Eusebius assigns Thomas to Parthia
Eusebius, The History of the Church Trans. G. A. Williamson (Penguin edition, l965).
Second-century doctrine of apostolic succession of bishops
M. Hornschuh, NTA-1965, vol. 2, 74-87.
"Gnostic" disciples
Douglas M. Parrott, "Gnostic and Orthodox Disciples in the Second and Third Centuries," Nag Hammadi, Gnostics and Early Christianity (1968), 193-219;
Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel (1993) 181;
E. P. Sanders The Historical Figure of Jesus (1993)121 ["If we did not have the Gospel of John, these three disciples [Andrew, Philip, and Thomas] would only be names on a list."] 122. ["The Fourth Gospel emphasizes otherwise minor disciples (Andrew, Philip and Thomas)"]
Opinions that GT is or is not Gnostic: This is a question on which everyone who looks into such matters forms an opinion. A mere listing of those pro and con cannot be exhaustive or very helpful. Here, however, are a few names of scholars whose views can be taken as more or less representative.
GT is Gnostic
Robert McQ. Grant, A Historical Introduction to the New Testament (1963) 30, 170;
Koester; Burton Mack, [GT is "proto-Gnostic," 183];
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York, l979);
Stephen J Patterson;
Quispel.
GT is not, or probably not, Gnostic
John Dominic Crossan, Four Other Gospels (1985) 30-1 [thinks GT primarily concerned with asceticism, not Gnosticism; GT "stands on the borders between Catholic and Gnostic Christianity.")];
Stevan L. Davies, The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Wisdom (1983) 3-4, 14-18 [GT not encratic; has no Gnostic mythology; comes from Jewish Wisdom tradition];
James Robinson, "On Bridging the Gulf from Q to the Gospel of Thomas," Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity , 122 ["the presence of Gnosticism . . . is so faint that it is debated whether it can be presupposed at all."]
References to overcoming cosmic powers
AJT , NTA-1965;
GT, Saying 50.
"I am the light . . ."
Sayings 77 and 61.
Koester's views
Helmet Koester, "Gnomai Diaphori," Harvard Theological Review 38 (1965) 279-318, Reprinted in Orthodoxy, Heresy and Schism in Early Christianity , (1993) 208-36;
Adolf Harnack, Outlines of the History of Dogma (Beacon Paperback, 1957)136.
"To know oneself was to know one's divine double..."
Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures . (1987) 359. [While noting links between the Thomas literature and writings of Valentinus, Layton observes that there are no "unmistakable signs" that the Thomas writings are Valentinian, 360.]
Gregory J. Riley, Resurrection Reconsidered: Thomas and John in Controversy (1995)
Julian the Apostate
The Works of the Emperor Julian , Trans. Mrs. Wilmer Cave Wright (1923) 127-9;
J. Stevenson, Creeds, Councils and Controversies (1966) 362-3.
Crossan on two layers of development
John Dominic Crossan, Four Other Gospels , 31-3; The Historical Jesus (1991) 266.
Saying 22 as baptismal formua
Davies, 117-32;
Dennis Ronald MacDonald, There Is No Male and Female . (1987).
Gospel of Bardaisan
Albiruni's Chronology of Ancient Nations , Edward Sachsu trans., (London,1879)27.
Origen
"If ever . . ." Quoted by Henry Chadwick, "The Domestication of Gnosis," in The Rediscovery of Gnosticism , Ed. Bentley Layton (1980-81).
Alexandria's knowledge of Buddhism
Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis (Miscellanies) Book One,71-2, Trans. John Ferguson (1991) 76-7.;
Henri de Lubac, La Rencontre du Bouddhisme et de l'Occident (1952) 112-3 ;
Rawlinson, 141-5;
David Scott, "Christian Responses to Buddhism in Pre-Medieval Times," Numen 32 (1985), 88-100.
Pelikan on church fathers' "gnosis"
Jaroslav Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (l971) 97.
Existence of a Thomas community?
Layton, 359-63;
Burton Mack, 180-83 [suggests there was a third early community, apart from those basing themselves on Mark and Q, that sought spiritual detachment from this-worldliness];
MacDonald,49, fn 105 [possibly some Egyptians had been evangelized by Syrians with Thomas books];
Patterson, The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus (1993).
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The Gnostic Apostle Thomas (c) 1997 Herbert Christian Merillat.