3 S EARLY WISDOM GOSPELS
works included here (for example, Gospel of Thomas 46), and his place is par-
ticularly prominent in Mandaean texts.
THE GOSPELS OF THOMAS AND JOHN
In this first part of the present book, two early gospels with wisdom orienta-
tions are included: the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of John. Both pres-
ent Jesus as a proclaimer of wisdom and knowledge. The Gospel of Thomas
(like Q) has pithy sayings of Jesus, the Gospel of John (like many gnostic
sources) offers mystical discourses of Jesus, but both stress the role of Jesus as
one who discloses insight and knowledge. Although the Gospels of Thomas
and John cannot be described as specifically gnostic without some qualifica-
tion, both of these gospels employ themes that bring to mind gnostic motifs
that are more fully developed elsewhere, and the Gospel of John was the fa-
vored canonical gospel for gnostic exegesis. The Gospels of Thomas and John
may thus be described as representing incipient gnostic perspectives—but
they do so in very different ways.
Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas utters life-giving words, promising that
those who follow him, respond to his words, and find their true meaning will
not taste death. Yet Thomas's Jesus is "just Jesus," as Stephen Patterson puts it.^7
Thomas's Jesus does not pull rank. He does not refer to himself (and he is not
referred to by others) as the Christ or the messiah, he is not acclaimed master
or lord, he is not announced as the incarnate and unique son of god, and when
he refers to himself as the son of man (the human child) once in the gospel
(saying 86), he does so in the generic sense of referring to any person or sim-
ply to himself. Further, if Thomas's Jesus is a human child, so are other people
called human children in the Gospel of Thomas.
Jesus in Thomas is just Jesus, but his words are not just words. They are
hidden words of wisdom from a living Jesus who lives on in his sayings—
hidden sayings, secret sayings, with hidden meanings. According to the
Gospel of Thomas, the interpretation of these wise but hidden sayings will
bring knowledge and life. Saying 2 states, "Whoever discovers what these say-
ings mean will not taste death"; saying 3 goes on to declare, "When you know
yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are chil-
dren of the living father"; sayings 5 and 6 affirm, "There is nothing hidden that- Patterson, Bethge, and Robinson, The Fifth Gospel, p. 43.