisely in the present transition period, to the consciousness of mankind, in order to make manifest the profound vital wisdom of the inner Christian belief.

Recommended literature: The Gospel of Thomas, translated and Annotated by Steven Davies

ISBN 0-232-52501-3, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, London