Contra Evangelium Gemini

or "Against the Gospel of Thomas" 

The Gospel of Thomas, “The Hidden Sayings of Jesus” was discovered in 1945 as part of the Nag Hammadi Codex - a collection of post-Christian writings found in Egypt. Many of these manuscripts were written in Coptic - a language that emerged from ancient Egyptian and Greek during Ptolemaic times. This work is among the many so-called Gnostic gospels - claiming to hold the true and “hidden” teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. None of these gospels actually dates from the Early Church period - being relegated, instead, to the late second century A.D. until the end of the fourth century A.D. (150-400 A.D.). Gnosticism, in its early forms, was combated by the Apostles - most specifically by Peter, John, and “Jude, the brother of James.”

The Gospel of Thomas itself, from the fragments and copies we now have, can, at the earliest, be dated at 200 A.D. and as late as 340 A.D. It consists of “secret sayings” of Jesus - many of which are either Gnostic dogma (therefore, heretical and blasphemous) or outright plagiarism of the canonical Gospels. On the standards of canon and philosophical agreement with the Judeo-Christian worldview, it is clear that the Gospel of Thomas is not consistent with the actual sayings of Jesus. The canonical standards are apostolic origin, universal acceptance, liturgical use, and consistent message.