Pullquote

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John... the four Gospels. But what if there was a fifth? Steve Tomkins takes a look at a new translation of the Gospel of Thomas, dicsovered in the 20th century.

The Gospel of Thomas, like so many remnants of the early church, is a fascinating and frustrating puzzle.

It was found in Egypt in 1945 – two years before the Dead Sea Scrolls – in the buried library of an early Christian sect, the Gnostics. Scholars already knew about it from a few quotes in a book from around AD230, so it must have been written before that date.

Some experts argue that it was written before any of the accepted Christian Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – and therefore offers a truer portrait of Jesus than them. Others say that it was written over 100 years after them and rips them off.

There are no stories in The Gospel of Thomas. Instead, it gives a list of Jesus' sayings, like those books of quotes you can buy – The Wit and Wisdom of Jesus of Nazareth. So there are no miracles, and not even a crucifixion and resurrection. More than half the sayings are versions of things Jesus says in the four biblical Gospels, and the rest are new. The book is 114 verses long, so you can read it in one sitting.

Stevan Davies's new translation is so readable you'll be through it in no time. He gives extensive notes which are a lot longer than the Gospel itself, but on the opposite page to the text, so they don't get in the way if you just want to read the Gospel.

And that's definitely what you should do first time round. People's opinions about the Gospel of Thomas are so varied it's good to read it for yourself before someone tells you what to make of it.

But then it's the notes you're really paying your £8.95 for, them and the clear, lively, up-to-date translation. You can read Thomas for free all over the Internet, but in old translations that tend to make it drag a bit.

So is Thomas the real deal? Are we reading priceless words of Jesus we never heard before? Or is it a later remake, "based on a true story"?

This is a big question, because if Thomas is kosher then it must be one of the most exciting books in the world. If it's not, then it's a book about what some second-century sect you never heard of thought about Jesus, and life's too short.

Unfortunately, like most such questions, there's no answer. Scholars decide the question, on the whole, according to what they believe. Those who are rather attached to Christianity tend to say Thomas is a fake, because it undermines the Jesus of the Bible. Those who aren't keen on Christianity accept Thomas, for the same reason.

Davies is definitely one of the second lot. He argues that Thomas takes us closer to the real Jesus than the Bible does, honestly admitting that he is motivated by the fact that he much prefers Thomas's Jesus. I rather doubt that he's entirely right, but then I also wonder if Thomas is too easily dismissed by those who don't want it to mess up Jesus.

It's well worth having a look. As the book says, 'The seeker should not stop until he finds.'

> St Thomas's homepage
> Who were the Gnostics? – the Gnosis Archive
> Other books that didn't make it into the Bible