Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church
Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church
Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church
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the words <strong>of</strong> Jesus contained in our four canonical <strong>Gospels</strong>. They may have been<br />
transmitted in a Palestinian milieu quite isolated from the rest <strong>of</strong> Christendom <strong>and</strong><br />
not influenced by the trends <strong>of</strong> Pauline theology. And we must not exclude the<br />
possibility that these people may have preserved sometimes the words <strong>of</strong> Jesus in a<br />
form more primitive than that found in the canonical <strong>Gospels</strong>.<br />
——————, ‘Some Remarks on the Gospel <strong>of</strong> <strong>Thomas</strong>’ (New Testament Studies,<br />
1959): The Gospel <strong>of</strong> <strong>Thomas</strong> contains a certain number <strong>of</strong> sayings which transmit an<br />
independent Jewish-<strong>Christian</strong> tradition, neither influenced by nor having served as<br />
source for our canonical <strong>Gospels</strong>.... We may try to discover the aramaisms which<br />
are so frequent in these sayings.... Up till now about thirty logia have been found to<br />
preserve traces <strong>of</strong> their Aramaic origin.<br />
——————, ‘Gnosticism <strong>and</strong> the New Testament’, in J. <strong>Philip</strong> Hyatt (ed.), The<br />
Bible in Modern Scholarship (papers read at the centenary meeting <strong>of</strong> the Society <strong>of</strong> Biblical<br />
Literature, 1964): The Holy Ghost as a Mother [is] a concept well attested in the Jewish<br />
<strong>Christian</strong> Gospel tradition <strong>and</strong> quite underst<strong>and</strong>able in a religion <strong>of</strong> Semitic<br />
language.... The Gospel <strong>of</strong> <strong>Thomas</strong> ... contains evidence <strong>of</strong> a Gospel tradition<br />
transmitted in a Jewish <strong>Christian</strong> milieu.... [It] is not gnostic at all. The adherents <strong>of</strong><br />
the gnostic interpretation ... must explain how the author could possibly say that the<br />
buried corpse could rise again (logion 5, Greek version).... For the Gospel <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Thomas</strong>, Christ is our Father <strong>and</strong> the Holy Spirit is our Mother.<br />
Antoine Guillamont, ‘Semiticisms in the Logia <strong>of</strong> Jesus found at Nag<br />
Hammadi’, Journal Asiatique (1958): The Coptic logia [in the Gospel <strong>of</strong> <strong>Thomas</strong>] can,<br />
in certain cases, help to restore the Aramaic substratum <strong>of</strong> Synoptic logia.... Certain<br />
divergences <strong>of</strong> detail between the text <strong>of</strong> the Coptic logia <strong>and</strong> the Synoptic text are<br />
explained by reference to a common Aramaic substratum. In those cases, the<br />
terminology <strong>of</strong> the Coptic logia enables us to restore the Aramaic substratum more<br />
surely than when we have only the Synoptic text.<br />
Otto A. Piper, ‘Review <strong>of</strong> Jung Codex’, Theology Today (1958): While all the<br />
world talks about the Dead Sea Scrolls, relatively little publicity has been given to<br />
another find <strong>of</strong> ancient manuscripts, which may prove to be <strong>of</strong> greater importance for<br />
the study <strong>of</strong> early <strong>Christian</strong>ity than the former one.... The ‘Gospel <strong>of</strong> <strong>Truth</strong>’ is<br />
considered by the editors as being either the original work <strong>of</strong> Valentinus, or its<br />
revision by one <strong>of</strong> his earliest disciples. This would date it at about A.D.150.... One is<br />
amazed about the freshness <strong>of</strong> the author's approach. There is no trace <strong>of</strong> polemics<br />
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