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Aug. 15th, 2003 07:14 amCrossposted in
questionofgod
The question of whether to accept or reject the Gospel of Thomas from the orthodox or mainstream Christian viewpoint is not clear-cut. Many of the church fathers quoted approvingly from it. For example, in the second epistle of Clement, we find this:
( on references by Justin, Irenaeus, the <i>Didascalia Apostolorum</i>, and Origen. )
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The question of whether to accept or reject the Gospel of Thomas from the orthodox or mainstream Christian viewpoint is not clear-cut. Many of the church fathers quoted approvingly from it. For example, in the second epistle of Clement, we find this:
[II Clement 12] Let us therefore await the kingdom of God betimes in love and righteousness, since we know not the day of God's appearing. For the Lord Himself, being asked by a certain Person when His kingdom would come, said, When the two shall shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female, neither male nor female. Now the two are one, when we speak truth among ourselves, and in two bodies there shall be one soul without dissimulation. And by the outside as the inside He meaneth this: by the inside He meaneth the soul and by the outside the body. Therefore in like manner as thy body appeareth, so also let thy soul be manifest in its good works. And by the male with the female, neither male nor female, He meaneth this; that a brother seeing a sister should have no thought of her as of a female, and that a sister seeing a brother should not have any thought of him as of a male. These things if ye do, saith He, the kingdom of my Father shall come.