Thomasine Traditions in Antiquity: The Social and Cultural World of the Gospel of Thomas

by Jon Ma. Asgeirsson (Editor)

This volume is a selection of papers presented to the Society of Biblical Literature "Thomasine Traditions Group" from 1996 to 2001. The papers focus on the early Christian writings attributed to the apostle Thomas with particular emphasis on the "Gospel of Thomas," The collection offers an extensive discussion of the social and cultural world of the gospel, particularly examining its relationship to other contemporary Christian writings and Graeco-Roman literature. The essays give a helpful survey of recent developments and discussions in the field of Thomasine studies. Among many topics dealt with in the volume are the issue of Thomas' "community," the gospel's enigmatic exhortation to become "passers-by," and Thomas' relation to the Hebrew epic, Platonic philosophic traditions, Valentinus, as well as to early gospel harmonies. The volume also proposes a hypothesis of the earliest layer of the Thomasine traditions and presents analyses of Thomas' argumentative rhetology and portrait of Jesus. One essay focuses on the role of the apostle Thomas in the "Acts of Thomas," "Thomasine Traditions in Antiquity" will be a valuable tool for all those interested in Nag Hammadi Studies, Gnosticism, Early Christianity and the history of religion.

308 pages, Hardcover

First published December 23, 2005

Reviews

[Eggtown · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
And he said: “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.” (Gos. Thom. 1)

This whole book was like an advanced study of the social and cultural milieu, and origin of the Gospel of Thomas from eminent scholars working in the field. It contains 12 chapters each consisting of a research study – making it a sort of final report of the SBL group Thomasine Traditions (1996-2001) with a common focus to study the Gospel of Thomas from a variety of perspectives.

The Gospel of Thomas presents us with a vast array of problematic and challenging problems because of the text’s fundamental elusiveness and paradoxical nature. Which of course, also, is one of its most fascinating features.

The gospel consists of 114 logia or Jesus’ sayings, a lot of parables we recognize from the synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke), but with a different emphasis and without the embellished interpretation of those gospel authors, also without or a minimum of narrative.

Two studies (Chapter 3, Sellew and 12, Meyer) in this book does a deep dive into the briefest and probably the most enigmatic saying in the Gospel of Thomas, logion 42:

Jesus says: “Become passers-by.” (Gos. Thom. 42)

Chapter 3 by Philip H. Sellew was one of the most interesting papers investigating the social context and making the connection to ancient funerary epigraphy. It was an eye-opener situating this enigmatic saying to tombs and monuments of the dead that littered the ancient roads outside the cities. Tombs/graves with a stone slab inscribed with “messages from the dead” like this from a gladiator: “Destructive Fate and the deadly treachery of a scorekeeper killed me, and I left the daylight and went to Hades.” – messages for strangers passing-by on the road to stop and ponder on. This gives us clues to the cultural setting where this brief saying is situated and challenges.

What is the Gospel of Thomas? As it’s clearly not a gospel in the traditional sense/genre. Collection of wisdom sayings, instructional speeches, oracles/riddles to be interpreted…? It’s "an amazing combination of Jewish, Greek or Hellenistic, and Christian thought" as Jon Ma. Asgeirsson writes in Chapter 7.

What is the origin of it? Palestine, Syria, Egypt…?

Who produced it, where did it come from, and what community used it?

Neither of these questions get answered in this book – because, as frustrating as it seems there are no definite answers and it seems to be no real consensus either between these scholars. Agreement on certain points, yes, but no overarching consensus.

As the gospel is immensely sparse on giving us the social context of the Thomas Christians (name given to the early Christians that used this gospel) these scholars are investigating the issue by trying to locate the gospel in its social and cultural world and from there on construct a “picture” of the people and communities engaged with it.

It’s a difficult task – and if it’s the itinerant model (a sort of loose community of ascetic wanderers in 1st century) as Stephen J. Patterson in Chapter 1 is devoted to – which Risto Uro in Chapter 2 rejects by showing that the evidence is very slim to infer a specific social function to the Thomas Christians, advocating for a broader definition (maybe no community) and also situating the gospel to a later date (early 2nd century).

The origin of the Gospel of Thomas is a controversial question, due to, if it’s very early (1st century) these sayings will be on par with the canonical tradition (Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John) and challenge that whole historical paradigm of Christian beginnings. Especially, if it's an independent tradition stretching all the way to a Christian-Jewish origin.

If its origin is late (like 2nd-3rd century) then it’s dependent on the canonical gospels and represents a development. Even so, a fascinating diverse development indeed.

For me, personally, it was a very interesting and engaging read where one scholar would present their ideas/interpretations/hypothesis on the historical background of the gospel and in the next paper get challenged on those very same theories. Science in the making you can say! But also, for you, as the reader to make up your own mind.

One of the conscious decisions behind the Thomasine Traditions Group was to view the Gospel of Thomas on its own terms without getting bogged down by the enormous New Testament framework. And as most previous scholarly research has looked at the intertextuality with mostly the synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) – it was refreshing to leave that focus out of these papers. Likewise, the question of Gnosticism or the amount of gnostic elements in these sayings feel quite covered already by previous research.

In Chapter 5, April D. DeConick (who is an advocate for a very early date of the gospel) trying to peel away the layers to find the earliest Christian-Jewish core of the Gospel of Thomas, which she calls the Kernel gospel. This Kernel gospel consists of five instructional speeches of Jesus that follows a rhetorical structure where Jesus is portrayed as a Prophet (Old Testament style). Her paper is more of an overview of her research, as the title indicate (“… a preliminary examination of the Earliest Speeches…”) and simply not enough space to flesh out her theory. It was an interesting read even if I probably need to read her book (Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas: A History of the Gospel and its Growth) to be convinced of her claims.

The most fascinating paper in this collection was undoubtedly, in my mind, Vernon K. Robbins (Chapter 8) where he looks at the rhetorical composition in ten logia of the Gospel of Thomas and makes a convincing case how these are constructed by inductive reasoning (probability -> leads to new information) and more so by abductive reasoning (recognize similarity –> discovers or a flash of new insights).

Robbins shows that these sayings are filled with conventional wisdom that is turned on its head producing contrawisdom. His careful analyzes explains so much how these enigmatic sayings pushes you to really engage in trying to interpret them which leads to insights of shock, puzzlement and surprise.

Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all.” (Gos. Thom. 2)

As I feel enlightened by reading this book and my appreciation of this fascinating work has grown deeper, the Gospel of Thomas still retains all its elusiveness. Timeless, provocative, wonderfully countercultural with an infusion of early Christian thought, Jewish mysticism, Stoicism, Platonic philosophy, and Syrian/Egyptian asceticism etc. and not a static transmission at all, but here caught in an ongoing evolving tradition. Like we are looking through a narrow window and can only see a small part of the scenery outside…

[Jesus said], “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will be amazed. And when he becomes amazed, he will rule. And [once he has ruled], he will [attain rest].” (P. Oxy. 654.5–9)

Good night!