Editing Gospel of Thomas (section)

==Finds and publication==
[[File:P. Oxy. 1.jpg|thumb|P. Oxy. 1]]
[[File: Nag Hammadi Codex II.jpg|thumb|[[Nag Hammadi Codex II]], folio 32, the beginning of the Gospel of Thomas]]
The manuscript of the Coptic text ([[Nag Hammadi Codex II|CG II]]), found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt, is dated at around 340&nbsp;AD. It was first published in a photographic edition in 1956.<ref group=note>For photocopies of the manuscript see: {{cite web |url=http://www.gospels.net/thomas/ |title=The Gospel of Thomas Resource Center « gospels.net |access-date=2010-02-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101008055033/http://www.gospels.net/thomas/ |archive-date=8 October 2010}}</ref> This was followed three years later (1959) by the first English-language translation, with Coptic transcription.{{sfnp|Guillaumont|Puech|Quispel|Till|1959}} In 1977, [[James M. Robinson]] edited the first complete collection of English translations of the Nag Hammadi texts.{{sfnp|Robinson|1988}} The Gospel of Thomas has been translated and annotated worldwide in many languages.

The original Coptic manuscript is now the property of the [[Coptic Museum]] in Cairo, Egypt, Department of Manuscripts.{{sfnp|Labib|1956}}

===Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragments===
After the Coptic version of the complete text was discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, scholars soon realized that three different Greek text fragments previously found at [[Oxyrhynchus]] (the [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri]]), also in Egypt, were part of the Gospel of Thomas.{{sfnp|Grenfell|Hunt|1897}}{{sfnp|Grant|Freedman|1960}} These three papyrus fragments of Thomas date to between 130 and 250&nbsp;AD.

Prior to the Nag Hammadi library discovery, the sayings of Jesus found in Oxyrhynchus were known simply as [[Logia|Logia Iesu]]. The corresponding [[Uncial script]] Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, found in Oxyrhynchus are:
* [[Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1|P. Oxy. 1]]: fragments of logia 26 through 33, with the last two sentences of logion 77 in the Coptic version included at the end of logion 30 herein.
* [[Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 654|P. Oxy. 654]]: fragments of the beginning through logion 7, logion 24 and logion 36 on the flip side of a papyrus containing [[surveying]] data.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0POxy--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4----ded--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-1708--00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=POxy&cl=CL5.1.4&d=HASH66d3d01e4d152cbe92ae08|title=P.Oxy.IV 0654|access-date=2 November 2011|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203556/http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0POxy--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4----ded--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-1708--00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=POxy&cl=CL5.1.4&d=HASH66d3d01e4d152cbe92ae08|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 655|P. Oxy. 655]]: fragments of logia 36 through 39. 8 fragments designated ''a'' through ''h'', whereof ''f'' and ''h'' have since been lost.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0POxy--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4----ded--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-1708--00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=POxy&cl=CL5.1.4&d=HASH66d3d01e4d152cc692ae08|title=P.Oxy.IV 0655|access-date=2 November 2011|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202730/http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0POxy--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4----ded--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-1708--00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=POxy&cl=CL5.1.4&d=HASH66d3d01e4d152cc692ae08|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The wording of the Coptic sometimes differs markedly from the earlier Greek Oxyrhynchus texts, the extreme case being that the last portion of logion 30 in the Greek is found at the end of logion 77 in the Coptic. This fact, along with the quite different wording Hippolytus uses when apparently quoting it (see below), suggests that the Gospel of Thomas "may have circulated in more than one form and passed through several stages of redaction."{{sfnp|Meier|1991|p=125}}

Although it is generally thought that the Gospel of Thomas was first composed in Greek, there is evidence that the Coptic Nag Hammadi text is a translation from [[Syriac language|Syriac]] (see [[#Syriac origin|Syriac origin]]).

===Attestation===
The earliest surviving written references to the Gospel of Thomas are found in the writings of [[Hippolytus (writer)|Hippolytus of Rome]] ({{c.|222–235}}) and [[Origen of Alexandria]] ({{c.|233|lk=no}}).{{sfnp|Koester|1990|pp=77ff}} Hippolytus wrote in his ''[[Refutation of All Heresies]]'' 5.7.20:
{{blockquote|<nowiki>[</nowiki>The [[Naassenes]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> speak{{nbsp}}[...] of a nature which is both hidden and revealed at the same time and which they call the thought-for kingdom of heaven which is in a human being. They transmit a tradition concerning this in the Gospel entitled "According to Thomas," which states expressly, "The one who seeks me will find me in children of seven years and older, for there, hidden in the fourteenth [[aeon]], I am revealed."}}

This appears to be a reference to saying 4 of Thomas, although the wording differs significantly. As translated by Thomas O. Lambdin, saying 4 reads: "Jesus said, 'the man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same".{{sfnp|Robinson|1988|p=126}} In this context, the preceding reference to the "sought-after reign of the heavens within a person" appears to be a reference to sayings 2 and 3.{{sfnp|Johnson|2010}} Hippolytus also appears to quote saying 11 in ''Refutation'' 5.8.32, but without attribution.{{sfnp|Johnson|2010}}

[[Origen]] listed the "Gospel according to Thomas" as being among the [[heterodoxy|heterodox]] apocryphal gospels known to him (''Hom. in Luc.'' 1). He condemned a book called "Gospel of Thomas" as heretical; it is not clear that it is the same gospel of Thomas, however, as he possibly meant the [[Infancy Gospel of Thomas]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carlson |first=Stephen C. |date=2014-01-01 |title=Origen's Use of the Gospel of Thomas |url=https://www.academia.edu/7414722 |journal=Sacra Scriptura: How &quot;Non-Canonical&quot; Text Functioned in Early Judaism and Early Christianity}}</ref>

In the 4th and 5th centuries, various Church Fathers wrote that the Gospel of Thomas was highly valued by [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]]. In the 4th century, [[Cyril of Jerusalem]] mentioned a "Gospel of Thomas" twice in his ''[[Catechesis]]'': "The Manichaeans also wrote a Gospel according to Thomas, which being tinctured with the fragrance of the evangelic title corrupts the souls of the simple sort."<ref>Cyril ''Catechesis'' [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310104.htm 4.36]</ref> and "Let none read the Gospel according to Thomas: for it is the work not of one of the twelve Apostles, but of one of the three wicked disciples of Manes."<ref>Cyril ''Catechesis'' [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310106.htm 6.31]</ref> The 5th-century ''[[Gelasian Decree]]'' includes "A Gospel attributed to Thomas which the Manichaean use" in its list of heretical books.{{sfnp|Koester|1990|p=78}}