The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus [Hardcover]

Marvin W. Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 1992

A fresh, authoritative English translation, with an informative introduction, fascinating explanatory notes, and the Coptic text, with interpretation by Harold Bloom, our pre–eminent literary critic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The gospel according to Thomas is an ancient collection of sayings attributed to Jesus and thought to be recorded by his brother Judas, the Twin (Thomas means "twin" in Aramaic). Some scholars suggest that this gospel was collected from New Testament sayings, while others believe it springs from a completely independent author because many of the quotations are not in the New Testament at all. It slept for two millennia in a stone jar until it was accidentally exhumed by a group of fertilizer gatherers in the northern Egyptian desert in 1945. (The gospel is just one document in the fourth-century papyrus library discovered near the city of Nag Hammadi, from which the entire collection gets its name.) Marvin Meyer's distinguished translation includes Coptic text on each left page and the English translation on the right. It is considered by many to be perhaps the closest we'll ever get to reading what was actually said by the historical Jesus. In The Gospel of Thomas, you'll discover a different kind of Christ--a wandering spiritual teacher from Galilee who performs no miracles, reveals little prophecy, announces no apocalypse, and dies for no one's sins. --P. Randall Cohan

Review

"Best known of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts (a collection buried c. 370 C.E. and found accidentally by an Egyptian farmer in 1945), the Gospel of Thomas confronts readers with sayings attributed to a Jesus who seems more like a Zen master ('Split a piece of wood; I am there') than either a political messiah or incarnate god.... Many historians of religion now think the Gospel of Thomas is the nearing surviving approximation to Q, a hypothetical collection of material about Jesus believed to have been used as a source by the authors of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the so-called 'synoptic' gospel. Thomas, however, contains no stories about Jesus, but instead consists of a compilation of 114 sayings attributed to him.... Free as it is from the encrustation of orthodoxy, the Gospel of Thomas can take the reader, as much as any book can, directly to an enigmatic teacher who walked out of Galilee two millennia ago." -- Gnosis

"Discovered among the gnostic texts found in Egypt in 1945, this gospel from Thomas gives the reader a fresh vision of Christ's teachings. Free of dogma, Zen-like wisdom graces the pages of this scholarly yet immensely readable work...superbly presented." -- NAPRA Trade Journal

"In this book an excellent, very readable translation of the Gospel of Thomas accompanies a new edition of the Coptic text and learned notes." -- Birger Pearson, University of California, Santa Barbara, Religious Studies Review

"The Gospel of Thomas, a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus, is one of the Nag Hammadi gnostic texts discovered in 1945 in upper Egypt. The collection belongs to the genre of wisdom sayings, and some of the sayings parallel those of Jesus in the synoptic gospels and Q. Professor Meyer, professor of religion at Chapman University, presents a critically established Coptic text and a new English translation on facing pages. He also provides an introduction and notes. Also included is a brief appreciation by Harold Bloom." -- Theology Digest

"Thomas tells us more about the historical Jesus than all of the Dead Sea Scrolls put together. A superb presentation of the most important early Christian text discovered in this century." -- John Dominic Crossan, author of The Historical Jesus

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 2nd edition (October 9, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006065581X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060655815
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marvin Meyer is one of the foremost scholars on gnosticism, the Nag Hammadi library, and texts about Jesus outside the New Testament.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

109 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Introduction To An Important Christian Text, June 5, 2000

By 

Michael Lima (Fresno, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus (Hardcover)

The first verse of the Gospel of Thomas tells the reader that whoever understands the gospel's sayings will not "...taste death." It is a clear message that understanding these sayings of Jesus is key to one's spiritual growth. Thus, the onus is on the interpreter to create both an effective translation and a context to evaluate the sayings in order to facilitate this growth. Meyer does a marvelous job of meeting these demands.

The book's introduction gives the reader excellent background information on the discovery and authorship of the text. The translation of the text itself is bolstered by the very helpful notes listed after the gospel. The notes made it very easy to cross-reference the gospel's text with similar passages in the New Testament's four gospels. Finally, Harold Bloom provides an interesting commentary that's useful for reflection on the gospel's themes.

There is no guarantee that reading the Gospel of Thomas as translated by Meyer will provide the spiritual enlightenment that many people seek. However, Meyer does his best to allow the reader to discover this enlightenment by not clutter the text with his own views and biases. The result is that Meyer's interpretation is a perfect way to learn about and evaluate this important "lost" book of Christianity.

90 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The book is fine, April 26, 2000

By 

Robert (Oxfordshire, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus (Hardcover)

I have used this book as a study with my congregation and the members of the class found it both engaging and helpful. While not a 'traditional' gospel in the manner of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it is a unique, though not entirely foreign, look at the sayings of Jesus.

There are several translations of the Gospel of Thomas available and I have found this particular one to be very straightforward, no nonsense, with little of the editorializing that sometimes slips into other translations. It has a brief but informative introduction and would serve the 'average' reader well.

As to the comment in a previous review that this book was written by the 'doubting Thomas'of the Gospel of John, I would hope that most people realize such an assertion is hog wash.Read the introduction to the book and get a more informative perspective on authorship.

105 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 114 Sayings attributed by the Gnostic Christians to Jesus, April 7, 2001

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus (Hardcover)

In 1945 a couple of Egyptians digging in the Nile River valley found a sealed storage jar that contained a collection of fifty-two ancient manuscripts, most of which were devoted to the teachings of Gnosticism, early Christians who believed that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through "gnosis" (the Greek word for "knowledge"). The Gnostic inner quest for spiritual understanding put them at odds with the authority of the Church in the first, formative centuries of Christianity. It is not surprising that the Gnostic writings were suppressed by the early Church and were really only known to us through the writings of their opponents. The discovery of these manuscripts allows us to read what these early Christians were thinking and to judge for ourselves the value of their beliefs.

Marvin W. Meyer has provided new English translations of several of the most important and revealing of these early Christian texts. Of these, the Gospel of Thomas is the most interesting. Biblical scholars have long maintained that one of the source documents for the Gospels was a collection of sayings that was integrated with the Gospel of Mark to produce the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The Gospel of Thomas is an example of such a collection, providing dozens of sayings attributed to Jesus. For example, Saying 75: "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: all came forth from me, and all attained to me. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Pick up a stone, and you will find me there." The words might be different, but certainly the idea is recognizable, which is true of the vast majority of 144 Sayings collected in the Gospel of Thomas. These sayings are not a radical depature from what we have in Scripture and at the very least we can accept them as being accurate representations of early Christian beliefs. Certainly they are more familiar than the other Gnostic writings Meyer has translated. You will have to judge for yourself how compatable they are with the New Testament. But I think they are definitely worth thinging about.