The Gospel of Thomas is a popular lost book. Let’s apply the five testing questions to see if it qualifies as a book of Scripture:

1. Does the book have a “thus saith the Lord”?  

Supposedly, Jesus is talking to His disciples in this book, and especially to Thomas who is claimed to be the author. But in this book, Jesus is reported to say things like, “If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits” (Thomas 14).

Does that advice sound like it came from Jesus? Here is what the true Gospel says: 

when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly…when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly…when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly (Matthew 6:3-6, 17-18).

2. Was it written by a prophet or apostle (or those who claimed to be inspired)?

Although it is claimed to be written by the disciple Thomas, the actual author is unknown. The book opens by naming the author: "These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded." But no one is clear who Didymos Judas Thomas really was. The word didymos means "twin" in Greek. The word Thomas means "twin" in Aramaic.

Whoever this man was, he could not have been one of the twelve because his theology was questionable. We know this already just from his use of the word "secret" in the opening address.

The Gnostics, who were gaining strength during the early Christian era, believed that secret or hidden knowledge was needed for believers to be saved. This gospel is preached not only by Gnostics, but also by secret societies and in New Age mysticism.

This belief was expressed in the first verse of the Gospel of Thomas:

And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death (Thomas 1).

However, the truth is that the Bible makes itself available to all who would read it, because God desires the salvation of all. Obviously, this mystical gospel is not the true Gospel.

3. Was it accepted and used extensively by the Church fellowship?

The Gospel of Thomas was discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, and was unknown before that time.

4. Did it transform people’s lives, bringing them to know Christ and salvation?

The kind of salvation offered in this strange gospel was rather bizarre, as can be seen in the following excerpt:

Jesus said: This heaven shall pass away, and that which is above it shall pass away; and they that are dead are not alive and they that live shall not die. In the days when you were eating that which is dead, you were making it alive. When you come in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two (Thomas 11).

5. Did it agree with the other established Scriptures in doctrine?

This gospel is one of many books relying on secret knowledge for salvation. There are many disagreements between this gospel and the doctrines of the true Scriptures. Here is just one example:

Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven (Thomas 14).

As a New York Times article about false gospels observed, “ Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge of how people could escape the prisons of their material bodies and return to the spiritual realm from which they came.”ⁱ

If the doctrine of this book does not agree with other established Scriptures, which have already been proven inspired, the Gospel of Thomas cannot be considered authentic.

Ahead to Testing the Gospel of Judas
Back to The Lost Books

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i. Laurie Goldstein and John Wilford, “In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal,” New York Times (April 7, 2006).