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The Gospel of Thomas

c. 50–150 CE (Greek fragments c. 200 CE) · Early Christian / Gnostic · Egypt; possibly Syria

The Prologue and Opening Sayings

1These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke,
2And which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.
3And he said: Whoever finds the interpretation of these words
4Will not taste death.
5Jesus said: Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds.
6When he finds, he will become troubled.
7When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished,
8And he will rule over the All.
9Jesus said: If those who lead you say to you,
10"See, the Kingdom is in the sky,"
11Then the birds of the sky will precede you.
12If they say to you, "It is in the sea,"
13Then the fish will precede you.
14Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.
15When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known,
16And you will realise that it is you who are the sons of the living Father.
17But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty
18And it is you who are that poverty.

On Light and Darkness

19Jesus said: There is light within a man of light,
20And he lights up the whole world.
21If he does not shine, he is darkness.
22Jesus said: Love your brother like your soul,
23Guard him like the pupil of your eye.
24Jesus said: You see the mote in your brother's eye,
25But you do not see the beam in your own eye.
26When you cast the beam out of your own eye,
27Then you will see clearly to cast the mote
28From your brother's eye.

The Kingdom Within

29His disciples said to him:
30When will the repose of the dead come about,
31And when will the new world come?
32He said to them: What you look forward to has already come,
33But you do not recognise it.
34His disciples said to him: Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel,
35And all of them spoke in you.
36He said to them: You have omitted the one living in your presence
37And have spoken only of the dead.
38Jesus said: I am the light that is above them all.
39I am the All; the All came forth from me,
40And the All attained to me.
41Split a piece of wood, and I am there.
42Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.

On Seeking

43Jesus said: The images are manifest to man,
44But the light in them remains concealed in the image
45Of the Father's light.
46He will become manifest, but his image will remain concealed
47By his light.
48Jesus said: When you make the two one,
49And when you make the inside like the outside
50And the outside like the inside,
51And the above like the below,
52And when you make the male and female one and the same,
53So that the male not be male nor the female female;
54And when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye,
55And a hand in place of a hand,
56And a foot in place of a foot,
57And a likeness in place of a likeness;
58Then will you enter the Kingdom.

The Final Saying

59Simon Peter said to him:
60Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.
61Jesus said: I myself shall lead her in order to make her male,
62So that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males.
63For every woman who will make herself male
64Will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

notes

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings (logia) attributed to Jesus, discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, as part of a Coptic Gnostic library. The complete text survives only in Coptic, but Greek fragments on three Oxyrhynchus Papyri (P.Oxy. 1, 654, 655 — published 1897–1898 and fully in the public domain) preserve portions of the text and confirm its circulation in Egypt by the early 3rd century CE. Scholars debate whether the Gospel of Thomas preserves early independent traditions about Jesus's teachings (possibly pre-dating the canonical gospels) or is a 2nd-century Gnostic composition. Unlike the canonical gospels, it contains no narrative — only sayings, dialogues, and parables. Many sayings have parallels in the canonical gospels but with significant differences; others are entirely absent from the New Testament. Its theology is characteristically Gnostic: salvation comes through self-knowledge ("Know yourselves") and recognising the divine light within; the Kingdom is a present spiritual reality, not a future political event. Translation based on the Greek Oxyrhynchus fragments (Grenfell & Hunt, 1897–1898, public domain) with composite scholarly rendering of the Coptic sayings.

currently held: Nag Hammadi Library, Coptic Museum, Cairo; Oxyrhynchus Papyri, British Library

PhilosophyAfterlifeGnostic

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