Evidence Showing The Gospel According To Thomas Is an Authentic Sayings Book, Part I

Editor's clarifications on January 8, 2019 : I updated the statistical argument used in Part I D.


 Note: I will leave these clarification up for a week or so and then take them down.



I. Greek papyri of Thomas found by British explorers Grenfell and Hunt in 1897 and 1903.

A. Collectively, 21 sayings match up with the Coptic text found in 1945: Prologue, 1-7, 24, 26-33, 36-39, and 77.




B. All 21 sayings in the Greek texts match up with the Coptic text.

C. Scholars have given a terminus ante quem of the Greek texts to be 140 A.D.

 Source: The Gospel According To Thomas, by A. Guillaumont, et al, 1959, Brill, Page vi. See: The Gospel According to Thomas: Coptic Text Established and ...

D. The Greek sayings were part of three different texts and the probability of the Coptic text being a copy of an original Greek text is:2x [114x113x112x111x110x109x 108] + 114x 113x 112= 4.1476035e+14  or about 4.2 trillion to 1 against the order in the Coptic text being randomly chosen. Please A Statistical Argument Showing the Coptic Gospel According To Thomas Is a Word-For-Word Copy of an Original Greek Text , a post on this blog


Conclusions:

1.There existed an original copy of Thomas written in Greek written before 140 A.D.

B. It is highly probable that the Coptic text is a word-for-word copy of the Greek texts of Thomas.

 
II. Fifty of the sayings in Thomas were also recorded in Matthew and Luke. Two Examples:

A. “If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit,” saying 34 in Thomas matches up with Matthew 15:14 and Luke 6:39.

B. “The speck which is in your brother’s eye you see, but the log which is in your own eye, you do not see,” saying 26 in Thomas matches up with Matthew 7:35 and Luke 6:41-42.

III. Two-source hypothesis: Matthew and Luke used a sayings gospel “Q” (German for Quelle, meaning “Source”).

A. The gospels of Matthew and Luke used both Mark and Q as their sources.

B. Matthew and Luke have 272 verses in common which are not in Mark.

C. 640 of the 654 verses in Mark are found in both Matthew and Luke. Note: I have excluded Mark 16: 9-20 in the above count as these verses are not in the earliest manuscript.

Conclusions:

1. Q is a saying book which Matthew and Luke used to compose their gospels.

2. The Gospel According To Thomas independently have 50 sayings in common with Q.

C. Scholars agree that Q represents authentic sayings of the Pre-Resurrected Jesus.

1. Source: Q, the Earliest Gospel by John Kloppenborg: Q, the Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Stories and ...

 

IV. Using the transitive axiom in logic: If A, then B; If B, then C. Conclusion: If A, then C, we can conclude:

A: Thomas has 50 sayings in common with Q.

B. The sayings in Q are authentic sayings of Jesus.

Conclusion: At least 50 of the sayings in Thomas are authentic sayings spoken by Jesus (this is out of a total of 114 sayings).

 

V. Ancient sources from circa 200 A.D. cite The Gospel According To Thomas.

A. There are at least 12 ancient citations of Thomas included by Clement of Alexandria, Ireaneus, Origen, Tertullian, and Augustine.

B. Two Examples:

i. “He who is near me is near the fire and He who is far from me is far from the Kingdom,” saying 82 in Thomas is cited by Origen in a homily.

Ii “His disciples said to him, twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel and they all spoke about you. “ He said to them, “You have dismissed the Living One who is before you and spoken of the dead,” saying 52 in Thomas is cited by Augustine.

Conclusions:

1. Sayings which are recorded in Thomas were cited by at least 12 ancient sources, circa, 200 A.D.

2. The Gospel According To Thomas was a widely circulated saying text by 200 A.D.

3. Because all the citations by the ancient sources match up with the Coptic translation, we can conclude that it is highly probable that there was a single Greek text which the ancients were quoting.

 

Summary: We have given several lines of evidence which show that at least 50 sayings in Thomas are authentic, there is almost a certainty that the Coptic text is a word-for-word copy of a Greek copy of Thomas which was written before 140 A.D., and there are at least 12 ancient sources which cite Thomas which shows it was a widely circulated text by 200 A.D.