Thank you very much for your reasoned discussion.
I tend to disagree in one point, that Thomas was in a sense more common than the synoptics, in fact he reaches a spiritual height almost absent from the Gospels.
V.(29) Jesus said: If the flesh has come into being because of the spirit, it is a marvel; but if the spirit (has come into being) because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. But as for me, I marvel at this, how this great wealth has settled in this poverty.
He is speaking of the spirit here, and it goes back to ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we are far more than just our chemistry or physics.
If we chose.
I wonder what most would chose if they knew they were in God's grace. Winning the lottery? Eternal life? Great standing and position?
How many would chose poverty? Disease? Eating bugs and affliction? Like John the Baptist and the ascetics?
For myself, I just want to learn. And finally know. But the most bitter part is I will leave the stage without knowing the last acts of the play.
regards,
djf
Could be. But that would be a subjective matter.
What I was thinking of in particular was Thomas 65 compared to Mark 12. -- The parable of the wicked tenant.
Thomas presents a straight forward story: master leased the vineyard to tenant farmers, two servants beaten trying to collect the share, then his son is beaten and then killed.
Thomas leaves unstated the point of the tale: The master will eject the wicked and give the vineyards to others.
Mark seems to have embellished it some: the master put in a hedge, digging a wine pit, built a tower, then left the country, at least 3 servants (and more) are abused or killed before the son is sent and then killed. Then Mark explicitly writes "What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others."