Date: Sun, 30 Nov 1997 18:14:54 -0700
From: Bob Schacht <Robert.Schacht@nau.edu>
Subject: Christology of Thomas?

At 06:01 PM 11/30/97 +0000, Stevan Davies wrote, regarding Pagels:
>...She's got Davies in mind for two things:
>The earlier GTCW chapter on Image and Light
>http://www.miseri.edu/davies/thomas/four.htm
>and the JBL article I wrote, that seems to be quite similar to her 
>SBL paper
>http://www.miseri.edu/davies/thomas/jblprot.htm
>...

This last webpage includes a partial answer to my question earlier today
about the Christology of Thomas:

>II. Thomas's Christology
>
>The Gospel of Thomas does not define Jesus' role by means of
christological terminology. Few
>sayings directly discuss Jesus. Still, one may find a "Christology" of
light in saying 77 and a
>"Christology" of wisdom in saying 28. These are compatible perspectives,
but it is not the primary
>intent of Thomas to present them (contrast, for example, the Gospel of
John). Rather, Jesus
>provides and validates the perspective on the world and on humanity
advocated in Thomas, the
>presentation of which is Thomas's primary intent. When people ask Jesus to
tell them who he is so
>that they might believe, his response shifts their concern to seeing what
is before them and to
>recognizing the nature of the present time (saying 91). Jesus' message
about the kingdom of God is
>Thomas's concern, not Jesus' message about Jesus. 

I think it is of special interest here that apparently, Thomas never uses
the word "Christ", applied to Jesus or anyone else. The English translation
of GThomas at your web site, at

http://www.miseri.edu/davies/thomas/trans.htm

includes no references to either "Christ" or even "Messiah".
This is a pretty big difference with GJohn, as you suggest in the above
quote. In fact, in a technical sense, on this basis one could argue that
GThomas is not even "Christian"! Your analysis quoted above suggests that
GThomas is not even primarily about Jesus, but rather is about Thomas's
"perspective on the world and on humanity". So Jesus serves primarily as a
prop for Thomas's philosophizing. No wonder it didn't make it into the canon!

Bob

Robert Schacht
Northern Arizona University
Robert.Schacht@nau.edu

"This success of my endeavors was due, I believe, to a rule of 'method': 
that we should always try to clarify and to strengthen our opponent's
position as much as possible before criticizing him, if we wish our
criticism to be worth while." [Sir Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific
Discovery (1968), p. 260 n.*5]