The Rightly-Guided Injil

Sayings of Thomas set aside

Every saying of the Gospel of Thomas was tested against the Qur’an as the measure (see the measure). 70 are used in The Gospel According to Islam, each with a colour mark and a note. The other 44 are listed here with the reason for each: 37 conflict with the Qur’an and 7 only repeat another saying.

Nag Hammadi Codex II, page 51, the last page of the Gospel of Thomas with its title
Nag Hammadi Codex II, page 51: the end of the Gospel of Thomas and its title, written at the close as ancient scribes did. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

The colour marks

  • Agrees Agrees with the Qur’an as the measure.
  • Beyond the measure Beyond the measure: the Qur’an says nothing either way. Included, and marked.
  • Unclear Unclear: the text or its sense is uncertain. Included, and marked.
  • Conflicts Conflicts with the Qur’an: the saying says what the Qur’an denies, or denies what it affirms. Not used.
  • Not needed Not needed: it repeats a saying that is already used. Not used.

A note on “Father”

Thomas often says “the Father” where Matthew says “heaven” or Mark says “God” (compare Mark 3:35 with Thomas 99, and Matthew 13:33 with Thomas 96). Where the canonical parallel makes the same point in other words, the saying is used and the note says so. A saying is set aside only when “Father” carries a claim of sonship or shared nature, which the Qur’an rejects (5:18; 19:35; 112:3). The Qur’an itself does not call God “Father”, so this is a reading and not a settled rule.

Sayings set aside

  • Conflicts Thomas 1. The one who finds what these sayings mean will not taste death. Promises that whoever finds the meaning of the sayings will not taste death. The Qur’an says every soul will taste death (3:185).
  • Conflicts Thomas 2. Seekers must keep seeking. Finding brings distress, then wonder, and then rule over everything. Seeking ends in ruling over the All. Rule over all things belongs to God alone (3:26; 67:1).
  • Conflicts Thomas 3. The kingdom is not in the sky or the sea. It is within and around you. Knowing yourselves is how you learn you are children of the living Father. Tells the hearers they are children of the living Father. The Qur’an rejects the claim to be God’s children (5:18).
  • Not needed Thomas 5. See what is in front of you and the hidden will be shown. Nothing hidden stays hidden. Parallel to Mark 4:22 and Luke 8:17. It adds nothing the chapters need.
  • Conflicts Thomas 6. Asked about fasting, prayer, almsgiving and diet, Jesus answers only: do not lie, and do not do what you hate. Everything hidden will be uncovered. Answers the disciples’ questions on fasting, prayer and alms with no command. The Qur’an prescribes all three (2:183; 2:43; 2:110).
  • Conflicts Thomas 12. The disciples ask who will lead them after Jesus leaves. He names James the righteous, for whom heaven and earth were made. Names James as the one for whose sake heaven and earth came to be. The Qur’an says heaven and earth were created in truth, and names no person as their cause (44:38-39; 51:56).
  • Conflicts Thomas 14. Fasting, prayer and almsgiving are said to bring sin, condemnation and harm. Disciples should eat what is set before them and heal the sick. What comes out of the mouth defiles. (Compare Matthew 15:11; Luke 10:8-9.) Says fasting, prayer and almsgiving bring sin, condemnation and harm. The Qur’an prescribes them (2:183; 2:43; 2:110). The closing lines on food echo Mark 7:15 and Luke 10:8-9.
  • Conflicts Thomas 15. When you see one not born of woman, bow down and worship, for that one is your father. Commands worship of one “not born of woman” and calls him father. Worship is for God alone (17:23; 3:79-80).
  • Conflicts Thomas 17. Jesus will give what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no hand has touched, and no mind has imagined. Jesus speaks as the giver of what no eye has seen. The Qur’an says that gift is from God alone (32:17).
  • Conflicts Thomas 19. Blessed is the one who existed before coming into being. Disciples who listen will be served by stones and will have five trees in Paradise that never lose their leaves. “Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being” implies pre-existence. The Qur’an likens ʿĪsā to Adam, created from dust (3:59).
  • Conflicts Thomas 22. Infants at the breast show who enters the kingdom. Entry comes when two become one: inside and outside, above and below, male and female. Says male and female must become one “so that the male not be male nor the female female”. The Qur’an affirms both sexes as God’s creation (49:13; 53:45).
  • Conflicts Thomas 28. Jesus stood in the world and appeared in flesh. He found all drunk and none thirsty, and he grieved for their blindness. When they shake off the wine they will repent. Says Jesus “appeared in flesh”, the language of pre-existence. The Qur’an calls him a messenger, born of Maryam (5:75).
  • Conflicts Thomas 30. Where there are three gods they are gods. Where there are two or one, Jesus says, he is with them. “Where there are three gods, they are gods.” The Qur’an forbids saying “three” (4:171; 5:73).
  • Conflicts Thomas 37. The disciples ask when Jesus will be revealed. It will be when they strip without shame, trample their clothes like children, and then see the son of the living one and have no fear. Undressing without shame in order to see “the son of the living one”. The Qur’an commands modesty (24:30-31; 7:26) and rejects divine sonship (19:35).
  • Not needed Thomas 41. Whoever has will be given more. Whoever has nothing will lose even what little there is. (Compare Mark 4:25.) A proverb that the one who has will be given more (Mark 4:25). Not needed.
  • Conflicts Thomas 43. Asked who he is, Jesus says they have become like the Jews, who love the tree and hate its fruit, or love the fruit and hate the tree. Likens the disciples to “the Jews” who love the tree and hate its fruit. The Qur’an does not judge a whole people alike (3:113). It also answers “who are you?” by rebuke.
  • Conflicts Thomas 44. Blasphemy against the Father or the Son will be forgiven. Blasphemy against the holy spirit will not be forgiven on earth or in heaven. (Compare Matthew 12:31-32.) Lists Father, Son and holy spirit together. Matthew 12:31-32 and Luke 12:10 do not, and the Qur’an rejects a triad (4:171).
  • Not needed Thomas 48. If two make peace in one house, they can tell the mountain to move and it will move. (Compare Matthew 18:19; 17:20.) Parallel to Matthew 18:19 and 17:20, and repeated in saying 106. Not needed.
  • Conflicts Thomas 49. Blessed are the solitary and the chosen, who come from the kingdom and will return to it. Blesses the “solitary and elect”, who come from the kingdom and return to it. The Qur’an says monasticism was not prescribed (57:27).
  • Conflicts Thomas 50. When asked where you came from, say from the light, which came into being by itself. When asked who you are, say you are its children, the chosen of the living Father. The sign of the Father in you is movement and rest. Says the elect came from the light and are children of the living Father. See 5:18. The story of origin is Thomas’s own.
  • Conflicts Thomas 51. The disciples ask when the dead will rest and the new world come. Jesus says what they await has already come and they have not recognised it. Says the new world has already come and is not recognised. The Qur’an teaches that the Hour is still to come (7:187; 31:34).
  • Conflicts Thomas 52. The disciples say that twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel and all spoke of Jesus. He says they ignored the living one before them and spoke only of the dead. Says the twenty-four prophets spoke “in” Jesus and calls them “the dead”. The Qur’an honours the earlier prophets and makes no distinction among them (2:136).
  • Conflicts Thomas 53. Asked if circumcision is useful, Jesus says that if it were, children would be born circumcised. True circumcision is in the spirit. Treats circumcision as of the spirit only. The prophetic tradition counts circumcision among the acts of fiṭra (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Book of Dress).
  • Conflicts Thomas 55. Whoever does not hate father and mother, brothers and sisters, and carry the cross, cannot be a disciple. (Compare Luke 14:26-27.) Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be a disciple (Luke 14:26). The Qur’an commands kindness to parents (17:23-24; 31:14-15). Matthew 10:37 has the softer form.
  • Conflicts Thomas 56. Whoever has understood the world has found a corpse, and the world is not worthy of such a person. Calls the world a corpse. The Qur’an calls its good things a provision and forbids only excess (28:77; 7:32).
  • Conflicts Thomas 61. Two will rest on one couch and one will die and one will live. Salome asks who he is. He is the one from the undivided, and one who is whole will be filled with light but one who is divided with darkness. Salome at the couch. Jesus says “I am he who exists from the undivided”, a claim of shared nature with the Father (112:3). The text is damaged.
  • Conflicts Thomas 64. A host sends his servant to invite guests to dinner. Each makes an excuse of business, a house, a wedding or a farm, so the host invites those found in the streets. Buyers and merchants will not enter the Father’s places. (Compare Luke 14:16-24.) The banquet (Luke 14:16-24). Thomas adds that “businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my father”, which Luke does not say. The Qur’an permits trade (2:275).
  • Not needed Thomas 72. A man asks Jesus to tell his brothers to divide the inheritance. Jesus asks who made him a divider. (Compare Luke 12:13-14.) Parallel to Luke 12:13-14. The Qur’an sets its own rules of inheritance (4:11). Not needed.
  • Conflicts Thomas 75. Many stand at the door, but only the solitary will enter the bridal chamber. Only the solitary will enter the bridal chamber. See saying 49 and Qur’an 57:27.
  • Conflicts Thomas 77. Jesus is the light above all and the all. Split a piece of wood and he is there, lift a stone and you find him. Jesus says he is the light above all and the All, and that he is in split wood and a lifted stone. The Qur’an reserves these to God (24:35; 57:4).
  • Conflicts Thomas 80. Whoever has known the world has found the body, and the world is not worthy of such a person. As in saying 56, with the body in place of the corpse (28:77; 7:32).
  • Conflicts Thomas 82. Whoever is near Jesus is near the fire, and whoever is far from him is far from the kingdom. Whoever is near Jesus is near the fire. The Qur’an makes nearness to God depend on obedience (3:31).
  • Conflicts Thomas 85. Adam came from great power and wealth yet was not worthy of you, for otherwise he would not have tasted death. Says Adam came from great power yet was unworthy and so died. The Qur’an says Adam was made from clay, was forgiven, and died as all do (2:37; 3:59).
  • Not needed Thomas 91. Asked who he is, Jesus says they can read the face of sky and earth but have not recognised the one in front of them. Asked who he is, Jesus rebukes the hearers (compare Luke 12:54-56). Not needed.
  • Not needed Thomas 93. Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw pearls to swine. (Compare Matthew 7:6.) Parallel to Matthew 7:6. Not needed.
  • Conflicts Thomas 100. Shown a gold coin and told Caesar demands taxes, Jesus says to give Caesar what is Caesar’s, God what is God’s, and to him what is his. (Compare Mark 12:13-17.) The coin and Caesar (Mark 12:13-17). Thomas adds “give me what is mine”, which sets Jesus beside God.
  • Conflicts Thomas 101. Whoever does not hate father and mother as Jesus does cannot be his disciple, and whoever does not love them as he does likewise. His true mother gave him life. Hate father and mother “as I do”. See saying 55 and Qur’an 17:23.
  • Conflicts Thomas 105. Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a harlot. The Qur’an clears Maryam of any such charge (19:28-33; 4:156).
  • Not needed Thomas 106. When you make the two one you become sons of man, and when you tell the mountain to move it will move. (Compare Matthew 17:20.) As in saying 48. Not needed.
  • Conflicts Thomas 108. Whoever drinks from Jesus’ mouth will become like him, and what is hidden will be revealed. Whoever drinks from Jesus’ mouth will become like him, and he will become that person. The Qur’an says ʿĪsā is a man, like Adam (3:59).
  • Conflicts Thomas 109. The kingdom is like a man whose field hides treasure that he does not know about. His son sells the field. The buyer finds the treasure and lends money at interest. (Compare Matthew 13:44.) The hidden treasure ends with the buyer lending at interest. The Qur’an forbids it (2:275), and Matthew 13:44 has no such ending.
  • Conflicts Thomas 110. Whoever finds the world and becomes rich should renounce the world. Renounce the world. See saying 56 (28:77).
  • Conflicts Thomas 111. The heavens and earth will roll up before you, and whoever lives from the living one will not see death. The world is not worthy of one who finds himself. Whoever lives from the living one will not see death. See saying 1 (3:185).
  • Conflicts Thomas 114. Peter says that Mary should leave because women are not worthy of life. Jesus says he will lead her so she may become male, for every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven. Says Mary must be made male to enter the kingdom. The Qur’an honours Maryam as chosen above the women of the worlds (3:42).

Source and credit

  • Thomas O. Lambdin (trans.), “The Gospel of Thomas”, in The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson, 3rd ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988). The summaries above are our own wording.