The Gospel of Thomas: A Contemporary Translation

by Unknown Nag Hammadi, Joseph B. Lumpkin

In the winter of 1945, in Upper Egypt, an Arab peasant was gathering fertilizer and topsoil for his crops. While digging in the soft dirt he came across a large earthen vessel. Inside were scrolls containing hitherto unseen books.

The scrolls were discovered near the site of the ancient town of Chenoboskion, at the base of a mountain named Gebel et-Tarif, near Hamra-Dum, in the vicinity of Naj ‘Hammadi, about sixty miles from Luxor in Egypt. The texts were written in the Coptic language and preserved on papyrus sheets. The lettering style dated them as having been penned around the third or fourth century A.D. The Gospel of Thomas is the longest of the volumes consisting of 114 verses. Recent study indicates that the original work of Thomas, of which the scrolls are copies, may predate the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. T

Genres: Spirituality, Religion, Christian, Nonfiction

130 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 140

About the author

The unknown authors of the nag Hammadi library.

Chosen to be named that way because the large group of Unknown authors on Goodreads makes combining editions impossible due to time outs.

At least in this way all Nag Hammadi texts can be found in one place.

Reviews

[Gabel Duke · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is amazing to me the obvious heresy that is being taught in these MUCH later writings and they're being passed off as Scripture. Doctrines like secret knowledge, Jesus telling female believers they must become male in order to be saved, etc. I still need a 0 stars option.

[Ben]

The sayings here range from the profound, to the familiar, to the bizarre, to the incomprehensible.

[Galilea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who has suffered and found life.”

[Peter Sontag · Rating 1 out of 5]

Irenaeus put it well “Their manner of acting is just as if one, when a beautiful image of a king has been constructed by some skillful artist out of precious jewels, should then take this likeness of the man all to pieces, should rearrange the gems, and so fit them together as to make them into the form of a dog or of a fox, and even that but poorly executed; and should then maintain and declare that this was the beautiful image of the king which the skillful artist constructed, pointing to the jewels which had been admirably fitted together by the first artist to form the image of the king, but have been with bad effect transferred by the latter one to the shape of a dog, and by thus exhibiting the jewels, should deceive the ignorant who had no conception what a king's form was like, and persuade them that that miserable likeness of the fox was, in fact, the beautiful image of the king.” These gnostic teachers take pieces of scripture and rearrange the pieces to make a different image. They create a fox of a salvation which is based on knowledge and not the salvation based on faith which the King gives to us.

[Arjen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wether this early Christian text was deservedly left out as non-canonical does not matter to me. A truthful account of Jesus' teachings or not- The Gospel of Thomas holds many core spiritual truths. And although some of these sayings make me stand up from my chair to point at the saying and shout "period", there's plenty here that causes a stir.

Firstly, Jesus, as he does, uses many confusing parables. This makes a text like this very interesting from an academic perspective, but does less for the joy of reading.
Secondly, The value of the sayings are sometimes "lost in translation" due to a cultural gap. (Take the seemingly sexist implications).
And lastly, the structure of loose sayings that don't seem nessecarily arranged in a meangful way makes the gospel less captivating than it could be.


"Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

i return to this gospel often; its the most historically legitimate source of sayings attributed to Jesus. but whats more relevant is the gnostic wisdom found within the 114 sayings. its absolutely beautiful and is a staple in my spiritual readings. shoutout to professor billows at columbia for putting me on!

Jesus [said], "One who seeks will find, and for [one who knocks] it will be opened."

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

you guys this is wild

[Lindsey Baird-Waugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read. Some really wierd sayings.

[Ryan McCarthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some wild shit in here.

[Starlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus comes off as a complete disrupter and a radical. Merchants, businessmen, politicians, land owners and squares alike are focus of the Shepherds' ire.

Who said prosperity gospel was scripturally sound?

Jesus is so ready to disrupt the status quo that he is willing to rupture the gender politics of the day and make women more like men. Perhaps my reading is anachronistic but it seems like this Jesus is willing to collapse all stratifications in society that was created by money lenders, merchants and Roman power to create a war in the hearts and mind of all. Clearly if this was in the Bible there would be a lot of argument over Women in the priesthood. But most of all there is almost an anti-natalist bent to this Jesus. Jesus calls for empty Earthly wombs in favor for full spiritual ones. So strange. Really will be thinking of this for a while.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

The gospel of Thomas already has enough going against it as an a-historocal document, and it does not help when a new age translator interprets the literal "kingdom of the father"/"the kingdom" phrasing to the strange and modern choice of "ultimate reality". What a weird translation choice, that doesn't do this fake gospel any favors. Obviously "ultimate reality" is not a phrase that existed in pre-modern times.

[Mel LetoToMyJessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Yeshua said:
If flesh came into being because of spirit,
it is a wonder.
But if spirit came into being because of flesh,
it is a wonder of wonders.
Yet the greatest of wonders is this:
How is it that this Being, which Is,
inhabits this nothingness?”

[Hieu Do · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much of what is written is subject to interpretation. The heaven or hell is within. If I feel lighter, I am feeling my consciousness. Thank you Jesus.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Light exists within people of light, and they light up the whole world. If they don’t shine, there’s darkness.”

[Dave Bodah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Searching for answers

Very interesting to me in my spiritual quest. Always looking for new texts and plan on reading some of the other gospels

[katrina french · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book

Very good read highly recommend this one. The church tries to hide the words of Jesus because they are not operating Christ like

[Katherine Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful and interesting.

[Ryan Mauldin · Rating 3 out of 5]

idk

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see why the church was afraid of it.

[tess]

NAG HAMMADI SUMMERRRRR a strange and beautiful gospel. I don't think it's misogynistic at all also, verse 22 explains it all in the craziest weirdest way, a must read

[Michael Adam Reale · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would not surprise me to learn that this is probably the earliest gospel. it is a list of the sayings of Jesus.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intressant beskrivning.

[Joe Massetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought provoking view of early Gnostic Christianity, and as an outlook on the idea of inner divinity.

And yet, cryptic and troubling in places - utterly bizarre in others

[Darius Murretti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really well done audio book
The narrator has a really deep rich voice.
The epilogue really sums up nicely the difference between the external traditional church which consists of external rituals and morals and realization of the great thing inside us .

the high light of this book is where Jesus says "if you feel absolutely CERTAIN that what you are praying for has already become a reality then what ever you pray for -it will be . If you were to pray with a feeling of absolute certainty for a mountain to to be uprooted and planted in the sea FEELING THAT IT HAD ALREADY BEEN DONE it would instantly be there."

( quite a difference between this aramaic>english translation text and the same saying of jesus translated from greek to english which simply says" If you have faith and pray that a mountain be uprooted and planted in the sea it should obey you " )

I felt much closer to Jesus listening to this translation than the hebrew>greek>english canonical gospels and it conveys much more completely and precisely what jesus was trying to teach(that we have to really feel it has come to pass when we pray for something (this principle is emphasized in The Divine Matrix by Greg Braden and in many psychology books )


So this audio books has 114 sayings of Jesus . First they read the aramaic>english translation then the aramaic>hebrew>greek>english version (the whole audio book is 1:49 and was 5.24 after sale tax)
Translated directly from the aramaic that Christ spoke where as the other Gospels were translated from aramaic to hebrew to greek to latin to english.
Many scholars regard these as being written earlier and being more authentic than the canonical gospels of the orthodox new testament .
Although this scroll were was in a vase along with 13 gnostic scrolls .It is not gnostic but focuses exclusively on jesus (which no gnostic scrolls ever have ) So I think its really authentic but scholars are 50-50 on this ....

These 114 saying s of Christ are more fluent to listen to than to read --so that is why it got 5 stars . plus I know the inner esoteric meanings of everything they are saying so id enjoy this more than someone who is less familiar with the inner meanings but you get a lot better flavor of Jesus and how he talked by listening to this than reading print