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To: codeword
Fundamentalist Christians don't want any changes in the canon.

Unfortunately for your point, the Gospel of Thomas was specifically excluded from the canon back when it was being defined in the 300s -- as were a number of other "gospels".

It's a happy accident that a copy was rediscovered -- but the reason it was lost in the first place, was that it carried no Scriptural weight: nobody wanted or needed a copy.

Mostly, it wasn't needed because it doesn't say anything particularly different from the canonical Gospels. The only difference that stands out in my mind is one little passage where Jesus takes Thomas aside and tells him a secret that he's not supposed to reveal. This is probably a later addition of the Gnostic sects.

All that to say: there are reasons that the Gospel of Thomas isn't in the canon, which do not require the introduction of dark, modern-day Fundamentalist conspiracies.

18 posted on 11/16/2001 1:24:44 PM PST by r9etb
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To: r9etb
I believe it was the Gospel of Thomas, where Jesus, when asked whom they (the Apostles) should go to, after he is gone, and Jesus tells them to go to James the Just, for which Heaven and Earth came into existence. (paraphrased). That verse/statement is backed up by writings of Eusebius, Hegessipus and others that James the Just (the brother of Jesus) was the First elected/appointed Leader/Bishop of Bishops/Overseer/Archbishop...whatever you want to call the Head of the Jerusalem Church. All other Apostels answered to him. (Except Paul, who went and did his own thing, anyway).
51 posted on 11/16/2001 6:47:08 PM PST by ET(end tyranny)
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