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Stop searching your Bible; you're not going to find it in there.
It's not hidden among the four New Testament gospels. It's the
Gospel of Thomas and despite its name, some scholars aren't quite
convinced that St. Thomas the Apostle actually wrote this ancient
text.
This gospel is a collection of sayings and teachings attributed
to Jesus Christ. Portions of this document were initially discovered
in the late 1800s. Later, a complete version of it was found in
Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. Scholars can date the complete text
to approximate 340 AD. Certain fragments of this gospel though
have been dated to nearly 200 years earlier than that.
Despite its name, The Gospel of Saint Thomas, controversy exists
over who exactly the author of this work may be. Many point to
the very first line of the text in which it states that the author
is "didymos Judas Thomas." Didymos is the Greek for
Twin. Not only that, but Thomas means twin in Aramaic.
Many believe that the author's name was actually Judas, whose
nickname was twin. The confusion emerges because the Gospel of
John refers to a man called Thomas, who is called "didymos
Thomas." But the Bible mentions no Judas whose nickname is
the twin.
Whether St. Thomas wrote the gospel or not, the document declares
that the Kingdom of God actually exists on the earth. It quotes
Jesus as saying that all anyone needs to do is to open their eyes.
It also says that a "divine light" exists in each of
us. It's this light that allows us to see the Kingdom in our physical
surroundings.
Curiously, views the Creation Story of the Bible from a different
perspective than the Bible portrays it. This text says that there
were two separate "creations" of mankind. The first
was perfect; the second flawed. Jesus, according to the Gospel
of Thomas, extols us to return to the first, perfect Kingdom -
through opening our eyes - instead of waiting for the "end
of times" prophecy to come.
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