For centuries, the Bible has been revealed. It can be interpreted differently by different people.
For a variety of reasons, the Gospel of Thomas is not found in the Bible. It includes a variety of quotes from Jesus.
Scholars and internet users questioned the Gospel of Thomas after claiming it was “banned” from the Bible. This was purposefully left out even though it is untrue. This is due to the fact that some of the teachings differ from those ascribed to Jesus in the Bible.
The Gospel of Thomas, according to Cross Examined, “doesn’t report on major parts of Jesus’ life” and “doesn’t follow a narrative structure.”
Rather, it discusses 114 “esoteric sayings,” which are supposedly secrets that Jesus shared with his disciples while he was alive.
“These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down,” reads the opening line of one document.
Bart Ehrman claims in After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity that even while “some of these sayings” may be earlier and “go back to Jesus himself,” the manuscript was “probably” composed in the early second century.
The authenticity of the Gospel of Thomas is questioned by many academics. Apostle Thomas could not have written it because of the time period, which would require it to have been written after the apostles’ deaths.
Additionally, it was left out since the church often evaluates texts based on “three different attributes.”
First, the Gospel must be linked to apostolic eyewitness accounts in order to qualify as one of the canon texts. This condition was not met by the Gospel of Thomas.
The term “apostolic eyewitness” describes the apostles’ first-hand recollections and teachings. Jesus himself chose these individuals to be witnesses to his life, teachings, death, and resurrection.
Thomas was, in fact, the name of one of the apostles. But it was determined that the book was written in the middle of the second century, which was a considerable time after the death of the last apostle.
The second reason is that the Gosptel is more Gnostic and did not fit in with any other biblical writings. This indicates that it places greater emphasis on individual spiritual knowledge as the method of salvation, which the church did not believe to be consistent with other biblical teachings.
Third, the church only mentioned four Gospels at the time and did not wish to add any more.
What, then, made the Gospel of Thomas so unique?
According to Marko Marina, Ph.D., it was more concerned with Jesus’ voice and how he communicated “salvation through his teachings” than it was with “death and resurrection.”
While ignorance and a refusal to face the truth are listed as the primary problems in the Gospel of Thomas, sin is described as the primary problem in other biblical scriptures.
“Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you,” is a quotation from Jesus. Because nothing is hidden that won’t be revealed.
He responded, “The man is like a wise fisherman who casts his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish,” according to another passage from the Gospel. The shrewd fisherman discovered a superb, huge fish among them. He easily selected the big fish and threw all the smaller ones back into the sea. Let whoever is able to hear hear.
The Jesus described in Thomas’s Gospel likewise holds a different view of the location of the “kingdom.” “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you,” Jesus is said to have said.
“The fish will come before you if they tell you, ‘It’s in the sea.
Instead, the kingdom exists both inside and outside of you.
Some people are more receptive to the existence of the Gospel of Thomas than others, who see it as a parody of Christianity.
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