Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 5

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 4 with:

 

(p.40) " John and Thomas give similar accounts of what Jesus taught privately.

Unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who say that Jesus warned of the coming " end of

time, " both John and Thomas say that he directed his disciples instead toward

the beginning of time--to the creation account of Genesis 1--and identify Jesus

with the divine light that came into being " in the beginning. " [26] Thomas and

John both say that this primordial light connects Jesus with the entire

universe, since, as John says, " all things were made through the word ['logos';

or, the light]. " [27] Professor Koester has noted such similarities in detail,

and concludes that these two authors drew upon common sources. [28] While Mark,

Matthew, and Luke identify Jesus as God's human agent, John and Thomas

characterize him instead as God's own light in human form. "

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas) Chapter 2, p.37-40.

 

Notes:

 

[26] Genesis 1:3. For an excellent discussion, see Steven Davies " Christology

and Protology in the Gospel of John, " 'Journal of Biblical Literature' 111

(1992), 663-683.

 

[27] John 1:3.

 

[28] Koester, 'Ancient Christian Gospels', 86-128; see also Patterson, 'Gospel

of Thomas and Jesus'.

 

Here now, is Part 5.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 5

 

(p.40) Yet, despite these similarities, the authors of John and Thomas take

Jesus' private teaching in sharply different directions. For John, identifying

Jesus with the light that came into being " in the beginning " is what makes him

unique--God's " only begotten son. " John calls him the " light of all humanity, "

[29] and believes that Jesus alone brings divine light to a world otherwise sunk

into darkness. John says that we can experience God only through the divine

light embodied in Jesus. But certain passages in Thomas's gospel draw a quite

different conclusion: that the divine light Jesus embodied is shared by

humanity, since we are all made " in the image of God. " [30] (p.41) Thus Thomas

expresses what would become a central theme of Jewish--and later

Christian--mysticism a thousand years later: that the " image of God " is hidden

within everyone, although most people remain unaware of its presence.

 

What might have been complementary interpretations of God's presence on earth

became, instead, rival ones; for by claiming that Jesus alone embodies the

divine light, John challenges Thomas's claim that this light may be present in

everyone. John's views, of course, prevailed, and have shaped Christian thought

ever since. For after John's teaching was collected along with three other

gospels into the New Testament, his view of Jesus came to dominate and even to

define what we 'mean' by Christian teaching. Some Christians who championed the

" fourfold gospel " [31]--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--of the New Testament

denounced the kind of teaching found in the Gospel of Thomas (along with many

other writings that they called " secret and illegitimate " ) [32] and called upon

believers to cast out such teaching as 'heresy'. How this happened, and what it

means for the history of the Christian tradition, is what this work will

explore.

 

To appreciate the tremendous leap that John--and Thomas--took, let us recall how

the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke characterize Jesus. The earliest of these

gospels, Mark, written about forty years after Jesus' death (c. 70 C.E.),

presents, as its central mystery, the question of who Jesus is. Mark tells how

Jesus' disciples discussed--and discovered--the secret of his identity:

 

(p.42) And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea

Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, " Who do people say that I am? "

And they told him, " John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of

the prophets. " And he asked them, " But who do you say that I am? " Peter answered

him, " You are the messiah. " [33]

 

Then Mark immediately shows how Peter, although rightly seeing Jesus as God's

'messiah', literally " anointed one " --the man designated to be Israel's future

king--does not understand what is going to happen. When Jesus explains that he

must suffer and die, Peter protests in shock, since he expects God's " anointed

one " not to die but to be crowned and enthroned in Jerusalem.

 

At the desolate scene of the crucifixion, Mark tells how Jesus cried out that

God had abandoned him, uttered a final, inarticulate cry, and died; yet a Roman

centurion who watched him die declared, " Truly, this man was a son of God. " [34]

Although to a non-Jew like the centurion, " son of God " might have indicated a

divine being, Jesus' earliest followers, like Mark, were Jewish and understood

that " son of God, " like " messiah, " designated Israel's human king. During

Israel's ancient coronation ceremonies, the future king was anointed with oil to

show God's favor while a chorus singing one of the ceremonial psalms proclaimed

that when the king is crowned he becomes God's representative, his human " son. "

[35] Thus when Mark opens his gospel saying that " this is the gospel of Jesus,

the 'messiah', the 'son of God', " [36] he is announcing that God has chosen

Jesus to be the future king of Israel. Since Mark writes in Greek, he translates

the Hebrew term 'messiah' as 'christos' ( " anointed one " in Greek), which later

becomes, in English, " Jesus [the] christ. "

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas)

Chapter 2, p.40-42

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

Notes:

 

[29] John 1:9; the Greek phrase 'phos ton anthropon' can be translated " light of

human beings. "

 

[30] Genesis 1:26-27; again, for a more detailed and technical version of the

discussion presented in this chapter, see Pagels, " Exegesis of Genesis 1. "

 

[31] A term that may have been coined by Irenaeus: AH 3.11.8.

 

[32] Ibid., 1.20.1.

 

[33] Mark 8:27-29.

 

[34] Mark 15:39.

 

[35] Psalm 2:7; discussion of the way such passages are worked into the birth

stories of Matthew and Luke, see Raymond E. Brown, S.J., 'The Birth of the

Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke', 2nd ed.

(New York, 1993).

 

[36] Mark 1:1.