. GOSPEL OF THOMAS. INTRODUCTION

There is a general consensus among scholars that the Gospel of Thomas,
discovered over a half century ago in the Egyptian desert,
dates to the very beginnings of the Christian era
and may well have taken first form before any of the four traditional canonical Gospels.
During the first few decades after its discovery several voices
representing established orthodox biases argued that the Gospel of Thomas (GTh)
was a late-second or third century Gnostic forgery.
Scholars currently involved in Thomas studies now largely reject that view,
though such arguments will still be heard from orthodox apologists
and are encountered in some of the earlier publications about Thomas.

Today most students would agree that the Thomas Gospel
has opened a new perspective on the first voice of the Christian tradition.
Recent studies centered on GTh have led to a stark reappraisal of the forces and events
forming "orthodoxy" during the second and third centuries.
But more importantly, the Gospel of Thomas is awakening interest
in a forgotten spiritual legacy of Christian culture.
The first words of Thomas invite each of us to join in a unique quest.

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke,
and that Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down. And He said:
"Whoever finds the meaning of these words will not taste death."