a/ It is entirely plausible that the Gospel of Thomas contains at least a few otherwise unattested sayings from the earliest Jesus tradition but it is unclear that there are any specific cases in which this is clearly the probable origin of an otherwise unattested saying.
b/ The late John Meier when speaking of Thomas was primarily concerned to argue against using Thomas to obtain an earlier version of a canonical saying or using Thomas as independent attestation of a canonical saying. His last book on the parables argued that our evidence that specific canonical parables go back to Jesus is mostly weak and the fact that a version of the parable is also found in Thomas is worthless as a corroboration of authenticity. Although an orthodox Catholic priest Meier could be quite radical as a New Testament scholar.
Andrew Criddle
b/ The late John Meier when speaking of Thomas was primarily concerned to argue against using Thomas to obtain an earlier version of a canonical saying or using Thomas as independent attestation of a canonical saying. His last book on the parables argued that our evidence that specific canonical parables go back to Jesus is mostly weak and the fact that a version of the parable is also found in Thomas is worthless as a corroboration of authenticity. Although an orthodox Catholic priest Meier could be quite radical as a New Testament scholar.
Andrew Criddle
Statistics: Posted by andrewcriddle — Wed Nov 06, 2024 8:09 am