Simon J. Gathercole Gospel of Thomas and Forensic Linguistics

Sun Aug 19, 2018

it's come to my attention that NT scholar Simon J. Gathercole wrote a book on the Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas: Introduction and Commentary (Texts and Editions for New Testament Study) May 23, 2014

in which he claims Gospel of Thomas is late, second century and entirely dependent on the New Testament, specifically Matthew and Luke.

while i admit i have not read his book, I've heard arguments from the late camp on GThomas, that it is a late second century gnostic work and therefore of little to no value in understanding the historical Jesus.


as someone who has read books on forensic linguistics, one thing that strikes me as somewhat weak is that there is some possible similarities in Thomas and special-M and special-L

it's not established using standard forensic linguistics and esp questioned document examination.

I've looked at google books to preview Simon J. Gathercole wrote a book on the Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas: Introduction and Commentary (Texts and Editions for New Testament Study) May 23, 2014

but he doesn't use forensic linguistics to establish that the author of Thomas used special M and special L

he just claims Thomas redacted Luke and Matthew. and with the preview i saw, i'm unclear how he doesn't know that Luke and Matthew didn't use Thomas rather than the other way around.