Ashley Phillips
October 31, 2013
Research Techniques and Technology
9:00-9:50
Caleb Puckett
Annotated Bibliography:
The Coptic Gospel of Thomas: Real saying of Jesus or Not?
(The Gnostic Gospels: Are they Authentic?) By Douglas Groothuis (found on Web-site CRI :
Christian Research Institute Equip.org)
This Article covers the major Gnostic Gospels (hidden Knowledge) such as (The Coptic
gospel of Thomas). This gospel being the example for Douglas’s research gives the audience a
better insight in what exactly a “Gnostic Gospel” is which is a non-canonical Gospel (a
testimony from supposedly one of the disciples that does not follow the same narration has the
four synoptic (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). In particular, I found the research I was looking
for in the second part of his series (Part Two of this series will therefore inspect the historical
standing of the Gnostic writings in terms of their historical integrity, authenticity, and veracity).
In this part (Thomas under trail), I found the dating’s of the gospel (Thomas’s). Frist: “The
original writing of Thomas has been dated variously between A.D. 50 and 150 or even later, with
most scholars opting for a second century date.35 Of course, an earlier date would lend more
credibility to it, although its lack of narrative framework still makes it more difficult to
understand than the canonical Gospels.(Groothuis, Douglas 2009, Thomas under Trail)
I have found that this article to be very helpful, it has provided me with research for my abstract
of my paper and has also provided me with information for my second question within my
proposal which is; Does the sayings in Thomas’s Gospel match up with the sayings in four
synoptic gospels? here is what I found : “Yet, some of the 114 sayings closely parallel or
roughly resemble statements in the Synoptics, either by adding to them, deleting from them,
combining several references into one, or by changing the sense of a saying entirely. This
explanation uses the Synoptics as a reference point for comparison.(Groothuis, Douglas
2009,Thomas under Trail).
Yes, the author of this article has the credentials to be authorities on this topic. Douglas R.
Groothuis is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. Groothuis was a campus pastor for
twelve years prior to obtaining a position as an associate professor of philosophy of religion and
ethics at Denver Seminary in 1993. He is the author of Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive
Case for Christian Faith, Unmasking the New Age, Confronting the New Age, Revealing the
New Age Jesus, Christianity That Counts, Deceived by the Light, Jesus in an Age of
Controversy, The Soul in Cyberspace, Truth Decay, On Pascal, and On Jesus. He has written for
scholarly journals such as Religious Studies, Sophia, Research in Philosophy and Technology,
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Philosophia Christi, Trinity Journal, and Asbury
Theological Journal as well as for numerous popular magazines such as Christianity Today,
Moody Magazine, The Christian Research Journal, Christian Counseling Today, Modern
Reformation and Perspectives. He has also written editorials for a variety of newspapers
(website: Denver seminar)
This Article is biases but more stated for a scholarly audience who is looking for more in-depth
research. Someone who was really had a back-ground in the Gnostic gospels would be viewing
this maybe to write an academic paper or someone who was very interested in this topic already.
NOTE : I chose this article from CRI, it is considered controversial ,I chose this particular
information based on other resources that had the same analysis on the dating of this gospel. EX
(website: EarlyChristianWritings.com)(I heard about this site from Richard Menninger from
Ottawa University)
Is Luke's Version of the Parable of the Rich Fool Reflected in the Coptic Gospel of Thomas?
Meier, J. P. (2012). Is Luke's Version of the Parable of the Rich Fool Reflected in the Coptic
Gospel of Thomas?. Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 74(3), 528-547.
In this Article, author Meier J.P. is examining Luke’s version of the Parable of the Rich Fool to
that of Thomas’s version of the same parable. (The two works' use of introductory anecdotes is
discussed, and the author argues that Luke used the literary structure of introductions to describe
the audience or the theme of the parable that followed, and was later copied by
Thomas.(EBSCOhost abstract) This examination of both versions of the same Jesus parable is
important to my research, why? , because by showing the significant or maybe not so significant
parallels or similarities within the parable, the audience can be more trusting in their conclusion
at the end. The audience can have a hands on look at the only real evidence that is known to
really solving this problem in the authenticity of the supposedly, Jesus sayings or other sayings
found in Thomas’s gospel. That is Jesus’s own words, does the phrasing match up with the
original Greek document or further? Are key words missing, is the spiritual significances missing
from Thomas’s version that Luke has ? these are what in-depth researches want to know. Also
The citations to the original Greek documents of both Luke’s version of this parable and
Thomas’s is very important and gives the side of my paper ( that Thomas’s sayings are
trustworthy) more leverage and appeal and this is just part of the goal of this paper. It also gives
account to the fact that Thomas’s original writings of Jesus’s saying might have been written
during the same time frame as the “eye witness period”.
Meier, John. P the author of this article can be found to be trustworthy, He is a member
of the international advisory committee of the Cardinal Suenens Program in Theology and
Church Life. From 1983 to 2002, he was a member of the international dialogue between the
Disciples of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church. In May of 1999, he delivered one of the
major invited lectures at the 75th anniversary of the Biblical Institute in Rome. In June-July of
2005, he delivered four lectures at the meeting of Australian-New Zealand Theological Society
at Perth, Australia. On Nov. 22, 2009, he took part in and addressed an international panel of
scholars discussing various aspects of vol. 4 of A Marginal Jew during the annual meeting of the
Society of Biblical Literature. On March 16, 2011, he delivered the annual Reading of the Sacred
Texts lecture at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.(found on the University of
Notre dame web-site)
Porter, J. R. (2012). The lost Bible. New York: Metro Books
This Book is about “Lost Books of the Bible”, canonical and non-canonical books. This book has
short chapters on different “Lost books of Bible” one of them being “The Coptic Gospel of
Thomas”. Porter offers a short introduction and summary that has varies sample quotes put in for
the reader to see and understand what he is refereeing to. Though the chapter is three pages long
it is still organized in such a way that it is packed with a lot of fine details that make this easy to
understand and to the point; For instance, “These fragments suggest that it was originally written
in Greek. The Coptic text, which appears to reflect a marked development of the original, claims
to contain “the secret words” spoken by Jesus and written down by the apostles Thomas.”(page
166) Porter goes on to say that this reference to a hidden revelation indicates a Gnostic outlook
(Gnostic meaning: hidden knowledge)(for something to be Gnostic means to be mystical in
essence). This point is why I chose this book, this would be the third point to my paper, the head
churches don’t consider Thomas ligament because it seems to entail mysticism. According to the
head church, mysticism entails only being saved by knowing secret knowledge and this is
another reason why it is so controversial. But on the other hand, Jesus would only talk in
parables to the commoners when bringing across an important revelation and if you understood
the meaning you were considered close to the kingdom of heaven. This is the other side to this
argument. Too understand the parables or hidden knowledge you would have eternal life. The
parables represent the will of God and only by accepting the will of God which is Christ is the
only way to go heaven.
(J. R. Porter was Professor emeritus of Theology at the University of Exeter and a former
fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He served for twenty years as a member of the General Synod
of the Church of England and contributed to many works of reference, including The Harper
Bible Dictionary and The Oxford Companion to the Bible.) ( found on the back jacket of this
book)(I own this book) this book is very easy to read, it is a reference classic that is reader
friendly and straight to the point with many great illustrations and documents.
Davies, S. (1992). THE CHRISTOLOGY AND PROTOLOGY OF THE GOSPEL OF
THOMAS. Journal Of Biblical Literature, 111(4), 663
This journal of biblical literature(article) is about the tradition of Christian theology meaning
the tradition of ideas and the use of repetitive phrases like (the Kingdom of Heaven). Davies
proposes that Thomas’s book can be viewed into two categories first the primordial light and the
beginning, meaning the idea of phrases that seem almost mystical in a sense are in fact a tradition
in the other Synoptics that are not new at all(Page 663). Also Davies gives awareness to the fact
that the Q document which was a teaching document that the disciples used to write their gospels
is the same as Thomas’s sayings. Davies argues in his book this key passage that is essential to
understanding both sides of Thomas’s book, which is this; Thomas’s Jesus wants everyone to
consider the fallen state of the world and remember that through Christ we inevitable are
restored to the image of God and his paradise that he intended from the beginning for us.
Finding Christ is knowing the state of Fallen world and restoring ourselves through the use of
hidden saying or revelations that Christ gives to us is within ourselves. Davies notes that this
hidden knowledge within ourselves are Christ words that will restore us to himself. Davies feels
that this might say that it is not through Christ’s death that we are saved but is knowledge he give
us. This is the other huge controversy in the church which answers my other part of this paper
3,4, Which is this; does Thomas’s theology contradict the message in the other four gospels?
Does this information change how we view looking at the four synoptic gospels?
(I When I first began my research on the Gospel of Thomas, Stevan Davies’s, The Gospel of
Thomas and Christian Wisdom proved to be a foundational book for my own thinking. I have
read, with benefit, Davies’s other publications on the Gospel of Thomas and even where I have
disagreed with him I have found his work to be helpful for my own study. Dr. Davies is
Professor of Religious Studies at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania)-(information
of Stevan Davies was found on this blog : “Peje Iesous” is an English transliteration of the
Coptic phrase Peje Iesous.com) (more information about the blogger- Christopher Skinner : I am
a biblical scholar with research interests in the areas of narrative hermeneutics, the canonical
gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, and the historical Jesus. I completed my Ph.D. in Biblical
Studies at the Catholic University of America in 2007 under the direction of Francis J. Moloney,
S.D.B.)
Patterson, S. J. (2013). The Gospel of Thomas and Christian origins: Essays on the Fifth Gospel.
This book is a series of Essays that Patterson over the years has wrote on the bases of Thomas
gospel and the for synoptics, what makes this book very different than the other books or articles
I have citied is that , Patterson believes that the lack of tradition in the Thomas book is the effect
of earlier Christian traditions, earlier than the synoptic, this for me has been informative to my
paper. For my overall questions that carry my proposal is this theme, that Thomas’s work might
contain earlier Christian origins, this might be why it does not follow the other synoptics. This
new article, I believe is important for any reader that is not sure how to place Thomas. You can
find this information I have summarized on page 10 of this book.
Stephen J. Patterson is Professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis.
His previous books include The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus (1993), The God of Jesus (1998),
and The Fifth Gospel (1998).(found on Fotress press.com)( Fortress Press has been a pioneer in
religious scholarship and Fortress Press publishes in three main areas; FP Education, FP
Academic, and FP Reference)
Wright, C. (2004). The Sayings Gospel Q in Greek and English With Parallels From the Gospels
of Mark and Thomas/Q-Parallels: Q-Synopsis and IQP/Crit Ed Parallels. Religious Studies
Review, 30(2/3), 199.
This book is a review of “The Sayings Gospel Q in Greek and English with Parallels from the
gospels of Mark and of Thomas”. The book its referring to is a small book about the Gospel Q,
this book gives an understanding into how the disciples wrote their gospels and how they
arranged them which we now have as early Christian traditions in writing. I chose this book
based on its parallels with Thomas’s phrasing and tradition and non-tradition. It is good to try to
find documents that are close to the original as possible. With this in mind, I feel that this
resource helps the audience understand what exactly is the tradition of Christian language. This
will help reveals the holes in Thomas and the unique and new representation of this book. (The
International Q Project has been working for many years to establish the text of Q—the source
for sayings of Jesus utilized by both Matthew and Luke. This edition provides a student version
that includes both Greek text and English translation of the Sayings Gospel Q. In addition, it
includes a glossary of Q's vocabulary, with English definitions. The introduction provides
orientation for the student on the nature of Q and a brief history of research.)
This book that this review is reffering to is by Paul Hoffmann (Editor); John S. Kloppenborg
(Editor); James M. Robinson (Editor)(found on Fortress press.com)
Perrin, Nicholas. Currents in Biblical Research. Feb2007, Vol. 5 Issue 2, p183-206. 24p
This Acadmeic Journal focuses on two questions: (1) whether the Coptic sayings collection
preserves material going back to the historical Jesus, and (2) whether it is dependent on the
synoptic Gospels or attests to an independent line of tradition, relatively uninfluenced by the
canonical texts. Also this journal observes that Thomas is little used in contemporary Jesus
scholarship and seeks to elucidate reasons for this. As to whether or not the author of Thomas
was privy to our synoptic gospels, scholarship has been undergoing an ever-deepening
entrenchment of positions. I chose this book as an add-in, meaning this journal stresses previous
information form other books or articles that I am formulating for my paper, basically this
journal is to clear up or make better anything in my writing that is not clear or needs polishing.
Perrin, Necholas: Education : Ph.D., Marquette University, 2001, Dissertation Title: “Thomas
and Tatian: The Relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron”, M.Div.,
Covenant Theological Seminary, 1994, B.A., The Johns Hopkins University , 1986, B.A., The
Johns Hopkins University , 1986. –Perrin Necholas is a professor at Wheaton College, IL where
he teaches Biblical studies. (side note: this is the same college I want to apply to in the future for
my Ph.D in Biblical archeology! I was very excited to find this journal from Wheaton College)
Horman, J. (2011). A Common Written Greek Source for Mark and Thomas. Waterloo, Ont:
Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
In this Book, Horman tells of his discovery in 1979. Horman proposed that the authors of the
Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Thomas shared a common written Greek source of the
illustrative story of the sower. a source apparently represented more accurately in Thomas.
(Introduction) Since Hormans Discovery he had some opportunity to investigate the sayings
which could be attributed to such a source. He began with a close comparison between the Greek
text of Mark and the Coptic translation of Thomas, taking into account the Greek fragments of
Thomas and the Coptic translations of the synoptic gospels. It became apparent that the
illustrative story about the sower was no exception, and that other sayings were, when subjected
to textual comparison, sufficiently close to either allow or sometimes require a literary
relationship (Introduction) I found this very exciting for my research, it’s an opportunity for the
audience to come across something new! I am using this information for my questions 1,3,4 of
my proposal. The matching of sayings, do they match? If not, does that take away from it being
accurate? If not, does that make the case that by faith we should accept these gospels? Does the
message contradict that of Gods character in the four synoptics with Horman’s discovery’s he
came across a new document that he named N(stands for notebook due to its size but it is quite
bigger than some of our new testament books)(the Scope of N page 11) that might link Thomas
to the other synoptics. This in itself is exciting, especially for scholars or interested Christians or
even skeptics. This should give my paper great leverage!
John Horman Studies in Christianity and Judaism / tudes sur le christianisme et le juda sme
Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion / Corporation Comedienne des
Sciences Religiousness by Wilfred Laurier University.(wedsite: Project Muse)
NHC II,2 and the Oxyrhynchus Fragments (P.Oxy 1, 654, 655): Overlooked Evidence for a
Syriac Gospel of Thomas. Vigiliae Christianae. 2004, Vol. 58 Issue 2, p138-151. 14p
In this Article Perrin, Nicholas gives us new light on the new evidence for Thomas’s Gospel . (it
is generally assumed that the Gospel of Thomas was first composed in Greek, here the author
finds evidence, confirming his earlier published thesis, that the well-known Nag Hammadi text
was first set down in Syriac. On comparing divergences between the Greek witness to Thomas
(P.Oxy 1, 654, 655) and the fuller Coptic version (NHC II,2), it is argued that each of these
differences can be readily attributed to the texts' final reliance on a common Aramaic source. In
most instances, the hypothesized shared source may be inferred to be of either western Aramaic
or Syriac character, but in some cases, the evidence points decisively toward Syriac-speaking
provenance. Consequently, the investigation sheds light not only on the relationship between the
two extant witnesses of Thomas, but on its dating as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
I chose this article based on its claim of a new theory around Thomas’s Gospel, this will add
more leverage and polishing to my questions that I have asked according to my proposal. Dating,
the match up of the snyoptics, does the message contradict the message in the four snyoptics,
does faith or reason determine the gospels legitimacy?
Perrin, Necholas: Education : Ph.D., Marquette University, 2001, Dissertation Title: “Thomas
and Tatian: The Relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron”, M.Div.,
Covenant Theological Seminary, 1994, B.A., The Johns Hopkins University , 1986, B.A., The
Johns Hopkins University , 1986. –Perrin Necholas is a professor at Wheaton College, IL where
he teaches Biblical studies.
Johnson, S. R. (2002). THE HIDDEN/REVEALED SAYING IN THE GREEK AND COPTIC
VERSIONS OF GOS. THOM. 5 & 6. Novum Testamentum, 44(2), 176-185.
doi:10.1163/15685360252965494
In this article once again explains the differences of the gospel of Thomas to its counter parts in
the four Synoptics. (Explains the variations between the Greek and Coptic texts of the gospel of
Saint Thomas in the New Testament of the Bible. also the Evaluation of the synoptic gospels of
Saint Luke and Saint Matthew with the concept of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Greek
and Coptic texts) this texts is to polish any lose ends within my paper that might not be clear.
Steven R. Johnson, associate professor of religion at Lycoming College, has published a new
book titled “Seeking the Imperishable Treasure,” an in-depth study of how a saying of Jesus
might have been transmitted in the time of the early Christian apostles(William sport news.com)