Introduction

“These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke, and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.” That is the text’s claim about itself. The attribution is ancient, but an attribution is not proof of authorship. The manuscript evidence points to a real early Christian text with a complicated history. A complete Coptic copy was found at Nag Hammadi in 1945; related Greek fragments had been found at Oxyrhynchus decades earlier. The manuscripts are later than the apostle Thomas’s lifetime, but the date of a surviving copy does not by itself tell us when every saying first circulated. Scholars still debate the collection’s date, sources, and theology.¹²

1) What Was Found

The Nag Hammadi find included thirteen codices containing dozens of works. One tractate in Codex II is the complete Coptic Gospel of Thomas. The Coptic manuscript is generally dated to the fourth century. Three Greek papyrus fragments from Oxyrhynchus preserve parts of a related Greek version; one was excavated in 1896–97 and dated by its handwriting to around the year 200. These are surviving copies, not the original manuscript or a precise timestamp for composition.¹³

2) What’s Inside

The complete Coptic text contains 114 numbered sayings attributed to Jesus. Most are short sayings, parables, or brief exchanges rather than episodes in a continuous life story. Thomas has no narrative of Jesus’s ministry, trial, crucifixion, or resurrection. That is a description of this text’s contents—not, on its own, an explanation of who wrote it or why it was not included in the New Testament.¹⁴

3) Familiar Sayings—and Difficult Ones

Some sayings have close parallels in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, while others are distinctive or difficult to interpret. Examples include the mustard seed, hidden treasure, “split the wood,” and the final saying about Mary becoming “male.” Translations and interpretations of some sayings differ. Scholars also disagree about whether Thomas drew on written New Testament Gospels, earlier shared traditions, or a mixture of sources; a simple percentage of “copied” sayings would suggest more certainty than the evidence allows.²⁴

4) Was It Written by the Apostle Thomas?

The text names “Didymos Judas Thomas,” and the Nag Hammadi copy ends with the title “The Gospel according to Thomas.” No independent evidence identifies the apostle as its author. The earliest surviving Greek fragments are around the turn of the third century, while the complete surviving Coptic copy is later still. Those dates make direct apostolic authorship difficult to establish, but they cannot tell us exactly when the work took shape: scholars have proposed different dates and histories for its sayings and final collection. The careful conclusion is that the attribution is not authenticated; it is not a first-person eyewitness account we can securely trace to the apostle.¹²³

5) “Gnostic” Is a Debated Label

Thomas is often discussed alongside texts called Gnostic, and some scholars find Gnostic or “gnosticizing” features in it. Others argue that the label oversimplifies a sayings collection whose theology and community setting remain disputed. It is more accurate to describe Thomas first by its form and evidence—a noncanonical early Christian sayings text—and then explain which features a particular scholar considers Gnostic, rather than using the label as if everyone agrees what it means here.²⁵

6) What Did Early Church Writers Say?

Irenaeus, writing in the late second century, criticized the Marcosians for using “apocryphal and spurious writings,” including a story about Jesus as a boy answering his teacher. In that passage he does not name the 114-saying Gospel of Thomas, so it is too strong to say that Irenaeus explicitly condemned this particular book as a “secret gospel.” Later writers do name a Gospel of Thomas, but the surviving record of its reception is scattered and complex.⁶⁷

Thomas is outside the New Testament canon received by the major Christian traditions. The canon took shape over time; the evidence does not point to one universal meeting where this text was considered and rejected for one single reason. Its noncanonical status is clear, while the path by which different communities received or set it aside is harder to reconstruct.⁸

7) Why the Difference Matters to Christian Readers

The absence of a crucifixion and resurrection narrative is a real difference between Thomas and the canonical Gospels. For Christians who understand Jesus’s death and resurrection as central to the gospel, Thomas cannot replace those narratives or serve as a complete account of Jesus’s ministry. That is a theological comparison based on the texts; it should not be confused with historical proof about Thomas’s authorship, the exact date of composition, or the reasons the book remained outside the canon.

8) The Takeaway

The Gospel of Thomas is valuable evidence for the variety of early Christian teaching and for the transmission of sayings attributed to Jesus. The apostle’s authorship is not established, and the evidence does not support presenting the text as his authenticated eyewitness testimony. At the same time, the exact date, sources, and theological classification remain debated. A fair reading can take both points seriously: the case for apostolic authorship is weak, while some of the stronger claims once made about precisely when and why the book was written or rejected go beyond what the surviving evidence can prove.

Sources and Further Reading

1. Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, “The Sayings of Jesus (Logia Jesou)” — Oxyrhynchus fragment, Nag Hammadi Coptic copy, and manuscript context.
2. Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha, “The Gospel of Thomas and the Historical Jesus” — overview of continuing debate about date, theology, and sources.
3. University of Oxford, Oxyrhynchus Papyri project — discovery and early study of the Greek “Sayings of Jesus” papyrus.
4. Coptic Scriptorium, Gospel of Thomas — scholarly digital edition of the Coptic text.
5. Marvin W. Meyer, “Making Mary Male” — one scholarly argument for describing Thomas as gnosticizing; see the Oxford overview above for the broader disagreement.
6. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.20 — the passage about Marcosian apocryphal writings and the childhood story.
7. Simon Gathercole, “Named Testimonia to the Gospel of Thomas” — study of explicit ancient and later references to the title.
8. Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha, “The Formation of the New Testament Canon and Early Christian Apocrypha” — historical development of canonical categories.