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[sophiaserpentia]

Crossposted 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:

[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.

Robert Grant and David Noel Freedman wrote the following in their book, The Secret Sayings of Jesus: A Modern Translation of the Gospel of Thomas with Commentary. It regards sayings from the Gospel of Thomas which occur in the works of orthodox (non-Gnostic) writers.

"We have already seen that in II Clement there is no hesitation about using materials which are later (?) found in Egyptians and in Thomas as well. Another example is provided by the apologist Justin, who wrote about 160 [AD]. 'The new law wishes us to "sabbatize" [keep the Sabbath] constantly.' By 'the new law' Justin seems to mean the teaching of Jesus; and such a commandment is to be found in Thomas, Saying 28. Again, Irenaeus quotes as a saying of Jesus, "Blessed is he who existed before he was made man" -- and approximately the same words are found in Saying 19. Clement of Alexandria apparently alludes to Saying 28; and we have already seen that the semi-orthodox Martyrdom of Peter, contemporary with [Clement] has several close parallels with Thomas. In a third-century "Manual of Christian Discipline," the Didascalia Apostolorum, Saying 49 is exactly reproduced.

"... Origen says, 'I have read somewhere that the Savior said -- and I wonder whether someone has fictitiously assumed the role of the Savior, or has recalled these words from memory, or if it is true that this was said -- that the Savior himself said, "He who is near me is near the fire; he who is far from me is far from the Kingdom."' Origen's hesitation can readily be explained. In a homily on Luke he vigorously condemned the Gospel of Thomas as apocryphal; he could hardly say in another homily that he was relying on what he had read in it.

"... Origen's embarrassment in relation to Saying 82, however, shows that the problem of judging various items contained within such gospels had not been solved. It was perfectly possible for a late document to contain early materials, and for a forgery to reflect authentic traditions. The fact that Thomas as a whole reflects a Gnostic environment does not permit us to say that everything it contains is to be rejected." pp. 89-91, emphasis added