As a scholar of ancient texts, it is my belief that the Coptic Gospel of Thomas-- banned by the church for political and gender-prejudiced reasons-- is prior to the gospels that we have in our New Testaments. There have been some convincing arguments proposed towards this thesis. Furthermore, it seems clear that Thomas (and John) represent the testimony most closely of Jesus' closest disciple, the first disciple to greet the resurrected Jesus, Mary of Magdala. Far from being a prostitute or a fallen woman, she was an enlightened disciple.(Download this very interesting essay)
The Gospel of Thomas has many characteristics that set it apart from the familiar gospels: there is no narrative; Mary plays an active role in it; many sayings of Jesus read like sayings of the Buddha; the sayings familiar from the NT gospels appear in an earlier form; and-- I am convinced of this-- there are traces of Tantrism in it.
However, I can't find gnosticism. I suspect the early church fathers and leaders gave the gospel the tag of gnostic simply so they could suppress it.
No comments:
Post a Comment