Hi, Laura —

The so-called Gospel of Thomas is a second century forgery attributed to Thomas, the Apostle.
It was written by the Gnostics who denied that Jesus was truly man, as well as truly God. These people believed that all matter was evil, therefore God would never become man. They therefore denied that Jesus really died on the Cross.

If we take that further, if He didn't die on the Cross, he didn't rise from the grave either.

• No need, right?

So their message of salvation was not about atonement and redemption but about gaining this secret knowledge which only they had.

Some of these communities had other bizarre beliefs like for a woman to be saved she had to become man.

They also became extreme. The belief that:

• all matter was evil, and
• that Christians were only spirits living in a body

lead to one of two extremes. They either became extremely legalistic, adopting harsh forms of mortification, or they went the other way. For the Gnostics, since we are really spirit and our bodies mean nothing, they became libertines, giving in to all desires of the flesh — from lust to gluttony.

The gospel of Thomas is laden with all kinds subtle heresies that denies the Incarnation.
It purports to have childhood stories about Jesus, more than likely coming from North African or Egyptian Christian traditions. That's all the more reason to doubt Thomas had anything to do with it. Thomas went to India to preach the Gospel, not Egypt.

If there is any truth in the accounts of this document, it's not because it is Inspired Scripture. Most heresy is rooted in some truth.

The Church rejected it because it is full of heresy and contradicts, not only all four Gospels, but the entire Bible.

John