Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church

It would merely beg the question to claim that all such passages were inserted
into otherwise gnostic documents; to omit from consideration all and only contrary
passages per se, constitutes the logical fallacy called petitio principii. Moreover, one
would then have to ask why the remaining logia of these three Gospels should be
considered gnostic to begin with, since incarnate reality is there nowhere denied.
Conclusion: It follows that the Gospels of Thomas, Philip and Truth are not
gnostic compositions or compilations.
It is admittedly astonishing that virtually an entire generation of scholars should
have erred regarding something so elementary and so vitally important as this.
There were of course a wide variety of gnostic movements and scriptures in
antiquity, often influenced by Platonism's epistemological distrust of the senses; and
indeed there have been many gnostico-theosophical sects together with their
writings in modern times, no doubt more often influenced by Oriental religious
traditions than by Plato. But this has no direct bearing on the three Coptic Gospels,
which— like the four canonical Gospels— cannot rightly be considered gnostic
documents. 1
(2) The Maternal Spirit
As one whom his mother comforts, so shall I comfort you.
— Isa 66:13
The origin of the world is its Mother;
recognize the Mother and you recognize the child,
embrace the child and you embrace the Mother.
— Lao Tsu, Tao Teh Ching 5
I am the Father and the Mother of this Universe.
— Bhagavad Gita 9.17
1 For a recently discovered Coptic ‘Gospel’ (found, not at Nag Hammadi, but rather in the 1970s near El Minya in Egypt), which
by contrast clearly is gnostic as well as pseudonymous, see the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. That document contains such typical
gnostic ramblings as: ‘The first is Seth who is called Christ, the second is Harmathoth who is [...], the third is Galila, the fourth is
Yobel, the fifth is Adonaios; these are the five who ruled over the underworld, and first of all over chaos.... Then Saklas said to
his angels: Let us create a human being after the likeness and after the image. They fashioned Adam and his wife Eve— who
is called, in the cloud, Zoe.’ (www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel)
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