Apocalypticism Or Prophecy and the Problem of Polyvalence: Lessons from the Gospel of Thomas‪.‬

Since its discovery in 1945 and subsequent publication in 1956, the Gospel of Thomas has played an increasingly important and sometimes controversial role in the discussion of Christian beginnings. (1) Among the most important developments associated with the entry of this new Gospel into the discussion is the reconsideration of the once (and for the most part, still) regnant view that early Christianity was fundamentally an apocalyptic movement. In the Gospel of Thomas we find an interpretation of the Jesus tradition that, on the one hand, is more sapiential than apocalyptic and, on the other, relies on Jesus' sayings that are, from a form-critical point of view, often more primitive than their Synoptic counterparts. This peculiar combination of factors makes Thomas an outlier to the story of Christian beginnings that was accepted for the most part without question a generation ago and, for this reason, a flashpoint both for advocates of the new view and defenders of the old. Still, the discussion of the Gospel of Thomas itself has not yet produced a consensus about the role of apocalypticism in this Gospel. Some assume that Thomas is utterly devoid of apocalypticism, while others believe that it is fundamentally an apocalyptic document. In this study I wish to shine a light on this unresolved question in hopes of bringing a measure of clarity to an unresolved problem. In it I will show that, while Thomas is not entirely devoid of apocalyptic language and imagery, those who argue for a great deal of apocalypticism in Thomas do so on the basis of prophetic sayings, whose polyvalent quality permits one to read them in a variety of ways. In the Synoptic tradition, they often occur in contexts that harness them in the service of an apocalyptic worldview. But this apocalyptic use of prophetic sayings in the Synoptic tradition is for the most part not mimicked in the Gospel of Thomas. Rather, Thomas offers these sayings in contexts that cast them in an entirely different light. I. APOCALYPTICISM IN THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS?