The Gospel of Thomas = Strom 8
Gthom = Strom 8
I will show that the Gospel of Thomas is the lost eighth book of the Stromata by Cleement of Alexandria,
The end of the seventh book sets up an expectation for the lost eighth book.
" These points then haven't been formally thoroughly treated, end the department of ethics having been sketched summarily in a fragmentary way as we promised, and having here and there interspersed the dogmas which are the germs of true knowledge, so that the discovery of the Sacred traditions may not be easy to anyone of the uninitiated, let us proceed to what we promised.
" now the Miscellanies are not like Parts laid out, planted in regular order for the Delight of the eye, but rather like an umbrageous and Shaggy Hill planted with Laurel and ivy and apples and olives and figs, the planting being purposely a mixture of fruit-bearing and fruitless trees, since the composition aims at concealment, on account of those that have the daring to pilfer and steal the ripe fruits ...
"The Miscellanies then study neither arrangement nor diction ... For many and various are the baits for the various kinds of fishes.
"And now after this is 7th Miscellany of ours we she'll give the account of what follows in order from another commencement."
Antinicene fathers vol.2 Roberts and Donaldson, ed
I will show the Gospel of Thomas is the demonstration of what Clement has been talking about for seven books, and these seven books of the Stromata are an explanation and an apology set out like Miscellanies described here because the composition aims at concealment.
There are Mysteries before other Mysteries, so before I set to it, I will have to introduce you to the Gospel of Thomas, Clement of Alexandria and his Stromata. Then I suppose we will point out the common and near common sayings, then the common themes that we have not mentioned in the introductions, and the self referential sayings which also figure up.
Clement admits to the traditional 4 gospels as scripture, but he will use others unashamedly if it suits his purpose. He uses the gospel to the Hebrews, the traditions of Matthew, and the preaching of Peter, so we can be sure that although it is evident it is exactly what he wants, he does not know the Gospel of Thomas.
The Gospel of Thomas is 114 so-called logia, sometimes just a saying but other times a small dialogue. The first historic mentions we have of gThom are from the third century and it was subsequently lost, meeting with no longer copied. 3 Greek fragments were dug up from oxyrinchus, around 1900, and caused a stir wondering whether these sayings or the whole book predated the canonicals. Around 1950 13 codices in Coptic of mainly new testament apocrypha were found at Nag Hammadi and a virtually complete copy of gThom was among them. The jesus seminar people are the chief proponents of a first century origin of gThom.
Clement of Alexandria was dean of the Christian academy and fled in 200 from the persecution of Severus. He has already written two hefty works, but starts the Stromata wondering why he is hindered from writing but liars write with ease. He has already written two books, what can he really be talking about here? And he wonders if he will be said to give a sword to a child, but he soothes that away with the thought that each person must voluntarily choose what is good.
The Stromata is seven books of eight. I don't know if there is given a reason for the lost book, but someone has tacked on a work that is not what it's supposed to be.
I have at least three ways to show what i can here. I can show many parallels between the individual sayings of gThom and the Strom, or the self-references here and there among the Strom books refer more to something like gThom - the above quote is the last of these and deserves an essay all its own, or i could start at the begining of the Strom and decode - remember, the composition, both works tell you upfront, aims at concealment - his apology for writing, his ducking of responsibility, his description of the true gnostic, his explaination of what he is doing because he wants obviously to eventuality be exposed.
The Gospel of Thomas starts off promising the answers to its riddles gives eternal life. The sayings are not all only sayings; so they are called 'logions'.
Logion #2 is from the gospel to the hebrews and logion #4 is from the Traditions of Matthew says Strom book 2 chapter 4 paragraph 3 (strom 2.4, p3) and logion #3 is kicked around in strom 2.9 p4 as i guess either from Barnabas or the Preaching of Peter.
Strom is not shy at quoting apocryphal works, but as i read it, he's really after something like the Gospel of Thomas, and he does not know of it. Commentators thought gThom must have been famous from frst century on, i found Clement doesn't know it. The parallel logions are often noted in the lit though i notiticed some others on my own.
Clement's teacher went to india and perhaps Clement has a touch of infatuation with a more orthodox transcendent synchrotism and thinks his contemporary imaginative words eminations, the satan demiurge etc gave him his mission field.
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