The Rediscovery of the Gospel of Thomas
October 5th, 2009 by Andrew Bernhard under Gospel of Thomas. 1 Comment.
Props to Mark Goodacre for calling attention to the real beginning of the modern study of the Gospel of Thomas around the beginning of the twentieth century. He has recently posted on the subject, and prepared an excellent podcast.
Most accounts of the rediscovery of the Gospel of Thomas tend to begin with the dramatic story of the unearthing of the Nag Hammadi Library in 1945: an essentially complete Coptic translation of the text was contained in one of the thirteen codices brought to light by this find (as I mentioned previously, a good account of this discovery is: John Dart’s, Unearthing the Lost Words of Jesus).
However, three Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas (containing about a third of the gospel) were discovered by Oxford scholars Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt about half a century earlier. These fragments caused a considerable scholarly and popular sensation at the time. An excellent first-hand account of the original discovery is Grenfell’s “The Oldest Record of Christ’s Life” (published in McClure’s Magazine in 1897). Images of the three Greek fragments as well as Grenfell and Hunt’s first critical editions of them are available in the Gospel of Thomas Resource Center.
