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Summary: Authentic words of Jesus
Review: Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: From me all has come forth, and to me all has reached. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." --saying number 77
That saying is one of the most startling things I have ever heard attributed to Jesus--or anyone. What it means precisely I do not have the scholarship to tell you, but what I take it to mean is that Jesus lives in all things, not just humans but ALL THINGS. When I first read that saying, I went outside and literally split a piece of wood, looking for signs of Jesus. What I found was simply the inside of a tree. Then I went and lifted a stone; A dozen or so insects went running. I said to myself, "Jesus is living in all life". Quite a contradiction when you consider that most churches do not even consider animals as worthy of the slightest bit of mercy, and certainly not worthy of concern or help. Since I read that passage a few years ago, I have found myself watching where I step, so as not to kill any little creatures. I have taken to releasing uninvited insect guests in my house, rather than taking the fly-swatter to them. When I find a stray dog, I feed it and water it and either find it a home or keep it myself. I try to be kind to all creatures, plants and people. I remember the passage in the Bible where Jesus says, "As you do unto one of these the least of my children, so you do unto me". I have expanded my understanding of that to include not just human children, but all living things.
The Gospel of Thomas contains 114 sayings, many of them as deep and mysteriously beautiful as number 77. Whether, after reading the book, you come to regard the sayings as genuine or not, it is worth owning. Every Christian and every other human being on this earth should read this book. Even if it doesn't change your life, it is a good introduction to Jesus as a teacher, without references to the events of His life or comments from the author of this gospel.
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Summary: Poor scholarship reveals an unscholarly bias by Meyer
Review: Marvin Meyer has done a service for us in that he has translated the Coptic text of a document that helps to explain the beliefs of proto-Gnostic Greek mystery sects in the second century. However, his introduction reveals his bias. One must remember that the Gospel of Thomas is dated by reputable scholars as somewhere between 70-100 years younger (and therefore more unreliable) than the synoptic Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke). One must also remember, as Meyer describes, that the Gospel of Thomas survives in its entirety in only ONE full manuscript, and it is a translation of the missing Greek text into the unrelated Coptic language. (We also have three Greek quotations of the text of the Gospel of Thomas in the writings of some early church fathers). Compared to the thousands of partial and full ancient Greek manuscripts that we have available to us of the canonical gospels, the Gospel of Thomas cannot be seriously considered to be a more accurate account of the teaching of Jesus than the canonical gospels.
Meyer obviously favors the Gospel of Thomas over the canonical gospels, with some extremely faulty reasoning. Meyer writes on pages 8-9 of the intro, "The most well-known Christian collection of sayings is what Burton Mack calls "the lost gospel" Q (from the German Quelle, "source"), which was used, along with Mark, by Matthew and Luke in the compilation of their gospels. As it has been reconstructed out of sayings in Matthew and Luke, Q was very likely a "gospel" of wisdom very much like the Gospel of Thomas in it is literary genre." In other words, Meyer likes to see Jesus as a teacher minus all the miracle stories present in the canonical gospels, which, in his mind, was who Jesus really was. The Gospel of Thomas, with no miracle stories or crucifixion/resurrection narrative, obviously reveals a Jesus that Meyer prefers to the "Jesus of Faith." But relying upon Q to prove that Christ was not a supernatural miracle worker but only a wise teacher is unbelievably subjective. Q is hypothetical, a theory, that's it. There is no Q manuscript anywhere in existence. Q very well may have existed as a source for Matthew, and Luke, but if it did, we have no sure idea what it contained. Meyer talks as if he is quoting directly from Q, which allows him to come to whatever conclusion he wishes to reach. If Q really consists of what is common to Matthew and Luke, it could just as well contain many miracles of Christ in addition to teaching alone.
It is far more likely that the Gospel of Thomas is the representation of a mixture of Greek philosophical Gnosticism and Christian belief. Meyer himself admits on page 6 of the introduction that it is likely that the Gospel of Thomas was written by a Manichean, a group which Meyer describes as "mystical, gnostic followers of the teacher Mani." The ancient church father Cyril of Jerusalem attributed the writing of the Gospel of Thomas to a Manichean, and scholars knew this long before the text of the Gospel of Thomas was ever even discovered in the 20th century.
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Summary: Great Translation and Innovative Interpretation
Review: Marvin Meyer's translation is readable and accurate with copious notes. If you are able, the Coptic Gospel of Thomas is made available. Harold Bloom, noted literary critic and self-described Gnostic Jew, gives an insightful interpretation. Ultimately, the esoteric teachings of Jesus in this Gospel of Thomas do not rival the exoteric teachings of Jesus' public ministry as revealed in the Gospels of the New Testament. However, if the Coptic Church or Gnosticism is of interest to you, this is an excellent read for scholars and general interest readers alike.
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Summary: The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus
Review: Maybe I'm wrong. But I don't think so. The first time I heard of this Gospel was in the movie Stigmata. Since then I have looked up information on the internet in several places and found that the description of the stigmata given in the computer is very much like the movie I saw. Then when it introduced the Scrole of the Hidden Sayings of Jesus Christ that was found in 1945. And revered by scientist and scholers all over the world as the closet actual sayings of Jesus Christ in his own words that has ever been found. However at that time it was presented to the Vatican it would not recognise it. They claimed it as heresay. When I first heard the words spoken in (English) in the movie, and I know that may sound like it was just a movie type of stunt. I was so overwhelmed. All I could think about was what I have always believed to be true. That is if you want to attend church it should be because you actually get something out of it and you enjoy it. However, I am not Catholic, by family generation I am Baptist. If you want to know my opinion about my religion; I have yet been to a sermon that the preacher did not step on someone's toes. When I attend church I want to leave there feeling good about life and myself and my relationship that I have with Jesus. I used to attend a Catholic Church as a visitor with my best friend. I loved the way that particular Priest conducted his Mass. Back then I loved the way that we could kneel down and pray to Jesus individually. Not with a someone standing over us telling us to pray for whatever he was praying for. I have alway sought my relationship with Jesus as a very personal and confidential one. My Father-In-Law went to live with the Angels on December 24th a 2:45 am. I took care of him, moved in with my in-laws to help out so that my Mother-In-Law could get some rest so that she could go to work. There were basically 2 things he worried about. #1 he worried that his wife would not be able to handle it; and that his boys (he has three) but the youngest has been in a lot of trouble for a long time and he really didn't want him to come to the funeral. But he did worry that the other 2 would have a hard time with it also. The 2nd thing that worried him was that because he did not go to church on a regular basis and he used bad words that he would not go to heaven. The Preacher from his wife's church didn't help. He was constintly asking him if he had gotten his life right with the Lord. My Father-In-Law had the same Preacher marrie me and my husband that had married several of their family members. His name was Preacher Taylor and my Father-In-Law just thought so much of him. My husband tells me that whenever, most of the time, when his Dad heard that Preacher Taylor was going to Preach at his church he usually went. My husband also told me that even though his Dad did not go to church on a regular basis and that Preacher Taylor knew this he never made my Father-In-Law feel out of place or embarrsaing him in front of the congregation by drawing attention to the fact that he was finally here. He told me, his wife and one of his sister-in-laws that he didn't know how or what to pray. So I showed him that Jesus said that if you were not sure what or how to pray then all you have to do is pray The Lords Prayer. But also to ease his mind about not going to church I showed him in the Bible Matthew 6: 1-19. You don't have to pray in public you can get in your closet and pray if that is how you want your relationship to be with Jesus. Personal and Confidential. That is why when I first heard those words in that movie I knew then that he was going to heaven. But personally I don't think that we should keep continuing to translate the words into similar words that we think mean the same thing. Yes, I do agree that it needs to be translated into foreign languages; hopefully the meaning will not be lost in the translation. I know that this like stigmata is a predomitally a Catholic subject. But The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, should be made available to all religions. That is why I wish that this Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus should be printed so that it could have a web page all of it's own. Written in the origional translation. If you view the movie Stigmata you will understand what I am talking about. But I am pretty sure that a big shot author won't even give my advice a second thought. But hey that's O.K. I know what and how I feel about it. And because I do I am going to make something special for my Mother-In-Law, my sister-in-law and myself that will include the Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, the Lords Prayer and the verses in Matthew 6: 1-19. Along with a special letter that my niece wrote on Christmas Day about her PaPa,until I read it I had no idea that she was that talented in writeing. And in the middle will be a beautiful description of the hopefully relationships that he had with everyone, along with the best picture I have of him. He was actually smiling. My point is that if an author translate something at least don't translate it using different words that supposidly come close to the original words. It takes away from the meaning.
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Summary: Interesting and a little mysterious
Review: Most the sayings can be found in the new testement, I caught the so called "hidden sayings", such as "break a piece of wood and you will find me" which caught my eye, refering to God being everywhere, and not just confined to a church, and this seems to be make sense, since Jesus taught the Sermon on The Mount outside and not just in churches or synagauges. The Jewish teachings of the time put a great emphasis on holy places and buildings, but Jesus only used the buildings as a place of gathering and teaching, but... Why would these few hidden saying be left out of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. I found that difficult to beleive, but I guess thats what makes them mysterious.It's worth reading.
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Summary: What's that all about?
Review: please give me a break! is this book suppose to be funny, 'cause i was laughing at a lot of the stuff.
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Summary: Review of the Gospel of Thomas
Review: Some of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas are found in the 4 gospels and some are not. The sayings that are not found in the 4 gospels seem kind of strange and difficult to understand to me. But perhaps they can be related to the 4 gospels anyway. For instance, Thomas 98 (thrusting a sword into a wall) could be related to Luke 14:26-33 (building a tower). The 2 stories are completely different but the basic teaching in both is to not begin an endeavor until you first see if you have enough resources to complete it.
Of the sayings in the G.O.T. that are found in the 4 gospels I notice that 2 of them are clearly explained in the 4 gospels. Thomas 9 (parable of the sower) is clearly interpreted in Matt. 13:18-23 and Luke 8:11-15. Thomas 57 (parable of the tares and wheat) is clearly interpreted in Matt. 13:36-43. None of the sayings in the G.O.T. are interpreted which is why the 4 gospels and N.T. must be used to help interpret the G.O.T. and not the other way around.
Thomas 101 is one part of the G.O.T. where more information is given than is given in the 4 gospels. In Luke 14:26 it says astonishingly that we are to hate our parents. But the equivalent passage in Thomas 101 adds that we are to love our parents also which agrees with Eph. 6:1-3 (first commandment with a promise). It seems that the basic idea Jesus was teaching is to hate the sin but love the sinner--no matter whether the person is our parents or someone else.
Perhaps the reason the G.O.T. is so cloaked is because of what Jesus says in Thomas 108 and also in Matt. 13:10-17 and Luke 8:9,10 & 10:21,22. It seems to me the basic idea that Jesus is presenting in those verses is that he will only reveal his secrets to those who sincerely seek his word on a regular basis. Other verses related to this basic idea could be Jer. 29:13 and 2 Esdras 13:53-56 and Heb. 11:6 and John 5:39. Perhaps Psa. 42:l (hart thirsts for the brook) and Psa. 119 (the psalmist's love for God's word) are good cross-references for the phrase "drinks from my mouth" found in Thomas 108.
If the G.O.T. is saying what I think it is saying, then it is an interesting book. That seems to me to be a major difficulty with the book. How can any one interpretation be proven correct when the book is written so vague and difficult to understand. So the G.O.T. winds up being what each reader makes of it in his own mind. To me, the G.O.T. is an enjoyable supplement to the 4 gospels.
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Summary: Work of a genius
Review: The author, Marvin, is a brilliant man. Nobody has put together a book with such FLAVOR as he has in the Gospel of Thomas. The text is translated brilliantly and is understandable even for young readers. Anybody who believes that the sayings of Jesus exist should read this book. An A+ in my book!
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Summary: An Excellent Introduction To An Important Christian Text
Review: The first verse of the Gospel of Thomas tells the reader that whoever understands the gospel's sayings will not "...taste death." It is a clear message that understanding these sayings of Jesus is key to one's spiritual growth. Thus, the onus is on the interpreter to create both an effective translation and a context to evaluate the sayings in order to facilitate this growth. Meyer does a marvelous job of meeting these demands. The book's introduction gives the reader excellent background information on the discovery and authorship of the text. The translation of the text itself is bolstered by the very helpful notes listed after the gospel. The notes made it very easy to cross-reference the gospel's text with similar passages in the New Testament's four gospels. Finally, Harold Bloom provides an interesting commentary that's useful for reflection on the gospel's themes. There is no guarantee that reading the Gospel of Thomas as translated by Meyer will provide the spiritual enlightenment that many people seek. However, Meyer does his best to allow the reader to discover this enlightenment by not clutter the text with his own views and biases. The result is that Meyer's interpretation is a perfect way to learn about and evaluate this important "lost" book of Christianity.
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Summary: The Gospel of Thomas: Fiction, Not Fact
Review: The Gospel of Thomas is fiction and should be represented as such. Although the writer was clearly familiar with the New Testament documents, this book was written in the second century and is a convoluted rewriting of the original documents that completely misrepresents the Jesus of history, his purpose, and his teachings. In fact, the differences between the "lost sayings of Jesus" and the recorded historical sayings of Jesus are so vast that they have reached the realm of fiction. In this "gospel," Jesus contradicts the fundamental teachings recorded in the New Testament books. He contradicts the fundamental teachings recorded in the Old Testament books. He teaches a gospel so far flung from the historical reality that it presents a different method of salvation and a different god entirely. Those who would argue that the Gospel of Thomas is the accurate recording of the words of Christ - and that we should accept these teachings over the 66 accepted books of the Bible - have a dilemma. The overwhelming amount of historical and archeological evidence points to the New and Old Testaments as reliable documents of history. We may disagree about what they mean, but the documents themselves are accurate records of the events. Even more challenging for those who promote this "gospel" as authentic: All of the fundamental elements of the gospel taught by the New Testament Jesus are confirmed by first and second century secular, as well as religious, sources. For skeptics, the most important to consider is the secular - often hostile - record. When the teachings of the New Testament Jesus are authenticated by hostile sources in a secular culture that sought to destroy the Christian faith, there is no stronger proof of authenticity. So do we throw out the 66 books of the Bible and believe the Gospel of Thomas? Or do we recognize this gospel for what it is - fiction? Not only is the Gospel of Thomas a work of fiction, it is downright silly. The level of writing and philosophy is childish, at best. For readers looking for the Jesus of history, and for proof that the New Testament is reliable as recorded - with proof coming from both secular as well as nonsecular sources - I recommend The Historical Jesus, written by respected historian Gary Habermas, who evaluates the life, death, and resurrection of Christ as recorded in the New Testament documents according to the most rigorous standards of academic scholarship. Even better, if you want to read about the Jesus of history, I urge you to read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, not the fantasy of a man who called himself Thomas.
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