Rating: 
Summary: "Be passersby"
Review: "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death" Jesus said. Some scholars suggest that this gospel was collected from New Testament sayings, but with this gospel one will understand that the people that wrote the New Testament did not discover the interpretation of these sayings and did not understand Jesus. Jesus never mentioned God in this Gospel and Never believed in him but has come to save us from what the bible call God. Jesus said "I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart,.With Gospel of Thomas one can easily understand what he said to Thomas when Thomas said " if I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and consume you". From here one can easily understand that Thomas understood the truth and never added anything else on his gospel because there is nothing else to add but other followers of Jesus that he did not tell what he told Thomas and did never discover the interpretation of his saying wrote what we call New testament. Now one can understand why there are so many contradictions and lies and false claims in the New testament because the writers were trying to tell us that Jesus is the son of God of Abraham who has come to save the world while they did not understand Jesus. The only salvation that Jesus brought to the world is in the Gospel of Thomas. "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be reveal." Thank you Jesus, Thank you Thomas, we understand.
Rating:
Summary: T H O M A S !
Review: Absolutely beautiful!
This is the JESUS I love! The gnostic Jesus! The incorporeal and spiritual! The crazy Jesus! Jesus, the lover of whores (like Magdalene) and assassins (like Paul) and tax collectors (like Matthew) and friends and enemies! Jesus, the Saint, the Untouchable! Jesus, OUR BROTHER! Jesus, the MAN OF LIGHT!
Jesus, the ONE, the ONE who was ANOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE! The ONE who has anointed his FRIENDS with his sacred spirit, and the Paraclit of Truth!
Long live JESUS, THE CHRIST! Yeah!
We will always remember when you told us:
"No Master is greater than his slaves! Call no man "Master"!"
"Be greater than ME!"
"Become yourselves like the Sons of the Holy Spirit!"
"Arise, because you stink!"
"Blessed is he who has crucified the world and who has not allowed the world to crucify him!"
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: An excellent book. While there may be debate as to whether or not this book is a fifth gospel, and when it was written, no one can deny the humanity of Jesus which shines through this impressive work. In many ways it makes jesus more accessibile and real, the other aspects can and should be open to debate. But anything which can shed more light on humanity and teachings of Jesus is truely invaluable.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: An excellent book. While there may be debate as to whether or not this book is a fifth gospel, and when it was written, no one can deny the humanity of Jesus which shines through this impressive work. In many ways it makes jesus more accessibile and real, the other aspects can and should be open to debate. But anything which can shed more light on humanity and teachings of Jesus is truely invaluable.
Rating: 
Summary: The lowdown (Is that how you spell it?)
Review: Before picking up anything that claims to be the truth about Jesus and assimilating it into your worldview, I would advise anyone to be cautious. Just because Thomas was written a long time ago and talks about Jesus doesn't mean it is to be taken as authoritative. First of all, there is an enormous body of extrabiblical literature from the early centuries, and Thomas is by no means the singular "different opinion" about Jesus that we find in that time. In fact, the canonical gospels themselves present Jesus from different points of view. This leads us to ask several questions. Why was Thomas not included in the Biblical canon? What were the requirements for a book to be considered authentic? And who decided which books to include in the first place? Thomas, assuming it was even circulated widely in early Palestine, would definitely not have been accepted into the canon. The three main tests of authority were 1) that a book was of apostolic origin written as near as possible to the time of Christ, 2)that it was in line with Christian oral tradition, and 3)that it had allready been establihed as useful for teaching in the church. Thomas was not written until around 200 AD, which rules out the possiblity of apostolic origin. Although a book could be written in the name of an apostle by his disciples (As the canonical gopels may have been), it is unlikely that the tradition would be passed on accurately for 150 years before it was written down, and that said tradition would last that long anyway. The teachings of Thomas are gnostic in nature. Gnosticism was the earliest form of heresy to cause a major problem for the Christian church, and Thomas reflects the philosophy. Christians at the time would surely have reognized it as such (once again, assuming it was even circulated widely). Lastly, official canons were listed by church leaders to set in stone what had allready been made obvious. They did not pick and choose books they liked, they sought to give the canon a framework that would endure through any potential threats. Thomas is nevertheless a useful book to read in many ways, but it should always be kept in mind the historical situation that surrounded its authorship. This essay is a gross oversimplification in many ways, but I did my best to get the main points out there. If there are any Bible scholars out there who noticed something wrong, by all means e-mail and correct me!
Rating:
Summary: This Book Infoms Us to Go Beyond Christian Fundamentalism
Review: Christians must look beyond the Bible to seek truths about Jesus Christ. The New Testament and this book on the Gospel of Thomas tell us that the teachings of Jesus are not simple as Christian fundamentalists teach. Meyer has done a great job. And, Bloom's reading is a wonderful addition to this book. My analysis of the New Testament concludes that some of Jesus' teachings are simple. But, the New Testament has at least two other classes of sayings that are not simple. These other classes deal with the development of the human mind and the development of God's kingdom. Thus, unless one is trained with today's scientific literature on the mind and modern creation theories, one will understand only about one-third of Jesus' sayings in the New Testament and in the Gospel of Thomas. Clearly, Christians untrained in science and mathematics are making too many guesses relative the truths about the sayings of Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas, like the New Testament and the Hubble telescope,is more proof that Nature has no apocalyptic end. Thus, the only new world that people can expect after death is the world that Nature's law of reincarnation gives them. The Gospel of Thomas is an excellent addition to the New Testament because they have many simularities and can thus be compared. This is a good book to have in any home.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Infoms Us to Go Beyond Christian Fundamentalism
Review: Christians must look beyond the Bible to seek truths about Jesus Christ. The New Testament and this book on the Gospel of Thomas tell us that the teachings of Jesus are not simple as Christian fundamentalists teach. Meyer has done a great job. And, Bloom's reading is a wonderful addition to this book. My analysis of the New Testament concludes that some of Jesus' teachings are simple. But, the New Testament has at least two other classes of sayings that are not simple. These other classes deal with the development of the human mind and the development of God's kingdom. Thus, unless one is trained with today's scientific literature on the mind and modern creation theories, one will understand only about one-third of Jesus' sayings in the New Testament and in the Gospel of Thomas. Clearly, Christians untrained in science and mathematics are making too many guesses relative the truths about the sayings of Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas, like the New Testament and the Hubble telescope,is more proof that Nature has no apocalyptic end. Thus, the only new world that people can expect after death is the world that Nature's law of reincarnation gives them. The Gospel of Thomas is an excellent addition to the New Testament because they have many simularities and can thus be compared. This is a good book to have in any home.
Rating:
Summary: Complemento a mi anterior opinión
Review: Desgraciadamente, en mi anterior comentario he olvidado hacer referencia a uno de los aspectos más relevantes del libro de Meyer: el de las notas que a cada dicho Meyer ha redactado. Este apartado tiene entidad propia; constituye una parte más (junto con la introducción, traducción y lectura de H. Bloom) de la obra, y, a nuestro juicio de las más relevantes. Las notas se encuentran entre la traducción y el ensayo de Bloom. Son variadas en su extensión: algunas pueden considerarse como pequeños comentarios al dicho al que hacen referencia; otras no pasan de la categoria de anotaciones. En cualquier caso son de gran calidad y ofrecen gran cantidad de información útil, prestando una atención especial a los paralelos que los dichos de Tomás presentan con otros escritos, tanto de Canónicos como extracanónicos (cuyas citas literales se ofrecen a menudo en este último caso). Debido a ello, en este apartado la obra de Meyer es provechosa también para un público más especializado, o para quienes deseén profundizar en el tema.
Rating:
Summary: Sencillo y de agradable lectura
Review: El libro de Meyer consta fundamentalmente de tres partes: La primera es una introducción del propio Meyer al Evangelio de Tomás. Se trata de una introducción muy breve y sencilla, bien escrita, donde Meyer informa, no obstante, sobre las principales cuestiones referentes a este evangelio: lugar y fecha de composición, dependencia o no de los sinópticos, caracter gnóstico o no gnóstico, principales temas que desarrolla este evangelio, su relación con Jesús de Nazaret... La información de Meyer sobre estos temas es breve, pero esta muy bien sintetizada, y, aún cuando en ocasiones los puntos de vista que defiende sean discutibles (yo mismo discrepo de algunas de sus conclusiones), se trata de una información bién tratada y de calidad, que informa bién sobre las principales cuestiones referentes a este evangelio, y sobre las que discuten los especialistas. La segunda parte es una traducción del texto copto de este evangelio. Se hace en paralelo al texto original; el texto copto en una página, y la traducción inglesa en la paralela. La traducción de Meyer no pretende ser literal, ni técnica, sino fresca, actual y de fácil lectura para cualquier lector. Ello supone que se trata de una traducción que pierde en exactitud y precisión respecto al texto original, pero que facilita y hace agradable y sencilla la lectura de la obra a cualquier lector. Por ello, las opciones de Meyer a la hora de realizar su traducción son, a veces, discutibles y se entiende las críticas que otros especialistas y traductores le puedan hacer, pero, sin embargo, creo la decisión de Meyer de optar por una traducción de fácil lectura es acertada y de agradecer, máxime cuando ya existen otras traducciones de esta obra al inglés que son más técnicas y literales. En cualquier caso, el lector puede estar seguro de que la traducción de Meyer, a pesar de sus posibles inexactitudes de detalle, es válida, esta bién hecha y no falsea el contenido de este evangelio. La tercera parte de la obra es un ensayo interpretativo de Harold Bloom. Es sin duda la parte más floja del libro y, francamente, no entiendo por qué ha sido incluida. El ensayo de Bloom es pesado, bastante aburrido y carece de interés y de cualquier rigor en sus conclusiones (hasta el mismo Meyer en su introducción afirma disentir de Bloom). Quede como ejercicio literario, o mera fantasia compositiva. Finalmente, la obra cuenta con una bibliografía bién seleccionada, que logicamente (el libro se publico en 1992) deberá de ser actualizada por el lector en base a otras lecturas. En definitiva, si lo que buscas es un libro para conocer o para iniciarte en el Evangelio de Tomás, el libro de Meyer es especialmente adecuado: Traducción fácil y agradable + breve, pero bién sintetizada introducción ¿Qué más se puede pedir?
Rating:
Summary: For those looking to find truth, this book may be for you.
Review: From the dead sea scrolls discovered in 1945, this book shares more insight into the teachings of Jesus Christ. Though this book says nothing about Jesus having magical powers, it tells wisdom that probably can't be beat by many people.:)
| 
