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The Gospel of Thomas: Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Illuminations)
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Review
"Professor Davies has taken the Gospel of Thomas to the next level of intelligibility and accessibility. The commentary stretches the mind, while the comprehensible and accessible translation make Jesus' (and Thomas’s) voice clear. A masterful resource for both spiritual and intellectual seekers!"―Richard Valantasis, Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Iliff School of Theology
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From the Inside Flap
"The Gospel of Thomas really is, I believe, the clearest guide we have to the vision of the world's supreme mystical revolutionary, the teacher known as Jesus. To those who learn to unpack its sometimes cryptic sayings, the Gospel of Thomas offers a naked and dazzlingly subversive representation of Jesus' defining and most radical discovery: that the living Kingdom of God burns in us and surrounds us at all moments." --from the Foreword by Andrew Harvey
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Product details
Series: SkyLight Illuminations
Paperback: 139 pages
Publisher: SkyLight Paths; 1 edition (September 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1893361454
ISBN-13: 978-1893361454
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.1 out of 5 stars
58 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#43,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I notice that many of these Amazon customer reviews, both positive and negative, focus on the Gospel itself rather than Stevan Davies' commentary -- and IMHO they are missing the point. The Gospel of Thomas is a gem, and many translations of it are available online. But while Davies' translation seems as adequate as any, it is Davies' commentary that makes this book unique.... and not in a good way.Davies, according to the blurb and reviews, is a professor of religious studies, has studied the Gospel of Thomas for over 20 years, and has a website which is "the world's leading internet resource on the Gospel of Thomas". So I am mystified by the inadequacy and odd bias of many of his commentaries. He seems to take many of the obviously symbolic sayings literally, and interpret others based on some sort of personal agenda.For example:"Jesus said: Why wash the outside of the cup? Don't you know that the one who made the inside also made the outside?" -- Saying 89It's fairly obvious what this refers to symbolically (the priority of inner wisdom and spirituality over outer embellishment and empty religious gestures). But Davies apparently thinks that it refers to literally washing dishes, and states that "saying 89 may have been spoken sarcastically to say that washing vessels at all is foolish, just as washing the outside and not the inside is foolish." Say what?"When you ate dead things, you made them alive. When you arrive into light, what will you do?" -- Saying 11c"Jesus said: Wretched is a body depending on a body, and wretched is a soul depending on these two." -- Saying 87These rather obscure verses appear to have an esoteric meaning, which I hope to study further. But Davies believes they are both admonitions against eating animal flesh: "How does a body depend on a body? By eating it. A human body eats animal bodies for food. Therefore, a soul, we hear, is wretched if it depends on a carnivorous mode of life.... A vegetarian body is not one that depends on a body, so perhaps a soul dependent on it would not be wretched." Never mind the fact that if we are not randomly discarding all the canonical Gospels -- and most Christian Gnostics study both the canonical and the noncanonical Gospels -- Jesus Himself ate fish, hung out with fishermen, and distributed fish along with loaves to the multitudes who came to hear Him speak. I have no problem with Christian vegetarianism or veganism -- and I assume neither did Jesus, considering the possibility that He had spent some time with the Essenes -- but to interpret these two particular verses in that context is certainly stretching things.In a commentary on Saying 53, Davies contends that because Jesus was a Galilean and not a Judean, "A Galilean did not necessarily value the customs or treasure the laws of Judea." In other words, Jesus was not a practicing Jew! Huh? As far as any of the Gospels indicate, Jesus followed all the basic laws of Judaism, *except* when they conflicted with the greater good of compassion (e.g., gathering grain in a field -- or healing the sick -- on Shabbat).These are only a few examples of numerous incomprehensible exegeses of Thomas by Davies. That isn't to say his commentaries are without value -- some of them are very useful and spot-on. But they are marred by the ridiculous and wildly inaccurate ones -- perhaps due to some of Davies' personal biases, perhaps due to his weirdly selective inability to comprehend metaphor. So I've given this particular book three stars -- five for the Gospel itself and the fairly good translation, minus two for Davies' commentary. And I am still seeking a really good in-depth commentary on this important Gnostic Scripture.
7/10The Gospel of Thomas is one of those texts necessary to understand early Christianity and get a view of Jesus and of his message that is similar to the Canonical texts but essentially divergent from those. These sayings are intended to be cryptic on purpose so as to facilitate believers 's reflection, introspection and initiation into what is supposed to be the real message of Jesus. "In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus reveals his mysteries obliquely, indirectly, through parables and proverbs and obscure statements. Those worthy of the mysteries, therefore, are those who have proved themselves able to fathom them, seek their meaning, and find their interpretation. Jesus does not reveal his mysteries to you; he reveals the opportunity for you to find the meaning of those mysteries on your own." (p. 82)".THE BEAUTY OF THIS GOSPEL, TO ME> The Gospel of Thomas is very fresh and intimate. The canonical contextualisation we find in the other Gospels is absent from these sayings, so we have a rawer material and a rawer Jesus in a way. One feels as those disciples might have felt when hearing a remarkable man speaking in mysterious but profound ways.> The beauty of this Gospel also relies on the fact that it requires the reader's complete involvement. The aim of this Gospel is not to that of lecturing you on what to do, what not to do, good and evil, the aim is to make readers find our own way to enlightenment.> If one sets aside that these sayings are Jesus', the text still has great spiritual and intellectual juice. One of the most remarkable things about this Gospel, to me, is its modernity, and how can connect with modern spiritual seekers but also with old traditional forms of spirituality, as the wisdom embedded in this Gospel has a Universal nature. Agnostics, liberal Christians, mainstream Christians, Buddhists, Sufis and Native Indian Americans, among others, will certainly have no problems with the main messages conveyed by this collection of sayings. Conservative and fundamentalist Christians will have problem digesting these texts, so beware.> As a lover of Zen and of Jungian literature, I thought that some of these sayings are very Jungian; or said differently, having a general knowledge of Jungian Psychology sheds light on some of the most obscure sayings At the same time, the sayings share some similarity with the puzzling shocking nature of koans, as are they designed to appear nonsensical, shock and make you question what you are reading or hearing, question reality itself.THIS EDITION1/ INTRODUCTIONThe introductory part has different parts. Preface, Foreword, About the Gospel of Thomas, Introduction and Cast of Characters. Personally, I find the foreword by Andrew Harvey especially inspired, as he's able to connect this Gospel with different spiritual movements. The proper introduction is aimed to the general public, therefore, it covers all the basic one needs to know but without providing details or scholarly stuff to back up some of the things said. Nothing overly complicated is mentioned, but all the basics you know to know about this Gospel are there, and those would be more than enough for most people. I thought that the Introduction was acceptable and helpful. However, I also found some issues: ⤠I found all the structure of the introductory part a bit chaotic. To me, it would have make more sense to start with the introduction, continue with the foreword and preface. However, that is impossible because there are at least two people writing the introductory bits, separately and without much communication among them, as some things are repeated. I would have eliminated the 'cast of characters' part (which is superficial and unnecessary unless you are totally unfamiliar with Christianity) and incorporated the part called the 'Gospel of Thomas' into the introduction. I would have also incorporated into the Introduction all the considerations that Davis makes in the notes devoted to the characteristics of the Gospel and not to the saying being commented upon; I would also do the same with the quotes by scholars that relate to the Gospel not to the saying commented, which happen to be included also in the notes.⤠It's not clear who has written what. The foreword is by Andrew Harvey while the translation and notes are by Davis, so who wrote the rest? Ron Miller? The Cover of the hard copy seems to indicate that, but the book I have in my Kindle doesn't mention Ron Miller at all. I found all of this a bit confusing a a total turn off.⤠Although the authors mention that they don't want to interpret the sayings for us, as this goes against the original nature of this Gospel, Harvey does the contrary in part of the foreword and Davis does the same, many times, in his commentary.2/ THE TRANSLATIONThe translation presented in this edition was done using the original Coptic and Greek manuscripts, so it is not a translation of a translation, as many others are. That is great. I found the translation acceptable and readable. I am not a translator of Greek or Coptic, of our Early Christian texts, but I'm familiar with translation and I know how difficult and frustrating is interpreting texts with anacolutha and/or destroyed parts of the text when no further context is available. Some of the notes point out the difficulties found by the translator (Davis in this case) to properly translate and interpret the sayings.3/ ANNOTATIONS AND COMMENTARYGenerally speaking, I found Davis' annotations helpful for the lay reader and for the general public. I especially like those notes that provide cross-references between themes, messages and episodes in the Gospel that relate to others mentioned in the canonical Gospels. I also liked that Davis was able to read the text as a whole, and give some interpretations taking into account the semantic integrity of the text as a whole.However, I found some of Davis' annotations preposterous, speculative, contradictory between themselves, and off point. Some of the notes extend unnecessarily explaining things that seem to be quite straightforward, while others that are not so as presented as such. Other times the sayings are taken literally and therefore the author finds himself with contradictions where there is none. In other occasions, the explanations aren't satisfactory, perhaps because they seem to be lacking something or perhaps because Davis has in mind something he is familiar with but is not explaining to the reader.BAD RENDERING FOR KINDLEA d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r for Kindle on Android, way better on Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle for PC.⤠Kindle for Android. The endnotes are not linked forward, just backwards, from the note to the text and not vice versa. To check any note you have to go to the general index, press annotations and manually find the note of you interest. As there are 100+ notes, you can imagine how bothersome this can be. Besides, the call numbers in the body of the text appear partially hidden by the text when they are located at the end of a paragraph. In Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle for PC the notes are properly linked, but I cannot highlight or introduce my own notes in the note area! The call numbers appear where they should.⤠KA: The whole pagination system is messed up. The introductory chapters have no pagination. The pages with the sayings are all no. 1. The pages with the annotations are numbered, but not according to correlative or natural numeration, as the sequence in pagination is not correct. Location numbers would have been more helpful, but they are nowhere to be found. Terrible! KP: no numeration, just locations, which is fine with me. &PC: locations + pagination, but the pagination suffers from the same problem as the KA.⤠All formats: The Lateral menu has a typo, as well, charactrs instead of characters. MY SUGGESTIONS↬ Read the sayings per se, on their own, without any commentary, before reading the introduction and the annotations (endnotes). Do your own digging, spiritual or intellectual that might be on your own, as this is the primal intention of the Gospel. Then, read the book as a whole.↬ As this book is directed to the general public, it needs to be simple. You might want to get this Gospel properly contextualised in history and see how it fits in the history of Early Christianity. If that is your case, I highly recommend one of the Great Courses, Gnosticism: From Nag Hammadi to the Gospel of Judas, which is not only rigorous but very entertaining. On the other hand, as the Gospel itself is a translation, and biblical texts are far from being straightforward or easy to translate, I would recommend reading a work from a biblical translator, who highlights the difficulties and distortions that biblical translations can create; it is not devoted to this Gospel, but worth a read if you are the curious type: The Bible Doesn't Say That: 40 Biblical Mistranslations, Misconceptions, and Other MisunderstandingsIN SHORTThis edition and translation of the Gospel of Thomas is good overall for the general public. If you want something approachable and easy to understand, this edition will serve you fine. I have a preference for properly scholar books and editions, especially when talking about anything related to religious texts; if this is also your case, avoid this book. The book would have benefited from peer-reviewing before publishing, because it seems the editorial house published the book after basic editorial work. Sadly, some of the criticism is well-grounded. If you are just interested in the sayings per se, without further reading or noting, this will be a good book to start with, as the translation is good and acceptable.
Well written book which I had previously borrowed from the library. I purchased it because I felt it’s a good addition to the more familiar gospels of the New Testament. Whether one believes these are the actual words (teachings) of Christ or not, the words in these teachings show a different Christ then the one usually seen in the gospels, which is worth considering.
Davies provides a new fresh translation and just enough commentary to help the reader do their own pondering of the mystery sayings found in the Gospel of Thomas. The translation is certainly more readable than the SV (Scholars Version) which is more interested in the historical Jesus than it is in the Gospel of Thomas itself. Davies allows Thomas' Gospel to speak on its own terms, and in doing so liberates for us another voice that witnesses to a part of the early church community.I found Davies' explanation of the two creations very helpful in understanding some of the logia in Thomas' Gospel. Sometimes, though, I found myself wishing for more commentary than is provided. For example, I hoped for more references to better understand the Greek and Coptic texts.Overall, though, this is a wonderful book for devotional meditation, for better understanding of, and a greater appreciation for this ancient gospel.
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