Talk:Gospel of Thomas

As a spin off on the other Gospel of Thomas thread, here the GOT will be presented as notes someone took while being taught how to read the sensus plenior of scripture. The term 'sensus plenior' is being used to refer to the hidden meaning of scripture which God intended, but of which the human author was not aware.

You will find many opinions about sensus plenior along a spectrum from a denial of it's existence to an admonishment that if it exists, we are not permitted to read it because we are not apostles.

With the view that the genre of Biblical revelation is that of sublime childish riddle, the sensus plenior would be expected to teach doctrine in agreement with New Testament doctrine. It is the revelation of Christ which provides the clues to solve the "mystery which has been hidden from the beginning".

After I had been studying sensus plenior for many years, I stumbled on the GOT and recognized that it appeared to be teaching the methods I was using. In order to have that background, I will briefly explain the rules used to constrain sensus plenior from being free-for-all allegory and then step through Thomas with interpretations which show that Thomas is consistent with sensus plenior. The discussion may include examples from scriptural sensus plenior using the notes from Thomas as the guide to interpretation.

I don't make the the claim that GOT should be scripture. But it would be similar to any modern book about the Bible. I will apologize in advance to those who may expect Gnostic or occultic teaching. I believe that you will find the sensus plenior to be thoroughly orthodox in its doctrine of Christ but troubling to organized religion on all fronts.