Well thank you to the OP. Very interesting post.
Here’s a little story: As kid I often took care of my elderly grandmother (believe it or not-i was daycaring at a very tender age). She was an Irish old school catholic from upstate NY. She wasn’t feeble but had a hard time getting around and didn’t cook to much & relied on her daughters to do that- but I was there during the day . There wasn’t much in the fridge except for some cheese slices, eggs & prune juice. There was always a loaf of bread and a box of gingersnaps (i hated those things).
On her bookshelves were many many books including the Bible.
Because there was no television I generally turned to the books on the shelves and regularly read the Bible.
I distinctly remember reading The Book of Jubilees.
I would go back to it time & again & thought “this was really exciting”! and there were other books in this Bible,too. I know that Gram wouldn’t have a un-sanctioned Catholic Bible in her home so to me at one point a change was made and in my later years perusing a Catholic Bible these books no longer are included.
As far as the Gospel of Thomas never being included I’m short on facts but I do believe The Catholic CHurch wanted to seperate itself from Gnosticism so as to present to people a unmitigated version of the New Testament that would not conflict with what the current belief system in the Catholic Church was at whatever time they decided to eliminate this and create a “canon” of sorts. Cut out all the middlemen and there is no room for discussion nor opinion.
I found the Gospel of Thomas, Mary Magdalen, Judas, and studies of the Nag Hammadi,etc... very valuable not only understanding history but how the Catholic Church has repressed these writings
Yup, that's what the Holy Spirit had in mind when He made the Magesterium of the Catholic church the arbiter of what went in and what went out....He did a MARVELOUS job....