Drift Bible

Other ancient texts · Early Christian writings

Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas is a list of 114 sayings credited to Jesus. It has no story of his birth, miracles, death or resurrection. People read it because about half the sayings closely match Matthew, Mark and Luke, and because scholars still debate whether it keeps some early traditions about Jesus or reworks the Gospels in a different direction.

  • 2nd century, possibly with earlier sayings
  • Greek
  • Protestant Catholic Orthodox Ethiopian

Should it be in the Bible?

The case for

  1. It is an early text, and some of its sayings may preserve forms older than the ones in the canonical Gospels.

    The evidence

    Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus (P.Oxy. 1, 654, 655) are dated about AD 200–250, roughly as old as some New Testament papyri. Scholars such as Helmut Koester and Stephen Patterson argue that some of its parables are simpler and earlier than the Synoptic versions. For example, the Wicked Tenants in saying 65 lacks the allegorical details found in Mark 12.

  2. Its form, a gospel made only of sayings, matches a kind of text many scholars think the first Christians used.

    The evidence

    Most New Testament scholars think Matthew and Luke drew on a lost sayings source called 'Q'. Thomas shows that collections of Jesus' sayings with no narrative really circulated. Its sayings also appear in a different order from the Synoptics, which some read as a sign of independent oral tradition.

  3. Some early Christians read it and valued its sayings, and a few of them are cited elsewhere.

    The evidence

    Hippolytus (c. 225) and Origen (c. 230s) knew a 'Gospel according to Thomas', which shows it was in use by the early 200s. Saying 2 ('let one who seeks not stop seeking...') is also quoted by Clement of Alexandria from the Gospel of the Hebrews. Saying 82 ('whoever is near me is near the fire') is quoted by Origen, so some of its sayings circulated more widely.

The case against

  1. No church ever accepted it as scripture, and the earliest writers to mention it rejected it.

    The evidence

    It appears in no canon list: not the Muratorian fragment, Athanasius (367), Hippo and Carthage, or any Eastern or Ethiopian list. Origen named it among gospels the church did not accept. Eusebius (Church History 3.25.6) listed it among works to be rejected outright, and Cyril of Jerusalem said heretics used it.

  2. Its teaching differs at key points from the rest of the New Testament.

    The evidence

    Saying 1 says salvation comes through finding the meaning of secret sayings, not through Jesus' death and resurrection, which it never mentions. Several sayings speak of the body and the world as worthless (56, 80, 112). Saying 114 says Mary must 'become male' to enter the kingdom. Scholars disagree on whether to call it 'Gnostic', but its outlook is clearly unlike Paul's letters or the four Gospels.

  3. Several scholars argue it borrows from the canonical Gospels and is therefore later than them, not an independent witness.

    The evidence

    Mark Goodacre (Thomas and the Gospels, 2012) and Simon Gathercole (2012, 2014) point to wording that Matthew and Luke added when editing Mark, and that wording appears in Thomas (e.g. sayings 5, 14, 16). Nicholas Perrin argues it depends on Tatian's Syriac Diatessaron, which would put it after about 170. Its claim to be by Thomas is generally regarded as a later attribution.

Both sides are written as strongly as the honest evidence allows, so you can decide for yourself. Researched by claude-opus-5-5.

When, where and by whom

The text says its author is "Didymos Judas Thomas", who wrote down the "secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke." Most scholars think it is not by the apostle and date it between about AD 100 and 150, perhaps in Syria, where Christians especially honoured Thomas. A minority place an early core of sayings in the first century, while others argue the whole text depends on the canonical Gospels.

Jesus, the New Testament and this book
  • About half of its 114 sayings have parallels in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
  • Saying 20, the mustard seed parable, parallels Mark 4:30–32, Matthew 13:31–32 and Luke 13:18–19. (strong link)
  • Saying 9, the sower parable, parallels Mark 4:3–8 and its parallels in Matthew and Luke. (strong link)
  • Saying 54, 'Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven', combines Luke 6:20 and Matthew 5:3. (strong link)
  • Sayings 65–66, the Wicked Tenants followed by 'the stone the builders rejected', match the same sequence in Mark 12:1–11 (quoting Psalm 118:22). (strong link)
  • Saying 31, 'no prophet is accepted in his own village', parallels Mark 6:4 and Luke 4:24. (strong link)
  • Saying 17 ('what no eye has seen and no ear has heard...') parallels Paul's quotation in 1 Corinthians 2:9. (likely link)
  • Saying 13, where disciples compare Jesus to others and Peter answers, echoes Peter's confession in Mark 8:27–30, though here Thomas gives the superior answer. (likely link)
  • Saying 12 names James the Just as leader after Jesus, which fits James' role in Galatians 2:9 and Acts 15. (likely link)
  • Saying 1 ('will not taste death') and saying 77 ('I am the light') share language with John 8:52 and 8:12. (possible link)
How it came down to us

Three Greek papyrus fragments (P.Oxy. 1, 654 and 655) were found at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, in 1897 and 1903. They are dated about AD 200–250 and were only recognised as Thomas later. The complete text survives in a Coptic translation, the second text in Nag Hammadi Codex II. That book was made around AD 350, found near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, and is now in the Coptic Museum, Cairo. The Greek and Coptic versions differ in wording and order, which shows the text changed as it was copied. After the 4th century no church kept copying it, and it was lost until these finds.

  • Greek fragments Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1, 654 and 655
  • Coptic text in Nag Hammadi Codex II, tractate 2
  • Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.20
  • Origen, Homilies on Luke 1
  • Eusebius, Church History 3.25.6
  • Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 4.36 and 6.31
  • Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.9.45 and 5.14.96
  • Canon lists: Muratorian fragment, Athanasius' Festal Letter 39 (367), councils of Hippo and Carthage
  • Scholarship arguing independence: Helmut Koester, Stephen Patterson, the Jesus Seminar's The Five Gospels (1993)
  • Scholarship arguing dependence: Mark Goodacre, Thomas and the Gospels (2012); Simon Gathercole, The Composition of the Gospel of Thomas (2012) and The Gospel of Thomas (2014); Nicholas Perrin, Thomas and Tatian (2002)

Chapters

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