A few days ago I responded to a reader’s comment by saying something about how I am reluctant these days to label the Gospel of Thomas a “Gnostic” Gospel.  Several readers responded to my comment by asking what in the blazes I could possibly mean.  So I thought I would respond.  But then I realized that to make sense of anything I have to say about the matter will require me to start at the beginning — since some readers won’t know what the Gospel of Thomas is or how it was discovered or anything else.

So, well, why not? Here we start at the beginning.  This will become it’s own little thread dealing with Gnosticism and the Gospel of Thomas.  I have posted on this before, some years ago.   But it continues to be interesting material.

If you have been an avid reader of the blog for four years or so, you will remember the story of the discovery of the “Nag Hammadi Library.”  This is a cache of books found in 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi Egypt, the so-called “Gnostic Gospels.”   Once on the blog I had a back-and-forth with my friend and colleague Mark Goodacre, professor of New Testament at Duke, about whether the story is factual or a modern fabrication.  I continue to think that at its heart it is probably pretty much like what probably happened..

In any event, here is I describe the tale of discovery from my undergraduate textbook:

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It is an intriguing story, this chance discovery of a cache of ancient Christian documents in 1945, in a remote part of Upper Egypt, a story of serendipity, ineptitude, secrecy, ignorance, scholarly brilliance, murder, and blood revenge.  Even now, after scholars have spent years trying to piece it all together, details of the find remain sketchy.

We do know that it occurred in December 1945 — about a year and half before…

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