The Gospel of Thomas
c. 50–150 CE (Greek fragments c. 200 CE) · Early Christian / Gnostic · Egypt; possibly Syria
*This translation is not currently available.* The Gospel of Thomas is a Coptic sayings-gospel attributed to Didymos Judas Thomas and preserved in Nag Hammadi Codex II. The codex was discovered in Egypt in December 1945; no translation of any kind is possible before that date. All adequate English translations post-date the discovery and remain under copyright. We are actively exploring ways to include this text. Subscribe to our email list at anunnaki.ai for updates when new texts are added.
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
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