Discuss Thomas Gnosticism. What did it mean to be a Thomas Christian? How was that different from Johannine or Pauline Christianity ? Include a broad description of the Gospel of Thomas, the Book of Thomas the Contender, and the Acts of Thomas , pointing to their similarity and differences Gospel of Thomas According to class lecture notes on November 17th 2016 , The Gospel of Thomas can be set during the early part of the 2nd century . It seems that the Gospel of Thomas was an contemporary with the Gospel of John 1 However according to Richard Valantasis in his book The Gospel of Thomas., states that placing a date on the Gospel
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It is because of the similarities between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas that there is the opinion that the Gospel of Thomas is a second century work. There are definitively a few similarities to the Pauline theology. In the Pauline theology Jesus died for our sins but not in the Gospel of Thomas. A similarity that there is between the Gospel of Thomas and Paul is that they both care for the hungry.4 The genre of the Gospel of Thomas is hard to place. According to Nicholas Perrin in his article Recent Trends in Gospel of Thomas Research (1989–2011). Part II: Genre, Theology and Relationship to the Gospel of John, also agrees that the genre is hard to place he states “The question of genre, so far as the Gospel of Thomas is concerned, has been a bedeviled one on several fronts. In the first place, we suspect that nearly all scholars writing on Thomas today would agree that any firm determination of genre risks obscuring the historical reality, likely involving a complex evolution that reflects both oral and literary aspects …show more content…
Inevitably, too, there would be a divergence of views between those who, on the one hand, lay relatively heavy weight on the text in its final state and those who, on the other hand, consider the last form to be rather incidental once the generic character of its parts has been determined.”6 Annette Merz and Gerd Theissen in their book The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide says for material that is written about Jesus a collection of sayings was one of the earliest
It is because of the similarities between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas that there is the opinion that the Gospel of Thomas is a second century work. There are definitively a few similarities to the Pauline theology. In the Pauline theology Jesus died for our sins but not in the Gospel of Thomas. A similarity that there is between the Gospel of Thomas and Paul is that they both care for the hungry.4 The genre of the Gospel of Thomas is hard to place. According to Nicholas Perrin in his article Recent Trends in Gospel of Thomas Research (1989–2011). Part II: Genre, Theology and Relationship to the Gospel of John, also agrees that the genre is hard to place he states “The question of genre, so far as the Gospel of Thomas is concerned, has been a bedeviled one on several fronts. In the first place, we suspect that nearly all scholars writing on Thomas today would agree that any firm determination of genre risks obscuring the historical reality, likely involving a complex evolution that reflects both oral and literary aspects …show more content…
Inevitably, too, there would be a divergence of views between those who, on the one hand, lay relatively heavy weight on the text in its final state and those who, on the other hand, consider the last form to be rather incidental once the generic character of its parts has been determined.”6 Annette Merz and Gerd Theissen in their book The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide says for material that is written about Jesus a collection of sayings was one of the earliest