Bowdoin College Rel233: Portraits of Jesus Lecture Outline: the Gospel of Thomas "Thomas is the most important historical source for knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth that exists outside the Bible. It is the most significant manuscript ever found for the history of earliest Christianity." -Stevan Davies

1. Background
-discovery of Nag Hammadi Library
-who was Thomas?
-when was Thomas written?
-terminus ante quem: 140 AD fragments from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt

2. Relation to the Canonical Gospels
-#64: (Parable of the feast)
- #32 (Parable of the City on the Hill)
- #33 (Parable of the Lampstand)
-relations to Q, but also to special Lukan material
-every saying from Mk 3:35-4:34 found also in Thomas (# 35, 44, 99, 9, 62, 33, 6, 41, 21, 20)

3. Form
a) "Wisdom sayings" (e.g. #26, 31, 32, 33a, 33b, 34, 35, 39b, 45a, 45b, 47a, 47b, 47c, 47d, 67, 92, 93, 94)
-"Authentic Sayings of Jesus":
-#8 (based, in part, on multiple attestation and a comparison of Matthewís redactional tendencies)
#97: (based, in part, on the criterion of dissimilarity)
b) parables of Jesus: #9, 57, 63, 64, 65, 76, 96, 107, 109.
compare with synoptic tradition: e.g. #107/Matt. 18:10-14 and Luke 15:3-7)
#98: Parable of the assassin

4. Thomasí Portrait of Jesus

a) whatís in a name?
-Jesus as the "Living One" (#52, #59; note also the prologue)
b) questions regarding Jesusí nature:
#24: "Show us the place you are, for it is necessary for us to seek it"
#37: "On what day will you be revealed to us and on what day will we see you?"
#43: "Who are you that you say these things to us?"
#52: "Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel and all of them spoke about you."
#91: "Tell us who you are so that we can believe in you"
#13: "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like".

5. Conclusions
-what does it mean to "know yourselves"?
-# 3: "if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."
-Thomas, "the twin"