Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation

An enigmatic collection of 114 sayings of Jesus, the 'Gospel of Thomas' was discovered in the sands of Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in the 1940's. Here, April DeConick provides a new English translation of the entire Gospel of Thomas, which includes the original 'kernel' of the Gospel and all the sayings. Whilst most other translations are of the Coptic text with only occasional reference to the Greek fragment variants, this translation integrates the Greek and offers new solutions to complete the lacunae. A unique feature of this book is that translations to the parallels of the Gospel are also included. Since its discovery, scholars and the public alike have been intrigued to know what the Gospel says and what light it sheds on the formation of early Christianity. In 'Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas', April DeConick argued that the gospel was a 'rolling corpus,' a book of sayings that grew over time, beginning as a simple written gospel containing oracles of the prophet Jesus.As the community faced various crises and constituency changes, including the delay of the Eschaton and the need to accommodate Gentiles within the group, its traditions were reinterpreted and the sayings in their gospel updated, accommodating the present experiences of the community. This volume was originally published in hardback as volume 287 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series and is part of the Early Christianity in Context subseries.

"April DeConick is among the most prolific and creative scholars writing in English on the Gospel of Thomas" "no-one who wishes to do serious historical work on this gospel will be able to ignore them" ANVIL vol.24 no.4 2007--Sanford Lakoff, "This is a book which scholars will surely welcome" "the issues are well-presented and the author's case clearly argued" Journal for the sudy of the New Testament, 30 May 2008--Sanford Lakoff, 'An insightful and comprehensive presenation of the Gospel of Thomas' Theological Book Review, Volume 20, No 2, 2008, "This is the essential commentary and reference work on the gospel of Thomas." International Review of Biblical Studies, vol. 54:2007/08, Review in French Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses, 2007

April DeConick is Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University, Houston, USA. She is the author of Seek to See Him: Ascent Mysticism in the Gospel of Thomas, Voices of the Mystics: Early Christian Discourse in the Gospels of John and Thomas and Other Ancient Christian Literature. She is co-editor of Thomasine Traditions in Antiquity: The Social and Cultural World of the Gospel of Thomas.