Thomas and the Gospels

The Gospel of Thomas is the most controversial of the non-canonical gospels and the most important source outside the Gospels for our understanding of the historical Jesus and Christianity's origins. Mark Goodacre makes a detailed and compelling case that the author of The Gospel of Thomas is, after all, familiar with the Synoptic Gospels. He shows that the arguments for independence are inadequate and that the degree of agreement between Thomas and the Synoptics is far too great to be mediated by oral tradition. He suggests that Thomas features tell-tale signs of Matthew's and Luke's redactions and that the Gospel should be dated to the early to middle second century, when its author was looking for a means of lending the voice of his enigmatic Jesus an authoritative, Synopic-sounding legitimacy.

Not only has the Gospel of Thomas been a contentious subject within New Testament Studies, it has also captured the imagination of those reading and studying early Christianity at the popular level – sometimes being described as the Fifth Gospel or the earliest witness to the historical Jesus. In this articulate and acutely argued monograph, Goodacre makes a persuasive case that the writer of Thomas was dependent on the Synoptic material as we know it. In Chapter One, Goodacre briefly introduces the reader to general issues within Thomasine studies – specifically regarding Thomas’s relationship with the Synoptics. After discussing some general arguments for and againstThomas’s independence from the Synoptics, he turns his attention, in Chapters Two through Six, to specific textual arguments. He begins here with verbatim agreement between Thomas and the Synoptics. This, according to Goodacre, shows a relationship but not necessarily the direction of that relationship (p.49). To establish this direction, Goodacre, in Chapter Three, introduces the idea of ‘diagnostic shards,’ – ‘the appearance of distinctive redactional features of one text appearing in another’ (p.49). The following three chapters deal with these diagnostic shards appearing in Thomas from Matthew (Chapter Four) and Luke (Chapters Five and Six). Goodacre then turns to broader argumentation. Chapter Seven deals with the ‘missing middle’ in Thomasine passages where the writer of Thomas makes use of a Synoptic periscope, but in the editing process removes its middle. This phenomenon appears in multiple types of materials and the awkwardness that this editorial technique produces, Goodacre suggests, may indicate that the author of Thomas was working from memory. Chapter Eight deals with the issues of orality and the role that Thomas has played in that discussion. Chapter Nine establishes a date of roughly 140 for Thomas, based on its apparent allusions to the destruction of the temple (Thom. 71 and perhaps even the Bar Kokhba revolt (Thom. 68). In his final substantive chapter, Goodacre argues that the reason the author of Thomas made such substantial use of the Synoptics was to lend authority to his secretive, and divergent Gospel. Goodacre concludes with a plea to study Thomas (and other non-canonical sources) on their own terms, and not just as they relate to the study of the Synoptic Gospels or the historical Jesus. The rigorous and responsible research that went into producing this study, along with the enjoyable and engaging prose, makes it well worth purchasing. Goodacre has produced an original and excellent evaluation of Thomas’ relationship to and use of the Synoptic Gospels.

Mark Goodacre is Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Department of Religion, Duke University, North Carolina, and general editor of T & T Clark's Library of New Testament Studies. His most recent books include The Synoptic Problem: A Way through the Maze (T & T Clark, 2001) and The Case Against Q (Continuum, 2002).