The "gospel Of St Thomas"?

[Hermione]

In "Stigmata", a blatantly heretical movie; the show ended with the mentioning of the gospels of St Thomas... they claimed that "scholars concluded that it contained the most accurate words of Jesus himself" and that the Vatican had rejected it simply because there was a line in that "Gospel" where it states:

"Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you." which basically means the Church has no authority and we're supposed to just embrace Christianity as we see fit (which is then the basis of Protestanism).. and we all know that this is all just bollocks... But I have a few questions...

A. Was Thomas as close to Jesus as Luke, John, Matthew and Mark were? If not, where do those scholars get off saying that this 'gospel' according to him is more accurate than the others? How did they come to that "conclusion"?

B. Who are these scholars anyway?

C. Is there an actual recording by the Church of the finding of this "so-called" gospel?

D. If there is, what's their official stand regarding this?

I know there are probably a lot of essays written about this, but do you guys have any idea? :huh:

[BLAZEr]

Stigmata was a stupid movie . . . it would have been much cooler if they had actually done a movie about someone who really had the stigmata like Catherine of Sienna or Padre Pio or St. Francis . . . there is enough cool material in their lives to make great movies.

HOWEVER, regarding the "Hidden" Gospel of Thomas it has neither been hidden nor is it written by St. Thomas . . . it's an apocryphal Gospel, and they're a dime a dozen . . . it was one of the ones rejected by the Church long before the Canons of Scripture declared by the Council of Hippo in 393 the Council of Carthage in 397.

This is a pretty fair rendering from a non-catholic (non Christian) perspective

http://www.gospel-of-st-thomas.com/

The skinny is this: The Apocryphal (and very Gnostic) Gospel of Thomas had been around for centuries. In 1945 a copy of it, with a bunch of other texts was found in a cave. The Church translated it and in 1957 published its findings. It was Gnostic, it was not inspired, it had a lot errors about Christ. That was that . . . then some braniac decides that the Church is "suppressing" the Gospel because its seems to imply "no Church" . . . which is still a bunch of nonsense . . . so a little Cult forms around this silly book . . .

I had to read it in my Theo class at ND (taught by a man who was in the process of leaving the priesthood) . . . we basically read it together and laughed becuase Jesus makes birds out of dirt and breathes life into them, and he kills people who he doesn't like, and he withers the hands of people who rebuke him . . . it's all super-silly nonsense . . . some tidbits from the real Gospel here and there joined with a bunch of mularky Gnostic non-sense.

Edited November 6, 2003 by BLAZEr

[Hermione]

:lol: I figured as much... Just looking for some confirmation..

Thanks Blazer~

[ironmonk]

The Gospel of St. Thomas is Gnostic. You can also view it here: http://www.NewAdvent.org/Fathers/ along with the Gospel of Peter, Revelation of Mary, etc...

The books do not belong in the bible, or they would be there. Don't take anything you read in them to heart if it contradicts the Church.

God Bless, Your Servant in Christ,

ironmonk

[Seminarian]

When they say scholars it can refer to lay people who have a PHD is anthropology, history, or scripture. It can be people of faith or not. There are so many possibilities its not even funny.

In short the gospel of thomas was condemmed for two main reasons.

1. It says that everything that Jesus said and did in his lifetime do not matter, it is only the knowledge that was passed on by Jesus after his resurrection that matters.

2. It also says that Jesus did not suffer or feel any physical pain during the passion rather he was there as a mystical spirit rather than as a person.

If that were the case then how could we call Christ true God and true man, and if he did not die as a human how could we be saved?

The gospel of Thomas was found in 1947, in the Nag Hammadi library in Egypt no earlier...All the books found in that library followed this line of thinking some even more extreme than this.

Gnostics called themselves Christians, but Christians who had secret knowledge that no one else could have, but them. Now does that sound like something that God would do? Give secret knowledge to others and not to all....

For crying out loud, the first gnostic, Simon Magnus saw the power of the Holy Spirit through the miracles St. Peter was preforming and when he saw this he approached St. Peter and asked if he could buy the Holy Spirit from him at any price. Simon Magnus was the first known person ex-communicated from the church, after this he became the first of the gnostics.

Edited November 6, 2003 by Seminarian

[Winchester]

Gnosticism (Gnosis= knowledge), assumed Christian phrases and some philosophy to survive. It forms much of the ideals of freemasonry and humanism (imo). Gnostics believe salvation (their version) comes through knowledge, thus their perversion of Christian theology.

[Hermione]

Hahahahaha... I'm sorry but after hearing about that Simon Magnus dude I gotta wonder... How much was he willing to pay?

[kdewolf2]

I read the Gospel of Thomas after I saw the Stigmata when it first came out. I didn't think it was that bad if you didn't take it all literally. But I thought that the movie exaggerated its importance. I don't think the Church "suppressed" it all. The Church just decided not to include it in the canon and therefore people lost interest in it and forgot all about it until someone found a copy hidden in the desert aeons later. It isn't really worth getting hyped up about it, certainly.