Essay On The Gospel Of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is described as a wise man, that believed in the kingdom of his Father, the power of peace, and that everyone who followed his teachings would be allowed into the kingdom. Although the Gospel of Thomas has a lot of similarities with other gospels it does leave out various points that were important to early Christianity. Christianity is the religion about Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. However in the Gospel of Thomas neither of the crucifixion or resurrection are directly talked about. Thomas does talk about death in some of the sayings, but never specifically about Jesus’s crucifixion or resurrection. For example in line 65, “He said, ‘There was a good man who owned a vineyard.

As mention by Frankforter, the first Christians were Jew and Jesus himself was Jew they relied on the Torah, the Hebrew Scriptures as part of early Christianity. However, Thomas has sayings in his Gospel that challenge this idea. In line 39 it says, “Jesus said, ‘The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of Knowledge and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however, be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves” (Gospel of Thomas). It is known that when Jesus was around he did not get along with the Pharisees, but the importance of the Torah even when Jesus was alive suggest that he had respect for the Hebrew scribes. The believed that he is the one and only god is challenged in line 30 were Thomas suggests that god is everywhere, but in the same line, Jesus himself acknowledges that there are other gods. Lastly, in early Christianity, it was believed that one had to follow the law of the Roman Empire and the law of Jesus to enter his kingdom. However the notion of ethical monotheism can be questionable in the Gospel of Thomas. For example in line 98, it mentions that Jesus said, "The Kingdom of the Father is like a certain man who wanted to kill a powerful man. In his own house, he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand could carry through. Then he slew the

However, there are facts that do not change. The Gospels of Thomas have many odd sayings describing Jesus that seem to be out of context with some fact that are known about Jesus. Like in line 43, he has Jesus talking about Jews as if he was not one. One other odd saying he has as a testimony of Jesus that is hard to accept as true is, “Jesus said, ‘He who knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a harlot’ (105). It does not make any logical sense Jesus would ever tell someone that they would be called the son of a prostitute? There other odd saying such as the last line of line 13 that make Jesus seem as someone with evil powers, when he was about bringing peace to the people. One last odd saying is in line 114 where Jesus said, “For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Gospel of Thomas). In this line, Jesus is defending woman as it is known that since is early beginning Christianity was a religion equal to everyone, but he is also saying women need to convert to man to enter his Father’s