Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 18

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 17 with the following:

 

(p.71) " According to John, the meeting Thomas missed was crucial; for after

Jesus greeted the 'ten' disciples with a blessing, he formally designated them

his apostles: " As the Father has sent me, so send I you. " Then he " breathed upon

them " to convey the power of the holy spirit; and finally he delegated to them

his authority to forgive sins, or to retain them. [147] The implication of the

story is clear: Thomas, having missed this meeting, is not an apostle, has not

received the holy spirit, and lacks the power to forgive sins, which the others

received directly from the risen Christ. Furthermore, when they tell Thomas

about their encounter with Jesus, he answers in the words that mark him

forever--in John's characterization--as Doubting Thomas: " Unless I see the mark

of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails, and my

hand in his side, 'I will not believe'. " A week later, the risen Jesus reappears

and, in this climactic scene, John's Jesus rebukes Thomas for lacking faith and

tells him to believe: " 'Do not be faithless, but believe'. " Finally Thomas,

overwhelmed, capitulates and stammers out the confession, " My Lord and my God! "

[148]

 

For John, this scene is the coup de grace: finally Thomas understands, and Jesus

warns the rest of the chastened disciples: " Have you believed because you have

seen? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe. " [149] Thus John

warns all his readers that they 'must' believe what they cannot verify for

themselves--namely, the gospel message to which he declares himself a witness

[150]--or face God's wrath. John may have felt some satisfaction writing this

scene; for here he shows Thomas giving up his search for experiential truth--his

" unbelief " --to confess what John sees as the truth of his gospel: the message

would not be lost on Thomas Christians. "

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 2, p. 71-72.

 

Notes:

 

[147] John 20:19-23.

 

[148] John 20:28.

 

[149] John 20:29.

 

[150] John 21:24-25.

 

Here now, is the concluding Part 18.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 18

 

(p.72) Addressing those who see Jesus differently, John urges his uncompromising

conviction: belief in Jesus alone offers salvation. To those who heed, John

promises great reward: forgiveness of sins, solidarity with God's people, and

the power to overcome death. In place of Thomas's cryptic sayings, John offers a

simple formula, revealed through the story of Jesus' life, death, and

resurrection: " God loves you; believe, and be saved. " John adds to his narrative

scenes that Christians have loved and retold for millennia: the wedding at Cana;

Nicodemus's nighttime encounter with Jesus; Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a

well and asking her for water; Pilate asking his prisoner, " What is truth? " ; the

crucified Jesus telling his " beloved disciple " to care for his mother; the

encounter with " Doubting Thomas, " and Mary Magdalene mistaking the risen Jesus

for the gardener.

 

John, of course, prevailed. Toward the end of the second century, as we shall

see in the next chapter, the church leader Irenaeus, as well as certain

Christians in Asia Minor and Rome, championed his gospel and declared that it

bore the authority of " John the apostle, the son of Zebedee, " whom Irenaeus,

like most Christians after him, identified with " the beloved disciple. " [151]

(p.73) From that time to the present, Christians threatened by persecution, or

met with hostility or misunderstanding, often found consolation in John's

declaration that, although hated by " the world, " they are uniquely loved by God.

And, even apart from persecution, the boundaries John's gospel draws between

" the world " and those whom Jesus calls " his own " have offered innumerable

Christians a basis of group solidarity grounded in the assurance of salvation.

 

But the discovery of Thomas's gospel shows us that other early Christians held

quite different understandings of " the gospel. " For what John rejects as

religiously inadequate--the conviction that the divine dwells as " light " within

all beings--is much like the hidden " good news " that Thomas's gospel proclaims.

[152] Many Christians today who read the Gospel of Thomas assume at first that

it is simply wrong, and deservedly called heretical. Yet what Christians have

disparagingly called gnostic and heretical sometimes turn out to be forms of

Christian teaching that are merely unfamiliar to us--unfamiliar precisely

because of the active and successful opposition of Christians such as John.

 

How, then, did John prevail? To answer this question, let us look at the

challenges that confronted the first generations of his readers.

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas)

Chapter 2, p. 72-73

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

Notes:

 

[151] Irenaeus, AH 3.11.1-3.

 

[152] C.H. Dodd, in his commentary on the Johannine gospel, notes that this is

what separates John's message from " gnostics " ; for Dodd, this secures John's

place as an authentically Christian teacher, see 'Interpretation of the Fourth

Gospel', 97-114, 250-285.