A peasant named Muhammad Ali al-Samman was digging for fertilizer near the cliffs of Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, in December 1945. His mattock struck a sealed earthenware jar. He hesitated to break it, suspecting a jinn might fly out. When he smashed the jar anyway, he found thirteen papyrus books bound in leather. Among them was a text that would reshape how scholars and seekers understand the earliest Christian movements: a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus, with no resurrection story, no miracles, no narrative frame. The Gospel of Thomas is a “sayings gospel” — a list of logia (sayings) that some scholars date to the first or second century, possibly preserving a tradition independent of the canonical Gospels.
What Was Found in That Jar, and Why It Matters
The Nag Hammadi library consisted of 13 codices containing over 50 texts, mostly Gnostic in character. The Gospel of Thomas (Codex II, tractate 2) was written in Sahidic Coptic, the liturgical language of Egyptian Christians. Scholars estimate the Coptic manuscript dates to around 340–350 CE. But the sayings themselves are older. Greek fragments of Thomas were discovered earlier among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (P.Oxy. 1, 654, 655), dated to 200–250 CE. Those fragments confirm that a Greek version of Thomas circulated in the second century.
The text presents itself as “the secret words which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down.” Didymus and Thomas both mean “twin” — Greek and Aramaic respectively. Early church writers like Hippolytus and Origen knew of a “Gospel of Thomas,” but they referred to a work they considered heretical. The Nag Hammadi find provided the Coptic version that lets us read the sayings in their entirety.
The question of dating is hotly debated. Some scholars place Thomas as early as the 40s or 50s CE — before the canonical Gospels. Others argue for a mid-second-century date, pointing to its Gnostic flavor and dependence on the Synoptics. The truth may lie somewhere in between: Thomas likely grew through multiple stages, from an oral collection of sayings to a written text that was later expanded and edited by Gnostic circles.
The original Coptic of Thomas is laconic. A logion like “Jesus said, ‘Lucky is the lion that a person will eat, so that the lion becomes a person. And cursed is the person whom a lion will eat, and the lion will become a person’” (logion 7) admits wildly different interpretations depending on how the translator handles the grammar. Is “person” a human being? Is the lion a symbol for passion? Or is it a coded reference to something else?
Translators must decide between a literal rendering (preserving the ambiguity) and a dynamic equivalent (making the meaning clear to a modern reader). They also must choose how to number the sayings. The standard numbering by J. Martin Robinson and the Berlin Working Group uses 114 logia, but some scholars argue that logion 114 (about Mary being made male) is a later addition. A translator might bracket it or footnote it.
The Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus add another wrinkle. Where the Coptic and Greek versions diverge, as they do in several sayings, a translator must decide which witness to follow or how to indicate the variation.
Thomas O. Lambdin’s translation (1977), published in The Nag Hammadi Library in English (edited by J.M. Robinson), is the most widely cited scholarly version. Lambdin remained close to the Coptic syntax, often at the cost of readability. His version is the standard for academic citation, but it can feel wooden. Lambdin numbered the sayings but did not provide extensive commentary.
Marvin Meyer’s translation (1992) appears in The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus and later in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (2007). Meyer translated with a literary ear, aiming for clarity without losing the enigmatic tone. He included introductions, textual notes, and parallels to the Synoptic Gospels. His version is the one most often quoted in popular works and used by spiritual seekers.
Stephen J. Patterson’s translation (1998) was published in The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas Comes of Age (co-authored with Hans-Gebhard Bethge and others). Patterson emphasized the sayings as wisdom literature, stripping away later Gnostic overlays. His translation is often preferred by those who see Thomas as an early, non-Gnostic collection.
Elaine Pagels’s translation (2003), found in Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, is less a full critical edition than a partial translation woven into her argument about Thomas’s relationship to the Gospel of John. Pagels translated key logia with nuance, but her selection is limited to those sayings that support her thesis.
Mark Goodacre’s translation (2021), part of the Lighthouse Library project, is the most recent attempt. Goodacre, a New Testament scholar and host of the NT Pod, translated the Coptic with a sensitivity to the Aramaic substratum. His edition is available free online and includes a useful apparatus for comparing Thomas with the Synoptic parallels.
If you are studying the Nag Hammadi library as a whole, Lambdin’s version in The Nag Hammadi Library in English remains indispensable. Its footnotes point to textual variants and parallel passages. But if you want to read Thomas as a spiritual text, to ponder each saying slowly, Meyer’s translation is more fluid and less distracting.
Patterson’s version is the best choice for understanding the scholarly debate about Thomas’s date and character. His introduction and commentary explain why some argue Thomas predates the canonical Gospels. Pagels’s work is valuable for the context she provides about the politics of orthodoxy and heresy, but it is not a complete translation.
Goodacre’s translation is excellent for quick reference and comparison work. Its online format makes it easy to check a saying against the Greek fragments and the Synoptics. For casual readers, Meyer’s The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus (still in print) offers the best balance of accuracy, readability, and affordability.
“The Gospel of Thomas is the lost Gospel of Jesus.” It is a collection of sayings, not a narrative Gospel. Early Christians did not lose it; they deliberately excluded it from the canon because its theology (especially its emphasis on self-knowledge and the divine spark within) conflicted with emerging orthodoxy. It was preserved by the group that copied it, likely a monastic community, not by an underground conspiracy.
“Thomas contradicts the canonical Gospels.” It sometimes parallels them (about seventy sayings have Synoptic overlap) but often gives a different twist. Where Mark says “the kingdom of God is at hand,” Thomas says “the kingdom is within you” and “is spread upon the earth and people do not see it.” That is not contradiction but expansion. Thomas assumes a different anthropology: salvation comes by recognizing one’s own divine origin, not by faith in Christ’s death and resurrection.
“Thomas is purely Gnostic.” The text lacks classic Gnostic features like a created demiurge, aeons, or a fall from the Pleroma. Most scholars today call it “proto-Gnostic” or “encratite” (emphasizing asceticism). The Valentinian editors of the Nag Hammadi library certainly read it as Gnostic, but its core sayings may predate those theological categories.
FAQ
Who translated the Gospel of Thomas?
Thomas O. Lambdin, Marvin Meyer, Stephen Patterson, Elaine Pagels, and Mark Goodacre have each produced English translations. The most widely used scholarly edition is Lambdin’s in The Nag Hammadi Library in English.
Is the Gospel of Thomas reliable as a historical source?
That depends on what you mean by reliable. If “reliable” means preserving early traditions about Jesus independent of the Synoptics, many scholars argue yes. If it means preserving the actual words of the historical Jesus, the consensus is more skeptical. Thomas is a useful witness to the diversity of early Christian thought.
Why are there 114 sayings?
The Coptic manuscript contains 114 logia, but some scholars believe logion 114 (the saying about Mary becoming male) is a later addition. The Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus preserve an earlier form of some sayings and differ in wording, suggesting the text grew over time.
Which translation is best for beginners?
Marvin Meyer’s The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus is the most accessible. It includes a helpful introduction, clear numbering, and enough notes to guide without overwhelming.
The Gospel of Thomas is not a single fixed text but a living tradition that passed through Greek, Coptic, and now multiple English versions. Choosing the right translation means asking what you want the text to do, provide scholarly precision, spiritual insight, or historical context. We keep both Lambdin and Meyer on our reference shelf, because one serves the mind and the other the breath. If you are new to this gospel, begin with Meyer, then return to Lambdin for the grit that the smooth surface hides. That contrast itself is a saying Thomas would recognize.
From here, you might explore the broader world of Gnostic texts and traditions. The Logos concept appears throughout Thomas and other Nag Hammadi writings. For a deeper look at how the canonical Gospels and Thomas relate, see our guide on The Gnostic Gospels: An Overview.