The Gospel of Thomas [Paperback]

Andrew Phillip Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2002

The Gospel of Thomas is the most significant and authentic piece of early Christian writing outside of the New Testament. It contains sayings and parables of Jesus that are not found in other texts, along with more original and more esoteric versions of well known sayings of Jesus. This is the first pocket-sized edition of the Gospel of Thomas in English, illustrated with Rembrandt etchings.

An introduction offers a readable and colourful overview of what scholarship can tell us of the Gospel of Thomas—its discovery, dating, relationship to the other gospels, its authorship, and the figure of Thomas.

A new translation from Coptic and Greek brings out the depth of Thomas' imagery and esoteric meaning in a clear and readable English.

The final essay, "The Inner Meaning of These Sayings", offers an key to the inner meaning of the Gospel of Thomas, comparing it convincingly to the Fourth Way spiritual system developed by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fine introduction... a landmark effort to make Thomas a useful spiritual guide for the present day. -- Stevan Davies, author of The Gospel of Thomas: Annotated and Explained

A great translation, with an insightful esoteric commentary... Our general interpretations of the teachings are much in harmony. -- Timothy Freke, co-author of The Jesus Mysteries and Jesus and the Lost Goddess

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1. These are the esoteric sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the twin wrote down. And he said, "Whoever finds the inner meaning of these sayings shall not taste death."

2. Jesus said, "The seeker should not stop searching until he finds, and when he finds he will suffer, and when he suffers he will be astonished and will be king over everything, and having become king he will find rest."

3. Jesus said, "If those who lead you should say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in the air,’ then the birds of the air will be first, coming before you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish of the sea will be first, coming before you. But the kingdom is within you and outside of you. When you know yourselves then you will be known and will find it, and you will discover that you are sons of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves then you are impoverished and you are poverty."

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: Ulysses Books (August 1, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0964578255
• ISBN-13: 978-0964578258
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,405,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in 1966 in Penarth, Wales, and attended the University College of Swansea. I now live with my wife Tessa and son Dylan in Dublin, Ireland, after long stints in the London area and the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. I am the author of several books and articles on Gnosticism, early Christianity and esoterica. My books include A Dictionary of Gnosticism, The Gnostics: History * Tradition * Scriptures * Influence, The Lost Sayings of Jesus: Annotated & Explained, Gnostic Writings on the Soul: Annotated & Explained, and The Gospel of Philip: Annotated & Explained. I'm also editor of The Gnostic: A Journal of Gnosticism, Western Esotericism and Spirituality. I wrote the forewords for New Nightingale, New Rose, Poems From the Divan of Hafiz, The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam: Three Translations of the Rubaiyat, and Don't Forget: P.D. Ouspensky's Life of Self-Remembering by Bob Hunter. I've been studying the Gospel of Thomas and the Fourth Way teachings since the late 1980s, and have given a number of presentations and readings on the Gnostics and other esoteric and poetical works.

Current projects include biographies of Alan Moore and Rodney Collin, and perhaps a second book on the Gospel of Thomas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jesus' teachings in the Gospel of Thomas, November 6, 2002

By 

Sally W. Davies "s davies" (dallas, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gospel of Thomas (Paperback)

The Gospel of Thomas is the most important resource for the study of the teachings of Jesus outside of the New Testament. Andrew Smith's new version of the Gospel of Thomas is a fine introduction to that important text. His commentary on the "Inner Meaning" of the Gospel of Thomas, linking it to the "Fourth Way" school of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, is very interesting; it is a landmark effort to make Thomas a useful spiritual guide for the present day. Today, Smith writes, "The Gospel of Thomas asks us to choose between being dead and becoming the image of God." In addition to a full translation of
the Gospel of Thomas, Smith's book contains a useful historically-based introduction to the text to enable ordinary readers to put Thomas into historical context and a set of penciled illustrations based on religious works by Rembrandt van Rijn.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine Gospel of Thomas, January 30, 2005

By 

Teresa M. Finn "Tiffin" (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gospel of Thomas (Paperback)

Many fine works have been written about the Gospel of Thomas, still- and this seems to be the whole point- many of the sayings are cryptic and challenging. I often carry this book around with me, reading a saying and trying to come to my own understanding. The size of the book is just right for that, The Rembrandt reproductions so well suited, and the translation so unobtrusive and easy to read. I found the commentary very interesting, it gave some clues to a possible interpretation- not the last word certainly, but then who has that?

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing commentary, February 28, 2004

By 

R. M. Dreyfus "chiron" (Wynnewood,, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Gospel of Thomas (Paperback)

This version of Thomas has the virtue of being pocket-sized and easy to carry around, but had little else of value for me. The author attempts to correlate it with the philosophy of P.D. Ouspensky in a heavy-handed fashion that feels like a tract for Ouspensky, but doesn't present Ouspensky's thought clearly.

There is very little actual commentary to help understand the crytic and at times opaque sayings of Thomas. Yet, as the superior Stevan Davies translation suggests, Thomas was written to challenge the reader, and force him inside to meditate as it were for answers. Davies does a decent job of commentary, more satisfying for me than the Marvin Meyer translation and commentary.

Of course Elaine Pagels' "Beyond Belief" is essential reading for anyone who has appreciated the illuminating brilliance of Thomas. In time, I feel Thomas will be even more of a "sleeper gospel" and have a profound influence on what is preached in main-line churches, as well as having much potential to heal misunderstandings between Christians and Jews.