Dating the Gospel of Thomas
When Was the Nag Hammadi Document of Jesus' Sayings Written?
In 1945, an archaeological excavation uncovered a document containing sayings attributed to Jesus -- the so-called "Gospel of Thomas." Who wrote it and when?
In the final year of the Second World War, an archaeological excavation at Nag Hammadi in Central Egypt uncovered a collection of 13 papyrus codices (or books), including a document of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth. These sayings were allegedly recorded by Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples -- thus explaining the document's name: the "Gospel of Thomas."
Imperial Christianity - Orthodoxy Enforced?
If the Gospel of Thomas was indeed penned by a disciple of Jesus and contains authentic sayings of Jesus, why is it not in our mainstream Bibles? The answer, explains religion scholar Elaine Pagels, lies with an early Christian bishop named Irenaeus and the rise of what she calls "Imperial Christianity."
In an online article, Pagels writes:
One young Christian, named Irenaeus, having seen his teacher and mentor...burned alive, and then having seen dozens more of his fellow Christians lynched, arrested, tortured, and killed in public spectacles to celebrate the emperor's birthday, resolved to consolidate the surviving Christians into a single organization worldwide—which he called the "catholic" (that is, "universal") church. To do this, he urged Christians to destroy all the various teachings and "gospels," except those now contained in the New Testament."
According to Pagels, the Gospel of Thomas and the other documents discovered in Egypt in 1945 were among the writings Irenaeus "tried to banish and discredit." This is why fragments of Thomas weren't discovered until the 1890s and the Gospel, in completed form, wasn't found until 1945.
Pagels is not alone. There are several scholars championing the idea that early Christianity actually consisted of several strands of thought, including Gnosticism, which the established church - the "Imperial Church" - sought to vanquish.
When Was the Gospel of Thomas Written?
Even if an imperial church sought to silence dissent, this premise alone hardly constitutes an early date for the composition of the Gospel of Thomas. And if the Gospel of Thomas wasn't written during Jesus' lifetime or Thomas' lifetime, then it can hardly be attributed to Thomas. Its credibility then hangs in the balance. So, when was the Gospel of Thomas written?
No historian dates any of the Gospel accounts earlier than the third decade - the time in which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified - so this represents the earliest time-frame for the document's composition. As for the outer end of the time-frame, the Gnostic Society Library reports that the early Greek fragments (the ones found in the late 1890s) "date to between 130 and 250 CE." It can be reasonably assumed then that the Gospel of Thomas was written sometime between the 30s and the early 200s AD.
Clues in the Text
If the Gospel of Thomas was written in the 30s AD or at any time during the life of Jesus' disciples and the growth of the early church, its credibility would be significantly strengthened. Such an early date would more than justify the decision of The Jesus Seminar to put Thomas on the same level as the four canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Does the text of Thomas provide any clues as to when it may have been penned? Yes, says biblical studies scholar Craig Evans. In an interview with Lee Strobel (the full text can be found in Strobel's book The Case for the Real Jesus), Evans maintains that the actual text of the Gospel of Thomas points to a composition in the late second century. His reasons include:
- The Gospel of Thomas reflects a more polished Greek prose, which seems to draw from Matthew and Luke (as opposed to Mark), thus putting Thomas after the composition of Matthew, Mark, and Luke
- The Gospel of Thomas contains material from the Gospel of John, which wasn't written until the 90s AD
- The Gospel of Thomas "reflects Syrian development," which indicates that it was written after Christianity had spread towards Syria
- The text strongly hints at its being composed after Tatian wrote a Syriac harmonization of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), which wasn't completed until AD 175
While Evans' analysis isn't embraced by all scholars, his points strongly support a composition of the Gospel of Thomas that post-dates the other Gospels. This makes attribution to the disciple Thomas highly dubious and brings its credibility into serious question.
Final Thoughts
The Gospel of Thomas also reflects teachings that are inconsistent with the other four Gospels. If Irenaeus indeed sought to suppress it, one can see why, when he or she reads Thomas. But one can also see why Thomas didn't catch on with a majority of Christians in the early days of the church.
While some of its content is in keeping with the other Gospels (indeed, it apparently borrows from the other Gospels), the Gospel of Thomas (which includes, among other things, the claim that a woman must become a man to enter the "kingdom of heaven") is clearly outside the parameters of what the apostles taught in the first century.
If Luke is correct in Acts that the early church "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine" (Acts 2:42), it's no surprise that the early church spotted in the Gospel of Thomas what they saw as a counterfeit document.
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Sources for this article include:
The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel (Zondervan, 2007)
"The Gospel of Thomas, So-Called" by Wayne Jackson (The Christian Courier, August 2002)
"The Politics of Christianity" - a talk with Elaine Pagels, featured at The Edge
