The Gospel of Thomas is a noncanonical writing (not part of the Bible) that comes from a Gnostic tradition. It was probably written in the second or third century AD. Like other Gnostic writings, it was used by religious groups that taught secret spiritual knowledge.
Two early groups that valued this type of writing were the Marcosians, who built a symbolic system around numbers, and the Manicheans, who believed that light and darkness were two opposing powers. A church leader named Cyril of Jerusalem (who died in AD 386) said that the Gospel of Thomas was written by “one of the wicked disciples of Mani,” the founder of Manichaeism.
Along with the Protevangelium of James, the Gospel of Thomas was one of the oldest and best-known of more than fifty apocryphal gospels circulating among early Christian communities.
Two Different Works Called the Gospel of Thomas
There are actually two writings known by this name.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (the one described in this article) tells stories about Jesus as a child.
The Coptic Gospel of Thomas, discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, contains 114 sayings that claim to be the “secret words” of Jesus recorded by “Didymos Judas Thomas.”
The Coptic text shows how Gnostic ideas influenced Egyptian Christianity. But the Infancy Gospel of Thomas focuses instead on miracle stories from Jesus’s early years.
Ancient Sources and Versions
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas survives in four versions: two in Greek (one short and one long), one in Latin, and one in Syriac. It was already known by early church writers. Hippolytus (AD 155–235) quoted it as saying, “He who seeks me will find me in children from seven years old; for there will I, who am hidden in the fourteenth aeon, be found.” Hippolytus claimed that it was used by the Naasenes, a Gnostic sect that worshiped the serpent. They used the Gospel of Thomas in support of their doctrine of the nature of the inner person.
The quotation above is not found in the surviving versions. This is understandable because there is evidence from the Stichometry of Nicephorus (possibly fourth century) that an earlier version was more than twice longer. Both Origen (who lived from about AD 185 to 254) and Eusebius (who lived from about AD 260 to 340) knew the Gospel of Thomas. Eusebius considered it heretical and said it should be “rejected as altogether absurd and impious” (Historia Ecclesiastica 3.25).
Stories About the Boy Jesus
The stories in the Gospel of Thomas emphasize the miraculous power and supernatural wisdom of the boy Jesus. Some scholars think they were originally created by orthodox Christians to oppose the Gnostic heresy that the “supernatural Christ” first came upon Jesus at the time of his baptism. It is more likely that these stories began because people were curious about what Jesus was like as a child. Some of the stories may have been influenced by non-Jewish (pagan) traditions.
Only three or four of the miracles in these stories show Jesus doing something good for others. Most of the other miracles are harmful or destructive. For example, one child spoiled the small pools of water that Jesus had made. Jesus became angry and cursed him, and the child’s body dried up. Another boy who bumped into Jesus fell down and died. A teacher who struck Jesus on the head was immediately cursed and fell to the ground. Because of stories like these, the French writer Ernest Renan described the “Jesus” in the Gospel of Thomas as “a vicious little guttersnipe” (a cruel and mischievous child).
Throughout the gospel, Jesus is shown as having infinite wisdom and power. In one story, he mocks his teacher, Zacchaeus. Jesus says, “You hypocrite, first, if you know it, teach the Alpha, and then we will believe you concerning the Beta.” Zacchaeus feels ashamed and admits that he is not worthy to teach such a student. Jesus laughs and says, “I am come from above that I may curse them.” The story continues, “And no man after that dared to provoke him, lest he should curse him, and he should be maimed.”
Other miracles include:
making 12 live sparrows out of clay,
smiting his accusers with blindness,
raising a child from the dead,
healing a foot cut in two by an axe,
carrying water in a cloth garment,
reaping an enormous harvest from one kernel of wheat,
stretching a piece of wood to its proper length, and
healing his brother James, who had been bitten by a viper while gathering firewood.
The longer Latin version of the Gospel includes even more miracle stories.
The orthodox church never accepted the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas as part of the Bible. However, it was used and quoted in later writings of the same kind. For example, chapters 18 and onward of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew are based on stories from the Gospel of Thomas. Together with other apocryphal writings, it influenced Christian art and literature, especially from the tenth century onward. The story of Jesus making twelve sparrows from clay even appears in the Qur’an, showing how widely the story spread.
See also Apocrypha; Thomas, the Apostle.