The Gospel of Thomas: A Traditional Christian Analysis of the Text

By Robert Alan King

The Gospel of Thomas: A Traditional Christian Analysis of the Text by Robert Alan King is a booklet with over 5,500 words. King reflects on the Gospel of Thomas with a traditional Christian perspective, providing a brief analysis of the document. He explores the content and examines a variety of reasons why any serious Christian reader or Bible student cannot consider the work as trustworthy or credible. This book concurs with the majority of scholars that the work is later in origin than those with Gnostic beliefs would like to accept and agrees with the early church fathers that the document is a spurious work. Robert Alan King is an ordained minister through Calvary Chapel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Alan King
• Release date: May 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301560523

Robert Alan King

Robert Alan King is an ordained minister through Calvary Chapel who has written numerous theological and inspirational articles for a variety of publications, including Advocate, The Church Herald & Holiness Banner, Companions, The Priest, Proclaim, Pulpit Helps, Vista, War Cry, and Decision Magazine. He also has authored numerous printed books and dozens of eBooks.King has a Master of Arts Degree Sum Cum Laude in Psychology from Touro University Worldwide with an 4.0 institutional GPA, a Bachelor of Science Degree Cum Laude in Bible and Theology from Lee University with an 4.0 institutional GPA, and an Associate of Arts Degree with an emphasis in Science from Coastline Community College. He has a total of at least 256 units of education from universities, seminaries or colleges. This includes at least 130 units of Bible and theology related classes from Lee University, Calvary Chapel Bible College, and Chafer Theological Seminary.

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The Gospel of Thomas: A Traditional Christian Analysis of the Text

By Robert Alan King

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 by King & Associates. All Rights Reserved.

Published by King & Associates, Casa Grande, Arizona.

All quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are copyright from The Gospel According to Thomas translated by Antoine Guillaumont, H. CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till, and Yassah Abd Al Masih, Harper & Row Publishers, 1959.

For a complete catalog of books and publications by Robert Alan King, visit BibleCommentator.com. This site also provides you with news on his upcoming titles. In addition, you can read many other articles by King on a wide variety of biblical issues.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Not Fully Gnostic

Sources and Variants

Biblical Statements

Gnostic Statements

Contradictions and Bad Theology

Later Origin

Conclusion

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Introduction

Dating of the Gospel of Thomas has been debated among scholars for quite some time, but the most probable date for when the original core sayings were collated into this document was most likely sometime after the distribution of the other Gospels; later copyists then probably added additional content. Many believe it may have been circulated in multiple forms differing from one another. Many of the early church fathers mention a Gospel of Thomas and consider it a heretical work since it was popular among Gnostic schools of thought.

One of the main problems with the Gospel of Thomas is that its sayings are generally lacking any real narrative context to aide in the interpretation of their meaning except in some rare cases where there might