The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings (logia) attributed to Jesus, discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt as part of a cache of Coptic manuscripts. Unlike the four canonical gospels, it contains no account of the birth, miracles, crucifixion, or resurrection of Jesus. It is organised entirely as reported speech — brief sayings, parables, and dialogues — with no narrative framework. The opening line sets the register: "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death." About a third of the logia overlap with sayings found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke; the rest have no canonical parallel. The Coptic manuscript dates to the fourth century CE; Greek fragments found at Oxyrhynchus in 1897–1904 indicate an original composition no later than the second century CE, and several scholars argue for a first-century date.
This edition presents Marvin W. Meyer's 1992 translation with a literary-critical introduction by Harold Bloom. Meyer, a professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University, was among the leading Anglophone scholars of Gnostic and Nag Hammadi texts, and contributed to the Nag Hammadi Scriptures (2007), the most comprehensive current scholarly collection. The translation keeps close to the Coptic while remaining readable in English. Bloom's introduction approaches the text as literature rather than theology, treating the Gospel of Thomas as a competitor to the Gospel of John for the reader's primary loyalty. The book has been a standard starting point for readers approaching Gnostic Christianity since its publication.
First lines
These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded. And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
Reception
The Nag Hammadi discovery and the subsequent publication of scholarly translations transformed the study of early Christianity. Elaine Pagels's The Gnostic Gospels (1979) introduced the Gospel of Thomas to a broad readership and provoked public debate about Christian origins. Scholarly opinion on the text's date and relationship to the Synoptic Gospels remains contested: the Jesus Seminar rated several Thomas logia among the most historically authentic Jesus material, while mainstream New Testament scholarship generally favors a later date and treats the Synoptics as the prior tradition. Meyer's translation is regarded as accessible and reliable, though some scholars prefer the rendering in the Nag Hammadi Library (Robinson, ed., 1977) for its broader scholarly apparatus. The text is now standard reading in university courses covering early Christian diversity and the history of Gnosticism.
Frequently asked
What is the Gospel of Thomas?
It is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus, found in a Coptic manuscript at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. It contains no narrative of Jesus's life — no birth, miracles, crucifixion, or resurrection — only logia: brief sayings, parables, and dialogues attributed to the living Jesus.
Is the Gospel of Thomas older than the canonical gospels?
This is contested. Some scholars argue that certain Thomas logia preserve independent traditions predating the Synoptic Gospels. The mainstream scholarly view dates the composition to the late first or early second century CE, roughly contemporary with or later than Matthew and Luke. The Coptic manuscript found at Nag Hammadi dates to the fourth century; Greek fragments found at Oxyrhynchus in 1897–1904 confirm an earlier Hellenistic original.
Who was Marvin W. Meyer?
He was a scholar of religion and Biblical studies at Chapman University in California (1948–2012) and one of the leading English-language scholars of Gnostic texts and the Nag Hammadi library. He was a co-editor of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures (2007) and translated several Gnostic texts into English.