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The Gospel of Thomas Video about the Lost Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, which many historians feel contains the oldest content and is historically closer to Jesus than the 4 biblical Gospels are. It is written in the form of simple sayings and parables said by Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas is a closed-door, or secret teaching.To understand it you have to be a part of the lineage of Thomas, you had to be a gnostic. So the academics or researchers of today cannot fully fathom it's meaning- Some people are not aware that there are more Gospels than just the 4 main ones in the modern bible. Most of Jesus' Disciples have a Gospel. One of the most famous that has been found is the Gospel of Thomas, it is especially famous because it was found in it's complete form, and none of the other ones were, just fragments of them. So the question then becomes which Gospel is the most authentic and the closest to the teachings of the Grandmaster, Jesus Christ. Hardcore Christians don't want to admit that it could be older than their gospels, so they will always point out that the actual physical text we have of the Gospel of Thomas is in fact from hundreds of years after Jesus. However, according to high level scholars like Koester of Harvard, or Elaine Paegels, the content of the Gospel of Thomas is older than the papyrus of it that we have today. Why is that? Another factor we have to explain and look at now then, is the so called Lost Q document. Since textual criticism had become big in the last century or 2, something new was discovered. Throughout history it was always assumed that Luke and Matthew were derived from Mark, and that Mark was the original and oldest gospel. However, it was discovered that Luke and Matthew share common material that is not found in Mark. How can that be then? It means Luke and Matthew both derived some of the same information from another source, it has never been discovered but scholars have called it the "Q document". So how does this relate to the Gospel of Thomas you ask? Because it has long been believed by experts in textual criticism that the Q document would have been in the form of sayings, and parables, by Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas is in that format, and contains original information. The Original source for the teachings of the NT is not found or known by modern scholars, but it is known that it would have been in the form of a collection of saying by Jesus. This Lost original gospel source is known as the Q manuscript What is historically accurate? The truth is there are no gospels that perfectly agree without error Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas Collection -- Translations and Resources