Posted by PS on February 19, 2003 at 11:54:31:
In Reply to: Gospel? of Thomas posted by giveawayboy on February 19, 2003 at 07:28:23:
: The ever popular Gospel of Thomas was never officially recognized by Christians.
True. It was widely embraced by some Christians in the second century, especially those whose Platonic ideas led them in the direction of Gnostic belief. The Gospel of Thomas was among the many Nag Hammadi Gnostic codexes discovered in 1949 in Egypt, although we had extant copies before that.
Gnosticism was not uncommon by the second century, and was the target of most early polemics of the church fathers. Like Xavier, they also spewed their hot cocoa...
Even among non-Gnostics, there was great conflict about the divine nature of Christ and how the Logos "became" flesh by the second century.
The Transformationist (Modalist Monarchianist) ideas Origen promoted and the Adoptionist (Dynamic Monarchianist) ideas Tertullian promoted were debated and further developed for many years.
The Transformationist view preserves the divinity and co-eternity of Jesus better, BUT makes him subordinate. The Logos and Jesus are one, He is divine and co-eternal with God the Father, but of "like" essence rather than "same" essence in relation to the Father, and as such, he is subordinate to God and not co-equal.
The Adoptionist view preserves the humanity and suffering of Jesus better, and preserves the co-equal and co-eternal divinity of the Logos, BUT has problems with the man Jesus' divinity. The LOGOS of God that filled Jesus was divine, co-equal and co-eternal with God, and of the "same" essence as the Father--but the man Jesus was not.
To further complicate things, various aspects of these views are taken and arranged to make a number of variations of them in the next couple of centuries. Eventually, the beliefs accepted at Nicea in 325 and more fully articulated at Chalcedon in 451 accept aspects of both of these early views, with further clarification. The church's eventual orthodoxy represents a view that is more Adoptionist in regard to the divine nature of the Logos and the real humanity of Christ, but is more Transformationist in the belief that the Logos' divinity applied to the man Jesus as well.
*** This has been a brief intro into the confusing world of early church doctrine. We must have another class on this sometime. :-)