The Bible’s text

What the Gospel of Thomas is

In 1945 farmers near Nag Hammadi in Egypt dug up a jar of ancient books. One of them was a complete copy of a “gospel” that had been lost for over a thousand years. What is the Gospel of Thomas, and what can it tell us?

1The question

What kind of book is the Gospel of Thomas, and how much can it tell us about Jesus?

2What Christians believe

Most Christians see the Gospel of Thomas as a later book, written in the second century and shaped by Gnostic ideas, which taught that salvation comes through secret knowledge. They note that the early churches did not read it in worship and that church writers who mention it treat it as outside the accepted books.

Christians also point out what Thomas leaves out. It has no birth story, no miracles told as stories, no death on the cross and no resurrection, so it cannot stand beside the four Gospels as a full account of Jesus.

3What the texts say

Sayings that also appear in Thomas

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Matthew 7:7 · KJVRead in context →
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Matthew 13:31 · KJVRead in context →
And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mark 4:9 · KJVRead in context →

The centre of the four Gospels

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1 Corinthians 15:3 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Greek fragments of Thomas were found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt between 1897 and 1903, before anyone knew which book they came from. The full Coptic text found at Nag Hammadi in 1945 showed they were pieces of the same work, a list of 114 sayings each introduced with “Jesus said”.

Scholars disagree about its date. Simon Gathercole (The Gospel of Thomas: Introduction and Commentary, 2014) dates it to the second century and argues that it draws on Matthew and Luke. Stephen J. Patterson (The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus, 1993) argues that many of its sayings come from an early, independent tradition. April D. DeConick (The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation, 2006) sees it as a collection that grew in stages.

It is a different book from the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a later collection of childhood stories about Jesus. Scholars agree that the Gospel of Thomas is a sayings collection with no account of the crucifixion or resurrection.

5The Islamic perspective

The Qur’an does not mention the Gospel of Thomas, and Muslims do not treat it as scripture. What interests Muslims is the picture it gives: Jesus remembered first as a teacher of wisdom, sent with a message from God. The Qur’an speaks of the Gospel as guidance given to Jesus, and of signs he showed by God’s leave:

And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil).
Qur’an 5:46 · PickthallRead in context →
And will make him a messenger unto the Children of Israel, (saying): Lo! I come unto you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird, by Allah's leave. I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead, by Allah's leave. And I announce unto you what ye eat and what ye store up in your houses. Lo! herein verily is a portent for you, if ye are to be believers.
Qur’an 3:49 · PickthallRead in context →

Christian scholars often note that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a different and later book, tells a story of the boy Jesus shaping birds from clay, which also appears in Qur’an 3:49. Muslims believe the Qur’an tells what truly happened, and that an event can be remembered in more than one tradition.

6Objections and responses

“Thomas is a Gnostic book, so it tells us nothing reliable about Jesus.”

Response: Many of its sayings are close to sayings in Matthew, Mark and Luke, such as the parable of the mustard seed and “seek, and ye shall find”. Even scholars who date it late agree it preserves some sayings also known from the Gospels. It shows that early believers remembered Jesus through his teaching.

“Muslims use Thomas because it leaves out the cross.”

Response: The Muslim view of the crucifixion rests on the Qur’an, not on Thomas. Thomas’s silence proves nothing either way. It is useful only as a reminder that early writings about Jesus did not all centre on his death.

7Conclusion

Both sides agree that the Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings, found in full only in 1945, with no account of the cross or resurrection. Christians see a later book shaped by Gnostic ideas. Muslims see an early sign that Jesus was remembered mainly as a teacher sent by God, without making it scripture.

Read Matthew 13:31–32 and Mark 4:1–9, then compare them with the same sayings in a translation of Thomas.

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