Would the gospel of Thomas have been canonized?

Question

Can we trust the author to have been someone close to Jesus or the disciples? What was the approximate dating on this writing? How does its style compare with the canonized gospels?

Answer 1

To date, a single copy of the work has been found. Since then, two small fragments, each with less then a dozen words readable on them, have been identifed as being from a copy of the same work. The nearly complete copy was included with a stack of other gnostic works found in the 1950s in Egypt. Gnostic wirtings did not begin to appear until the mid second century (about 100 -125 years after the time of Jesus).

However, the gospel of Thomas is interesting in that it does not contain any of the common gnostic teachings. Rather it is simply a listing of saying by Jesus, usually with no "context" (we are not told where he was or what he was doing when he said them). That can make understanding them difficult.

Several of the statements matches with those in the accepted gospels. Others are unknown, and not repeated in any other surviving work.

The gospel of Thomas does not appear to have been known to the church fathers who first approved the cannon of scripture, as it is not mentioned in any of their writings, nor was it ever suggested or debated for inclusion (or exclusion) from the scriptures.

Answer 2

It was written by the disciple Thomas. He knew Jesus personally. Jesus told Thomas what to write. This was written in Jesus' own words. Jesus was there to tell Thomas what to write. How can you question the author? You know him. He was the "doubting Thomas" who placed his hand in Jesus' side after he had risen from the dead. How is it possible to doubt?Catholicism will never canonize the truth. Catholicism will deny, deny and deny as it has from the beginning when they broke away from the true Christians in 1054. The Protestants protested against Catholicism so, almost anyone who is not a Catholic, is a true Christian. Don't believe me? Look up "The Great Schism." The Roman Catholics were the first protestants.

EDIT: The only reason it contradicts is because Rome rewrote the canonized books to fit their laws. I have no doubt that the original unaltered Bible, which no longer exists because of the Catholics, would not have contradicted but would have supported the Gospel of Thomas. I am Gnostic and I do accept. You don't have to be Gnostic to accept it. Just don't not accept it because your religion won't. Follow what's in your heart.

Answer 3

See Sources for some interesting reading on the Gospel of Thomas.
I have tried to answer your questions by quoting some of the below mentioned sources.

Authorship: The authorship of the Gospel of Thomas is attributed to Didymos Judas Thomas, that is, Judas "the Twin," who was an apostle of Jesus.

Date: There is a growing 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

Gospel of St. Thomas - Why isn't it in the Bible?
The Gospel of St. Thomas is considered "Gnostic" in origin and viewpoint by many fundamental Christians, and is possibly the reason why the book was kept from the original canon of the Holy Bible (if the text was even known by early Christian followers at all). Generally, Gnostics hold that salvation of the soul comes from a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of secret formulae indicative of that knowledge. Since Christians view the Bible as a supernaturally-inspired collection of God's word to humans, which is totally integrated in thought and doctrine, there is no such thing as a "lost book" of the Bible with special secrets for the wise

Answer 4

The Infancy Gospel was written in Aramaic, the language of Christ, and is said to have been written about the same time that Christ would have lived.
It won't be canonized by the church because it contradicts very specific areas of Christian doctrine and dogma.
You can find a copy of the entire work here www.gnosis.org

Answer 5

only by the gnostics...