Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church

www.metalog.org/files/supremacy.html.)
In the early years following the discovery of these documents, and
before they could be given sufficiently careful scrutiny by scholars, it was
commonplace for them collectively to be labeled ‘gnostic’ (see e.g. Grant &
Freedman [1960], in Recent Scholarly Comments). This has always been a
generic term for the Mediterranean mixture of essentially anti-sensory
religious movements of the early centuries AD, and so was at first
unfortunately considered a convenient category in which to place all of
the diverse Nag Hammadi writings. Subsequent investigation has shown,
however, that neither Thomas nor Philip nor the Gospel of Truth can
correctly be labeled gnostic, as they each explicitly affirm the reality of
our physical incarnations in their historic ambiance (including, most
notably, the crucifixion): ‘Gnosticism’— whether Oriental, Platonic,
Mystery-Religion or Theosophical— by definition considers the perceptible
universe (including our own incarnate lives as well as all human history,
Biblical or otherwise) to be inherently illusory and hence malignant. The
unequivocal Old Testament view, on the other hand— which Christ in the
canonical Gospels most certainly accepted— was that the entire realm of
the five senses is neither unreal nor evil, but rather divinely created and
good: so, among countless examples, Gen 1:31 (‘everything that He had
made ... was very good’) and Lk 24:39 (‘flesh and bones as ... I have’). A
careful reading of the three Coptic Gospels makes it abundantly clear that
they are unequivocally within this quite un-gnostic Biblical tradition;
see Comm.1, below.
The New Testament canons of the Western (Catholic/Protestant), Eastern
Orthodox, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian and Syrian/Nestorian Churches all
differ significantly from one another— and even these were under dispute
within the various branches of Christianity until many centuries AD;
previously there were only widely diverse opinions recorded by various
individuals well after the Apostolic era, regarding not only today's
commonly accepted works but also such writings as the Epistle of
5