Abstract

At the heart of the Gospel of Thomas lies the call to achieve an understanding of one's self (Logia 67-70). This call focuses the struggle of Thomas Christians by turning it inward as a challenge to understand their own true identity. Through this struggle they come to a knowledge of the Father. The significance of this theme of the search for the true self is examined further in the context of the Gospel of Thomas (Logia 3; 58; 111). From this study, it emerges that Thomas Christians experienced that they were strangers in a hostile world. Feeling alienated, they wished to escape rom the world. The positive outcome of this experience was a deeper self-understanding. This study culminates in an examination of this theme of the search for one's self in two other writings at home within early Syrian Christianity. In the Hymn of the Pearl (Acts of Thomas 108-113) the theme emerges in the allegory of the soul's quest for self-knowledge. The path to salvation is a search that ultimately takes one rom the world. In the Book of Thomas the Contender the same search for one's identity is emphasised (138:15-20 and 145:1-15). Finally, it is argued that this search for one's true identity is appropriate to the historical and sociological context of the Syrian Church in Edessa.

Highlights

  • The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas and the literature associated with his name have thrown new perspectives onto the development of Christianity in the first centuries of this era

  • The Book of Thomas opened with a call to know yourself. It ended with the discovery of one's true self which is to be found in the separation from the body and in union with God

  • The Book of Thomas places its emphasis much more directly and on sexual abstinence: the sexual is what we share with all animals, and since it belongs to the body it is destined to be destroyed. This growing emphasis on sexual abstinence is part of the developmental tendency found in the Thomasine traditions of Syrian Christianity

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas and the literature associated with his name have thrown new perspectives onto the development of Christianity in the first centuries of this era. This article will show how two themes (namely, the search for one's self, and one's alienation from the world) run throughout the Thomasine literature TIre SUTcll for tile true safin tile Gospel of TlromllS of Thomas, the Book of Thomas and the Hymn of the Pearl) and reflect well the situation of Syrian Christianity in the first centuries of this era (Barnard 1968:161)

A SEARCH FOR A KNOWLEDGE OF ONESELF IN THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS
Know yourself
CONCLUSION
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