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fact on the basis of two aspects, on the one hand the observation of corresponding
themes (sec. 3.1), and on the other the statements about
Thomas (3.2). Against this background the relationship between these
documents can be discussed (3.3–4).
3.1. Thematic Parallels Between the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas
There are up to forty-four parallels between the Gospel of John and that
of Thomas. 23 In the following I will focus on only three examples to
demonstrate a fact that is important for our question. On the one hand
there are motifs or phrases that, strictly speaking, we find only in these
two documents. On the other hand, however, these are developed in differing
and even at times contradictory ways.
Thus, in the first saying of the Gospel of Thomas, we find that he who
discovers the meaning of these secret words of Jesus will not taste death.
Correspondingly John 8:52 says that he who keeps the words of Jesus
will not see death in eternity. This motif corresponds to the strong accent
on present eschatology in both documents. Thus, for example, the
Johannine Jesus emphasizes in John 5:24 that he who hears his word and
believes him has already received eternal life. He does not enter the
judgment but has already passed from death into life. The present reception
of the resurrection is also expressed in saying 51 of the Gospel of
Thomas. Here the disciples ask when the “resurrection,” meaning the
eschatological rest of the dead, will occur, and when the “new world” will
begin. The answer of Jesus, however, declares that this expectation, oriented
toward a future eschatology, is fundamentally wrong. He says that
this resurrection, meaning rest, has already arrived. The disciples just do
not recognize it. 24
Voices of the Mystics: Early Christian Discourse in the Gospel of John and Thomas and Other Ancient
Christian Literature (JSNTSup 157; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 2001), 68–70, esp. 86–87.
23. For a complete collection, see James H. Charlesworth and Craig A. Evans,
“Jesus in the Agrapha and the Apocryphal Gospels,” in Studying the Historical Jesus:
Evaluations of the State of Current Research (ed. B. D. Chilton and C. A. Evans; NTTS
19; Leiden: Brill, 1994), 479–533, esp. 496–98.
24. The lack of traditional apocalyptic expectations in the Gospel of Thomas is not an
indication that Jesus’ message was secondarily transformed by traditional eschatological
motifs. Rather, the apocalyptic or future-eschatological traits of the message of
Jesus and of the synoptic tradition were relativized consistently in the Gospel of Thomas.
Cf. Enno E. Popkes, “Von der Eschatologie zur Protologie: Die Transformation
apokalyptischer Motive im Thomasevangelium,” in Apokalyptik als bleibende Herausforderung
neutestamentlicher Theologie (ed. M. Becker and M. Öhler; WUNT; Tübingen:
Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming), 213–35. For a different point of view, see Dieter