Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church

(www.metalog.org/files/tpb/sabbath.html).
Thomas was discovered in 1945 in Egypt along with more than 50 other ancient
Christian, Jewish and pagan works that make up a collection known as the Nag
Hammadi Library. The documents, which date from the 4th century BC to the 4th
century AD, were written in Coptic, the language of early Egyptian Christians. The
library, including Thomas, has been translated into English and published in several
scholarly editions. But many scholars feel that Thomas should be made available in
a separate volume. ‘I think it's urgent that Thomas be published alone in a
paperback edition,’ said Brown.
Unlike the other Nag Hammadi volumes, Thomas contains teachings of Jesus,
which scholars believe would be particularly valuable for Christian readers. Many
students of the Gospel of Thomas believe that its material is potentially of more
interest to the general public than the much-ballyhooed Dead Sea Scrolls— except
that it is not as well known.
Many quotations recorded in Thomas are similar to those in the Gospels that
make up what is known as the New Testament canon— the writings of the early
church that eventually came to be accepted as authentic and authoritative texts for
all Christians. For example, Saying 90 in Thomas, ‘Come unto me, for my yoke is
easy and my lordship is mild, and you will find repose for yourselves,’ bears strong
resemblance to a familiar passage in Matthew 11:2830.
Recent Scholarly Comments
Henry Barclay Swete, ‘ The Oxyrhynchus Fragment [PapOx 1]’ (lecture delivered to
the Summer Meeting of Clergy, the University of Cambridge, 29 July 1897): The site of
Oxyrhynchus ... in Christian times ... acquired a reputation as a stronghold of
Egyptian monasticism.... The Λογια Ιησου are the oracles of Jesus, or sayings in
which He reveals the Divine will. The book bears, I think, manifest tokens of its claim
to possess this character. It was written in the form of a codex, on leaves, not in
successive columns on a roll— a form which seems to have been reserved among
Christians for sacred or ecclesiastical books. Each saying begins with a formula
which indicates its oracular authority.... The reason why λεγει [i.e. ‘x says’ in the
present tense] is appropriate, is that we have before us a fragment of a collection of
sayings which purport to be λογια ζωντα, living oracles of the living Lord.... There is
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