Table Of ContentSecret Gospels
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Secret Gospels
Essays on Thomas and
the Secret Gospel of Mark
Marvin Meyer
R1N1TY PRESS INTERNATIONAL
A Continuum imprint
HARRISBURG • LONDON • NEW YORK
Copyright © 2003 Marvin Meyer
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, includ-
ing photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the
publisher, Trinity Press International.
Trinity Press International
A Continuum imprint
P.O. Box 1321, Harrisburg, PA 17105
Cover image: Gospel of Thomas, Nag Hammadi Codex II, page 51: The conclusion
of the Gospel of Thomas, with the title. Courtesy of the Institute for Antiquity and
Christianity, Claremont, California.
Cover design: Wesley Hoke
The following images are used by permission of the Institute for Antiquity and Chris-
tianity, Claremont, California: Gospel of Thomas, Nag Hammadi Codex II, page 32,
and Gospel of Thomas, Nag Hammadi Codex II, page 39.
The following images are used by permission of Charles W. Hedrick: Clement of
Alexandria, Letter to Theodore, pages 2 and 3.
Scenes 1-9, Villa of the Mysteries, frescoes in the triclinium, are used by permission
of Scala/Art Resource, N.Y. Scene 10, Villa of the Mysteries, fresco in the triclinium,
is used by permission of Alinari/Art Resource, N.Y.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meyer, Marvin W.
Secret Gospels : essays on Thomas and the secret Gospel of Mark /
Marvin Meyer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56338-409-4 (pbk.)
1. Apocryphal Gospels. I. Title.
BS2851 .M49 2003
229'.8-dc21 2002012306
Printed in the United States of America
04 05 06 07 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Part One
GOSPEL OF THOMAS
1. Albert Schweitzer and the Image of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas 17
2. The Beginning of the Gospel of Thomas 39
3. Seeing or Coming to the Child of the Living One? 54
More on Gospel of Thomas Saying 37
4. "Be Passersby": Gospel of Thomas Saying 42, Jesus Traditions, 59
and Islamic Literature
5. Making Mary Male: The Categories "Male" and "Female" 76
in the Gospel of Thomas
6. Gospel of Thomas Saying 114 Revisited 96
Part Two
SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK
7. The Youth in the Secret Gospel of Mark 109
8. The Youth in Secret Mark and the Beloved Disciple in John 135
9. The Naked Youths in the Villa of the Mysteries, Canonical Mark, 149
and Secret Mark
10. Taking Up the Cross and Following Jesus: 168
Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark and Secret Mark
Bibliography 179
Index 191
V
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Acknowledgments
I am pleased to express my appreciation to some of the people and
organizations that helped to bring this book to fruition. These essays
have been prepared and published over the past two decades, and dur-
ing that time numerous colleagues and students have offered advice and
counsel, for which I am grateful. I thank Gawdat Gabra, Girgis Daoud
Girgis, Samiha Abd El Shaheed, among others at the Coptic Museum,
for their kindness and generosity in giving me access to the Coptic Gos-
pel of Thomas over the years. I am pleased that the several publishers
have given permission to reprint the essays included in this book, and I
thank Charles W. Hedrick for providing new photographs of the letter of
Clement of Alexandria and the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity
for providing photographs of the Gospel of Thomas. I acknowledge the
support of several grants that have aided in my research on the Gospel
of Thomas and the Secret Gospel of Mark, and in particular I acknowl-
edge the support of the Griset Chair in Bible and Christian Studies at
Chapman University. I thank Henry Carrigan for the invitation to pub-
lish these essays with Trinity Press International, and the editorial staff at
Trinity Press International for their industry and professionalism. I also
thank Linden Youngquist for his help with issues of formatting. Finally,
I salute the patience and support of my wife and children, who for many
years have endured a scholar frequently preoccupied with secret gospels,
and who have shown me in countless ways what wisdom truly means.
vii
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Introduction
This book, Secret Gospels, consists of ten essays that address themes in
the Gospel of Thomas and the Secret Gospel of Mark, two gospels that
may be considered secret gospels. These gospels also present two early
and compelling versions of the good news of Jesus of Nazareth.
Secret Gospels
Since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library and the publication of
the texts in the library, the Gospel of Thomas has assumed a prominent
and oftentimes controversial place in the study of the historical Jesus,
Christian origins, and early Christian literature. The Gospel of Thomas
is given its traditional title (literally, "The Gospel According to Thomas")
in the manuscript of the Nag Hammadi edition of the Coptic text, at the
very end of the text. What is most likely an earlier version of the title of
the work is given in the incipit, or opening prologue of the text, where
reference is made to hidden sayings of Jesus: "These are the hidden say-
ings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the Twin recorded."1
The Gospel of Thomas, then, is designated as a collection of hidden say-
ings of Jesus, and the hidden sayings (in Coptic, ensaje ethep; in Greek,
reconstructed for P. Oxy. 654, hoi logoi hoi [apokryphoi]2) may also be
understood as secret sayings, from a secret gospel.
A similar incipit with an interest in hidden or secret sayings of Jesus is
to be found in the Book of Thomas (or, Book of Thomas the Contender],
another Nag Hammadi text, which resembles the Gospel of Thomas in
several respects but offers a more vigorously ascetic perspective. In the
Book of Thomas, the opening also indicates that the book is primarily a
collection of hidden or secret sayings, and the collection is said to derive
from a discussion overheard on a stroll with Jesus and Judas Thomas:
"The hidden sayings that the savior spoke to Judas Thomas, which I,
Mathaias, in turn recorded. I was walking, listening to them speak with
each other."3
1
