Why is the Gospel of Saint Thomas kept secret?

Answer 1

There have been a number of threads discussing the reasons why this manuscript, and other Gnostic scripts such as those of Philip and Judas are not in the common bible. People argue that the Gospel of St. Thomas was not a secret - and yet it was only unearthed in 1945. Further, it is one of the only 'known' documents that purports an eye witness account of Christ as detailed by one of his disciples. It has been translated by different scholars and is a 'tangible' document available in its original form for all to see. None of the Gospels contained in today's modern bible exist in their origin form. As such, there can be no validity in arguing that today's common bible is 2000 years old. It's age is unknown, as the 4 pillars of this text cannot be shown to exist in the absolute. This is a fundamental issue, as there is no true provenance that what is written in The Bible, is what the original authors, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, intended their viewers to read. Would this document be used in a court of law, it would have a limited validity as there is no documented source. In other words, it is hearsay. This is a reality, and in the age of reason and science, when heresy is no longer punishable by death, one must examine the facts as is, rather than take as gospel the words of an organization that has knowingly instructed scholars to create a text that conforms to the viewpoint of individuals and political will. Like Chinese whispers, one could argue (but cannot prove because the original gospels do not exists), throughout the centuries the original bible has been shaped, molded and modified, such that when compared to the Gospel of St. Thomas today, there is both similarity and stark contrast in the core message being transmitted. Indeed, any religions greatest enemy, are its followers seeing the light. As such, the Gnostic view, hidden until 1945, may actually be the correct interpretation of Christ's words, and that Mathew Mark Luke and John may also have shared in this viewpoint and written as such in their own Gospels in their original form. Until those documents are produced and open to public scrutiny, no argument can be made to the contrary.

AnswerIt was hardly a secret, it was a book passed around and read. If you mean why isn't it considered more important, the early church did not consider it inspired and did not add it to the cannon of the New Testament.

Gospel of St. Thomas - What Is It?

The "Gospel of St. Thomas" is a collection of teachings that some attribute to Jesus of Nazareth. Portions of Greek versions of the text were found at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in the late 1800's. A complete version in Coptic (an Egyptian language derived from the Greek alphabet) was found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. The complete text has been dated to about 340 AD, while some of the Greek fragments have been dated as far back as 140 AD.

Gospel of St. Thomas - Who Wrote It?

Scholars aren't sure who wrote the Gospel of St. Thomas. The first lines of the text refer to "didymos Judas thomas" as the author. The word "didymos" is Greek for twin and the word "thomas" is Aramaic for twin. It appears the author's name was Judas, and his nickname was "the twin" (set forth in two languages). The canonical Gospels of the Holy Bible mention a man named Thomas, who John called "didymos thomas." There are also several people named Judas mentioned in the New Testament other than the well-known Judas Iscariot. There is no mention of a Judas in the New Testament who was also nicknamed Thomas, "the twin."

Gospel of St. Thomas - What Does It Say?

The Gospel of St. Thomas declares that the Kingdom of God exists upon the earth today if people just open their eyes. There is "divine light" within all of us, which allows us to see the Kingdom of God in our physical surroundings. The Image of God at the beginning of creation (Genesis 1) still exists today. We can assume that Image still, which is different than the image of fallen man (Adam) in Genesis 2. The Gospel of St. Thomas reveals that mankind can and should restore their identities to the image of God now, and see the Kingdom of God on earth now. This text treats the first two chapters of Genesis in a non-traditional way. It holds that there were two separate creations of mankind -- the first was perfect and the second was flawed. Rather than wait for a future end-time Kingdom to come, the writer of this book exhorts people to return to the perfect Kingdom conditions of Genesis 1 now.

Gospel of St. Thomas - Why isn't it in the Bible?

The Gospel of St. Thomas is considered "Gnostic" in origin and viewpoint by many fundamental Christians, and is possibly the reason why the book was kept from the original canon of the Holy Bible (if the text was even known by early Christian followers at all). Generally, Gnostics hold that salvation of the soul comes from a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of secret formulae indicative of that knowledge. Since Christians view the Bible as a supernaturally-inspired collection of God's word to humans, which is totally integrated in thought and doctrine, there is no such thing as a "lost book" of the Bible with special secrets for the wise. Even from a non-supernatural perspective, if the Bible that we have read for the past 2,000 years reflects the beliefs of original Christianity, then any texts that were originally rejected, discarded or "lost" are not books of the Christian Bible, by definition. A church that adds the Gospel of St. Thomas to its scriptures would move outside the simple lines of fundamental Christianity, and we know of no established denomination that has any notion of doing so... nor should they.

There are many reasons why religions do not accept this Gospel into the modern bible, which include what's not written in the Gospel of St. Thomas, as much as what is. Remember, this is the written testimony of Didymos, who witnessed first hand the life and death of Jesus Christ, and yet fails to mention a single miracle or the resurrection. This is a problem for any religion that has resurrection and miracles as a cornerstone to their foundation.

Answer 2

The Gospel of Thomas is not considered secret; rather, it is part of a collection of early Christian texts discovered in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. It is not included in the traditional Christian New Testament because it is classified as a Gnostic text and contains teachings that differ from mainstream Christian doctrine.