The Composition Of The Gospel Of Thomas (Hardcover)

The Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series presents specialized research into all aspects of New Testament textual and historical culture, taking a range of approaches. This is widely recognized as the most authoritative and prestigious forum for serious scholarly publication in the area, and series books are highly regarded by biblical scholars the world over. The series has been published by Cambridge since 1965, and now contains well over 100 titles.
This book addresses two central questions in current research on the Gospel of Thomas: what was its original language, and which early Christian works influenced it? At present, theories of Thomas as a Semitic work abound. Simon Gathercole dismantles these approaches, arguing instead that Thomas is Greek literature, and that the matter of Thomas's original language is connected with an even more controversial question: that of the relationship between Thomas and the canonical New Testament. Rather than arguing that Thomas is independent of Matthew, Mark and Luke (as in most Western Aramaic theories of Thomas) or thoroughly dependent on the four Gospels (as in most Syriac approaches), Gathercole develops a newly refined approach to how Thomas is influenced by the Synoptic Gospels. Thomas can be seen to refer to Matthew as a Gospel writer, and evidence is discussed showing that Thomas incorporates phraseology distinctive to Luke, while also extending that special Lukan language.
SIMON GATHERCOLE is Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies at the University of Cambridge and Fellow and Director of Studies in Theology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He is the author of Where is Boasting? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5 (2002), The Pre-existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark and Luke (2006), and The Gospel of Judas: Rewriting Early Christianity (2007). He is co-editor (with L.T. Stuckenbruck and S.D.E. Weeks) of The Book of Tobit (2004) and (with J.M.G. Barclay) Divine and Human Agency in Paul and his Cultural Environ ent (2006).
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS