Gospel Of Thomas Fully Interpreted [UPD]
Modern scholars do not consider Thomas the Apostle the author of this document and the author remains unknown. J. Menard produced a summary of the academic consensus in the mid-1970s which stated that the gospel was probably a very late text written by a Gnostic author, thus having very little relevance to the study of the early development of Christianity. Scholarly views of Gnosticism and the Gospel of Thomas have since become more nuanced and diverse.[92] Paterson Brown, for example, has argued forcefully that the three Coptic Gospels of Thomas, Philip and Truth are demonstrably not Gnostic writings, since all three explicitly affirm the basic reality and sanctity of incarnate life, which Gnosticism by definition considers illusory and evil.[93]
Gospel of Thomas fully interpreted
A: I would really doubt that it might be included in the New Testament. In early Christianity, there were at least 30 potential gospels floating around, and there were dozens and dozens if not hundreds of original documents which were winnowed down at an early stage in the 3rd and 4th centuries which became the New Testament and the basis of the new religion called Christianity. I don't think that any apocryphal document will now be accepted in the canon of orthodox Christianity. But what this document does is it opens us up into a whole world of history that we had not been able to fully appreciate before, and it gives a new and different interpretation of both Judas and his relationship to Jesus.
There is also an overt correlation between the sound of Oedipa's surname and the Christian "mass," another male-dominated ideology which Pynchon's heroine is both connected to and separated from, as her name is not identical to it. Oedipa is therefore placed very carefully between two of the most powerful and well-known "grand narratives" of Western thought: psychoanalysis and Christianity. As David Seed has commented, her name "suggests at once a pathology and the confronting of enigmas." Such a "pathology" implicates Freud and Lacan, but also alludes to the corruption of both concepts when referred to in her name, as both are changed. Psychoanalysis and Christianity are defined as grand narratives, as both aim to explain the great mysteries of human existence on earth: the Christian religion through an external body of metaphysics, which although it affects the personal is not physically part of it; and modern psychology through the investigation of the internal yet apparently universal self. Both these defining bodies of theory were founded and subsequently led by men, yet they sought to explain the world which both sexes inhabit. Lot 49 repeatedly reminds the reader of the Christian religion, and seemingly innocent lexical choices and turns of phrase echo familiar language from the Bible and church services. As has been frequently stated, one of the ways to interpret the title is as referential of the 49 days between Pentecost and Easter; Oedipa and Mucho's surname is a homophone of the "mass", and Pierce Inverarity is described as a "founding father." The text abounds with such examples and Oedipa's quest is continually on a divine precipice, threatening or promising to enlighten her at any given moment with an awareness that is outside of the comfortable familiarity of the world she knows. Oedipa has also been associated with Biblical characters, most frequently, Mary, the mother of Christ. Dana Medoro suggests that Oedipa's feared pregnancy as she reaches the climax of her investigation aligns her with the Madonna, particularly as she renames herself to visit the doctor as Grace Bortz, indicating she is pregnant with divine grace. Medoro points out in support of her argument that the text states "Your gynaecologist has no test for what she was pregnant with." (121) This line may allude to an unusual pregnancy, but it also may more obviously indicate no biological conception at all, but rather Oedipa's mental capacity for creativity, the possibility of giving birth to an idea as yet unseen and still formulating. It is at this time also that Oedipa experiences "menstrual pains," further enforcing the idea that her pregnancy is metaphorical, although potentially still divine. Oedipa is also not virginal, but she is associated with enlightenment and the pursuit of revelation, so although her association with the Virgin Mary may be part of Pynchon's religious characterisation of her, it is not the only way she can be read. In Simone de Beauvoir's words, woman is "at once Eve and the Virgin Mary," and Oedipa can be interpreted as Eve, but she also resembles another female Biblical character who was not tempted to blindly transgress in pursuit of knowledge as Eve was, but instead chose to be educated. Her name is Mary Magdalene.
This view does not render the "founding father" (16) remark irrelevant either, as Pierce is still connected with the creation of the Christian Church; it also need not necessarily dispel Schaub's argument, as Pynchon may have intended the resonances of both men to affect the reader's interpretation of Inverarity. However, if Pierce is seen as an analogy of Christ, then instead of a rival to Oedipa, he could be interpreted as selecting her as Christ arguably chose Mary, to complete his work on earth after his death. Although in the canonical gospels her role is not clarified as such, Jean-Yves Leloup indicates that in the Gnostic gospels, Jesus, whom he refers to as Yeshua, intended just such a role for Mary Magdalene: 041b061a72