Does the Gospel of Thomas help in reproducing the hermeneutical methods of the apostles?

If it is assumed that the Gospel of Thomas is in the genre of riddle, then there appear to be three types of sayings:

   Clues to be used in solving particular Biblical riddles.
   Hints that are general clues to solving riddles.
   Restatement of Biblical thoughts in a new riddle to connect otherwise unrelated passages.

Clues

A clue gives a bit more information to help solve a riddle than the information which is contained in the riddle. Though it appears to be outside information, violating the rules of sensus plenior, a clue actually is unnecessary to solve the riddle. It just makes it easier, and the solution can be confirmed from 'witnesses' within scripture.

   (7) Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man."

This helps understand the hidden meaning of Samson's riddle. Whether the lion eats or is eaten, it becomes a man. The Lion is the Lion of Judah, which is the man Christ Jesus. Jesus is consumed by man when we eat the bread which he identified as his body. He is happy at the salvation of a lost soul. The Honey within the lion of Samson's riddle represents earthly blessings coming from the death of the lion. [1] But one who is devoured by the lion has been judged by Christ. All judgement has been given to the Son.

Hints

Hints help solve more than a single riddle. They are like explaining how the rules of the game work.

   (22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom."

This hint shares the secret of Christian dualism. There are two natures which are both good. One is a heavenly or spiritual nature and one is an earthly nature. The infants was being nourished from the left (flesh) and the right (spirit). Learning from the physical world and the spiritual are both good as long as they are kept in proper perspective. Same as Paul's teaching of the old and new man, of the flesh and of the spirit.

"when you make two one" refers to our practice of saying that two things together are one thing represented in two aspects. The examples follow:

"when you make inside like the outside" - When you are not a hypocrite, but your heart and actions are one. Same as Jesus's teaching against hypocrisy.

"The above like the below" - The physical realities reflect spiritual ones. Like Paul teaching that marriage is a symbol of Christ and the church.

"When you make male and female one and the same" Same as Paul's "there is no male or female in Christ..." The man and his bride have been made one flesh.

etc.

Restatements of Biblical teaching

   (18) The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us how our end will be." Jesus said, "Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death."

Jesus said that he was the beginning and the end. If you know Christ as the creator God and that you have been chosen ("take his place at the beginning"), you know him as the Savior God, and you will not taste death.

   (114) Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."

The idea that women need to become male is the same as the blind being made to see. Mary means rebellious. Peter suggest that the rebellious among them must leave, for those who are blind are not worthy of life. In the riddle, Jesus says that he will make her see (or understand), where she will then have life.

The representation of a relative blindness is used of the donkeys Jesus took into Jerusalem, and solves the prophesy of Jeremiah that all men would become pregnant. Jeremiah says that those who understand, will be fruitful and multiply as the bride of Christ. Being male, it is a virgin pregnancy, signifying that the fruitfulness is spiritual, not physical.

By restating the riddle of blindness in the context of gender, the biblical stories of blindness and gender can be overlaid as one story.

Matthew overlays the story of the children being slaughtered by Pharaoh and Herod, with the imagery of the Jacob, Joseph and Israel in the Exodus and the birth of Christ by connecting disjointed metaphor.

Critics will say that we have found what we looked for. This is no criticism at all. If you don't look for something, you won't find it.

   Heb 11:6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Note

This does not suggest that the Gospel of Thomas should be considered canon, nor even that they are legitimate sayings of Jesus. It suggests that they are a collection of notes, or a cheat sheet made by someone learning to see the sensus plenior. In fact, the SP of Revelation limits the number of authors for the NT canon to seven, which supports the tradition that Mark contains Peter's teaching and Hebrews was written by Paul.

[1] We know that honey is the earthly representation of blessings:

Milk and Honey are two things associated together. One is heavenly and the other earthly. They are both blessings in the promised land.

Milk is a type of fat, and all fat belongs to God (according to the laws of sacrifice). Therefore the milk is the heavenly aspect of blessing and honey is the earthly aspect.

[2] I have posted a complete interpretation of the sayings of Thomas using the methods of SP here: http://thetaobums.com/topic/32359-gospel-of-thomas-class-notes-on-sensus-plenior/ I am not affiliated with the sight. But they have been receptive to the conversation.