I read somewhere earlier that one of the great christian theologins of the middle ages commented on the gospel of thomas. he said that the Koran stole liberally from the gospel of thomas.
I’m not certain but I think the gospel of thomas along with a number of other texts was among the nag hammadi scrolls dug up in the late 1940’s in egypt. they were all banned in the forth century after the coucil of nicea in 325 ad.
The issue at the time was as to whether Jesus was fully God and fully man. Or just a man. The texts that suggested that Jesus was just a man—although a very good man and. prophet—were excluded.
To understand this...its helpful to remember that in the early 1950’s, the dead sea scrolls were dug up. these scrolls included fragments from the book of enoch and the book of jubillee. enoch was referred to in the new testatment and both books are still part of the jewish torah in etheopia. However, after the expulsion of the Jews from Israel —the center of the jewish world moved to babylon. from there—they excluded the book of enoch and the book of jubillee as these books suggested Jahweh was many Gods—and the old rabbis wanted to emphasize “God oh God our God is one.”
This happened about the same time as the Council of Nicea in Rome in 325 as mentioned above.
Thank you.