Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 19:46:44 +0200
From: Antonio Jerez <antonio.jerez@swipnet.se>
To: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com
Cc: Stevan Davies <miser17@epix.net>
Subject: Re: Valentasis on Thomas

Stevan Davies wrote:


>I think it's just fine to have all you Thomas people showing up on
>crosstalk. But here's the bad news. You are going to have to spend 
>the money. You have to buy:
>
>Valantasis, Richard, 1946-
>     The Gospel of Thomas / Richard Valantasis.
>     London ; New York : Routledge, 1997.
>
>You can't even get it from Interlibrary loan. It's too dense and you
>will want to underline things and put notes and in margins and so 
>forth. No, you have to buy it.
>
>I've mentioned it before, not quite disparagingly I don't think,
>and I still don't quite know what to make of it, but I MUST add
>here is that it is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.  It is just filled with
>insights drawn from reading Thomas to mean what it says and
>not what it says-in-light-of-the-canon or in-light-of-the-gnostics
>or anything. He keeps finding bits that I should have noticed but I
>do always have gnostics and synoptics in the back of my mind
>whether I like it or not and so I miss the obvious which he doesn't
>miss.
>
>So you have to buy the thing. Sorry about that, but you have
>no choice. It's the best book of its kind ever written. What kind?
>I still don't know the answer to that one.
>
>Steve


Steve,
glad to see that you appreciate Valantasis book. I still
haven't returned it to the library here in town and I'm
still going through it from time to time. I agree with you
that the book is very good and that Valantasis offers
some unusual insights, but I also get the impression
from time to time that Valantasis is just mumbling in
parts of his commentaries on the Thomas sayings.

By the way - when talking about books that have been
recommended on the list. Remember Ched Myer's 
"Binding the strong man" that Don Murphy has recommended
to us? I got hold of the book and am almost finished with it.
So far it has largely been a disappointment. In my opinion
Myer's is all too often indulging in eisegesis and making
all kinds of forced readings of Mark's text - all to bolster
Myer's particular brand of modern "liberation theology".
The worst part in the book was actually Myer's reading of
chapter 13 - the "little Apocalypse" - in Mark. Myer's way
of unmythologizing the Parousia expectations of the early
Christians is just as bad as N T Wright's efforts in "Jesus
and the Victory of God", although Myer's does a totally
different reading of what the return of the Son of Man
was all about.

Best wishes

Antonio