44 EARLY WISDOM GOSPELS
gospel may have been written in Syria, possibly at Edessa (modern Urfa),
where the memory of Thomas was revered and where his bones were vener-
ated. Many of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas recall sayings of Jesus in the
New Testament gospels, but many are previously unknown sayings or versions
of sayings of Jesus. Some sayings may well derive ultimately from the historical
Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas has attracted a great deal of popular interest and
was portrayed as a significant and suppressed collection of sayings of Jesus in
the film Stigmata.
The numbering of the sayings employed here (1-114) is a scholarly con-
vention. The translation gives the Semitic forms of Semitic names, in order to
highlight the Jewish identity of Jesus and his students and the Jewish context
of the life of the historical Jesus. For example, the name Yeshua is used for
Jesus; the other names are identified in the notes.
THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS'
These are the hidden sayings that the living Yeshua spoke and Yehuda Toma
the twin recorded.^2
(1) And he said,^3
Whoever discovers what these sayings mean^4
will not taste death.
(2) Yeshua said,
Seek and do not stop seeking until you find.
When you find, you will be troubled.- The Gospel of Thomas: Nag Hammadi library, Codex 11,2, pp. 32,10 to 51,28, and in the
Greek fragments in Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1,654 and 655; translated from the Coptic by Marvin
Meyer. There are many parallels in the New Testament gospels to the sayings of Jesus in the
Gospel of Thomas. The New Testament parallels are not listed in the notes, for reasons of econ-
omy of space, but the serious seeker will easily find them. - Instead of "hidden sayings," we may translate as "secret sayings," or "obscure sayings" (Coptic
enshaje ethep, Greek Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 654 hoi logoi hoi [apokryphoi]). The Book of
Thomas has a similar opening, and the Secret Book of James also calls itself a "secret book."
Yeshua is Jesus (here and throughout), and Yehuda Toma is Judas Thomas. The "living Yeshua"
is almost certainly not a reference to the resurrected Jesus as traditionally understood, but
rather to Jesus who lives through his sayings. - The speaker is probably Jesus, otherwise Judas Thomas with an editorial remark.
- Or, "the interpretation [Coptic hermeneia, from Greek] of these sayings."