chapter five
.. TheGospel of Thomasand
Jewish-Christian Gospe lFragments...Introduction:Thomasand Jewish ChristiansSoon after theGospel of Thomaswas available for scholars, Gilles Quis-
pel presented a hypothesis that a significant amount ofThomas’logia
were based on a Jewish-Christian gospel.^53 As such, the hypothesis has
not found many supporters but it is acknowledged that Quispel’s stud-
ies include important observations about similarities between theGospel
of Thomasand Jewish-Christian gospel tradition.^54 At least the following
similarities are obvious: () Some of the logia of theGospel of Thomasare
paralleled in Jewish-Christian gospel fragments. () Both theGospel of
Thomasand the Jewish-Christian gospel fragments include readings par-
alleled in the Western and Syrian textual traditions as well as in Diatessa-
ronic witnesses.() Some of the logia in theGospel of Thomasare thought
to be based on Semitic originals, which suggests connections to Jewish-
Christian gospel traditions () James the Just has a central role in both
theGospel of Thomas(logion ) and in Jewish Christianity. () Both crit-
icize riches and business. () Jewish religious practices are explicitly dis-
cussed in theGospel of Thomas, which suggests a connection—at least a
polemical one—between the Thomasine Christians and a Jewish/Jewish-
Christian community.
In addition to Quispel’s hypothesis, it is possible to discern four other
scholarly stances on the relation betweenThomasand Jewish-Christian
gospels: )Agnosticism. Because so little is known about Jewish-Christian
(^53) Quispel attributed about ofThomas’ logia to a Jewish-Christian gospel. See
Quispel , . First (see Quispel , –, esp. p. ) Quispel assumed that the
author of theGospel of Thomashad used two sources: a Jewish-Christian gospel of the
Nazarenes/Hebrews and an encritite gospel of the Egyptians. Later on, a third, Hermetic
source was added. For the summary of Quispel’s hypothesis, see Fallon & Cameron ,
–.
(^54) Recently, A.D. DeConick has presented the hypothesis thatThomaswas a “rolling
corpus” and suggested that its earliest kernel could be related to the Jewish-Christian
gospel postulated by Quispel. See DeConick , . Some scholars also assume a
Jewish-Christiancollection of sayingsbehind theGospel of Thomas. Thus, Cullmann ,
–. Frend , –; Grobel /, , . Grobel supports his view with
SemitismshefindsinsomeofthelogiaoftheGospel of Thomas, and locates theGospel
of Thomasin Egypt. Several scholars also assume a connection betweenThomasand
Q’s earliest layers. H. Koester, in particular, has emphasized the independence of the
traditions of theGospel of Thomasand its connection to the earliest layer of Q’s wisdom
sayings, prophetic sayings, proverbs and community rules. See Koester , –.